23. Cenozoic Society, Inc. (See also Wild Earth magazine)
(Latest update 2001)
P. O. Box 455
Richmond, VT 05477
Key Personnel
Dave Foreman, President
David Johns, Secretary/Treasurer
John Davis
Reed Noss
Finances (1998)
Income: $262,118
Assets: $116,412
Files an IRS Form 990
Funding for the Wild Earth magazine and the "wildlands" program comes from some of the nation's most wealthy foundations, including the Pew Charitable Trust.
Organization Description and Goals
Describes itself as "educational and scientific" on IRS form, which is in keeping with its public posture of presenting "accurate" information and "research" (really opinion) to promote their crusade to restore vast tracts of land totaling about fifty percent of the coterminous state to a pre-human condition within the next few decades.
In the long term of "centuries," civilization is to be reduced to "islands" within the restored areas, "in contrast to the fragmented system of quasi-natural 'museum pieces' in existing National Parks, Wildlife Refuges, Wilderness Areas, and other reserves." (Dave Foreman, "Developing a Regional Wilderness Recovery Program," Wild Earth, ca. Dec. 1992, p. 26)
Board of Directors
Dave Foreman, President (Founder of "Earth First!,"
the notorious organization advocating direct action in defense
of Mother Earth, and co-founder of the "Wildlands" movement)
David Johns, Secretary/Treasurer
Barbara Dean
Reed Noss (Intellectual heart and co-founder of the "Wildlands"
movement)
John Davis (Co-founder of the "Wildlands" movement)
Publications
Publishes Wild Earth, "an educational and scientific publication whose purpose is to contribute to preservation and restoration of natural areas as well as plant and animal species."-IRS report (1998). This magazine is covered separately, see Wild Earth.
"Produced other publications specializing in specific issue areas of research and scientific investigation." - IRS report (1998)
Comments
There is no more radical organization than the Cenozoic Society in its preservation and "restoration" goals or in the philosophy and teachings of its board of directors.
The board of directors contains the triumvirate of the intellectual and spiritual leadership of the "re-wilding" movement, Reed Noss, John Davis, and David Foreman.
David Foreman, who is now "accredited" and also on the board of directors of the Sierra Club, began the monkey-wrenching Earth First! organization.
The "Wildlands" program was set out in the undated
first Wild Earth magazine in approximately Dec. 1992, where
Reed Noss described his vision in "The Wildlands Projects."
Noss, Davis and Foreman mapped out ever-expanding core, corridor
and buffer zones, in the manner of the thinking that had been
developing internationally for at least twenty years, and which
had already been formalized in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve program.
But, differing with the publications in the Biosphere Reserve
program, where the aspect of expansion is spoken of peripherally,
they choose to advocate extreme expansion of the reserves, so
that rather than being remnants of the past from which to gage
the health of the planet its biodiversity, they would gradually
expand the reserves to eliminate all but small islands of civilization.
Referring to the "Wildlands" program in 1992, Foreman stated, "This is my baby and I sincerely believe it will set the future agenda for the entire conservation movement."
It is hard to understand how one of these individuals can hold a seat on a board of a mainstream environmental group like the Sierra Club, and hard to understand how Science magazine spent much of an issue (25 June 1993) on the scheme attributed to Reed and Noss. But, then, it is hard to understand the persistence of the Northern Forest Lands regional concept for ten years. It is certain, however, that the Cenozoic Society would like to see the entire vacated of all but a few minor population centers, with roads wiped out and cities and hamlets bulldozed to oblivion. Why do the major foundations fund such goals?
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