Happy Earth Day! =)

Beginning in the early 1980s, environmentalists were demonized by conservative Republicans, particularly under the Reagan administration, as “extremists” who posed a growing threat to the orderly development of the nation’s resources (Turner). While environmentalists enjoyed a great deal of legislative success in the 1960s and 1970s, their efforts were challenged by westerners in the 1980s and 1990s. 

The Sagebrush Rebellion and the Wise Use movement were both conservative political movements that sought to limit federal overreach in public lands. However, as Turner argues, the Sagebrush Rebellion was not as successful in gaining momentum as it was limited to a regional movement, the states’ rights argument never resonated with the New Right nationally, and environmentalists were able to attack the movement’s funding from special interest groups. Despite these limitations, the Sagebrush Rebellion was a “populist protest against public lands reform supported by western citizens, the natural resource industries, and local and state governments in the West” (Turner). Additionally, the Rebellion gained a powerful supporter with President Ronald Reagan who was sympathetic to the claims of states, or private individuals, having control over public lands within their boarders rather than the federal government (such agencies like the U.S. Forest Service or BLM). 

The Wise Use movement was a far more coordinated and rhetorically powerful grassroots campaign as compared with the Sagebrush Rebellion. Although both movements contained similar actors (industries, local govts, western, rural citizens, etc.), the Wise Use movement centered their rhetoric around a “more positive assertion of individual property rights and liberties” (Turner). Some of their goals included the right to bear arms on public lands, to own private property, reduce the scope of federal environmental regulations, and expand opportunities for economic development on public land. Instead of positioning themselves against something, the Wise Use movement (and soon after, the New Right) portrayed their environmental conservatism as “for something—and something resonant for many Americans” (Turner). This shift in rhetoric from states rights to a rights-based claim is soon adopted by the New Right. 

The battles over public lands in the West shaped the New Right by aligning themselves not only with a solid conservative bloc (westerners, particularly in rural areas), but also appealing to a rights-based rhetoric that emphasized individual rights rather than “big” government. Wilderness designations especially set off frustration and anger with many citizens, companies, and politicians in the rural West who felt that public lands were being “locked up” and their property rights and economic opportunities were thus harmed. Additionally, I think the battles over these lands eventually blow-up into a “culture war”, with environmentalists (mainly stationed in Washington, D.C.) accused of being “elitist snobs” while the “real” Americans were left to suffer under federal overreach.