Timeline of AWR's Activities: 1988-1991

November 23, 1988 AWR is formally incorporated and the formation is announced at a press conference by founding board members Cass Chinske, Steve Kelly, and Mike Bader. The network begins with 10 member organizations.

May 6, 1989 Along with the Friends of the Wild Swan, AWR has an airplane with a message banner reading "Support Wilderness" overfly the Cowboy Logger Days and Great Log Haul event attended by several thousand at the Missoula County Fairgrounds. It ends up being the last Cowboy Logger Days.

Summer 1989 Volume 1, Number 1 of The Networker, AWR's quarterly publication issued. The Networker has informed and stirred into action thousands of people on behalf of the Wild Rockies.

November, 1989 AWR releases its self-made video The Wild Rockies: America's Endangered Wilderness. AWR makes first trip to Washington, D.C. where the video is shown at the main offices of several national conservation groups.

February, 1990 AWR goes to Washington, D.C. where we unveiled the first conceptual outline of a five-state bioregional federal lands protection bill. The AWR network grows to 70 member organizations and businesses.

July, 1990 AWR takes on the controversial Lolo-Kootenai Accords legislation, which would release over 700,000 acres of roadless lands on two national forests, beginning large battle over "release language."

August 8-10, 1990 AWR and Friends of the Wild Swan sponsor "The Ride Through an American Forest," a weeklong bicycle tour with musicians Bob Weir (left) of the Grateful Dead and John Oates of Hall & Oates. Major national media brings attention to the clearcutting crisis on the national forests. At a major press conference AWR announces its intent to gain Congressional support for a bioregional approach.

September, 1990 AWR is included in Outside Magazine's "Honor Roll" of up and coming conservation groups.

October, 1990 At a Capitol Hill press conference which included Grammy-Award winner Carole King and John Oates, AWR announces the "Wild Rockies National Lands Act", the precursor to NREPA. The AWR network grows to 100“with the Montana Ecosystems Defense Council gaining the distinction of becoming the 100th member group/business.

Summer, 1991 "The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act: A Citizen Plan for Wildlands Management," is published in Western Wildlands. AWR purchases several thousand special offprints and distributes them nationally.

Summer, 1991 "Timbergate" begins when timber hardliners in the Forest Service force the ouster of regional forester John Mumma. AWR and 11 other groups hold a standing room only press conference at the Missoula County Courthouse to protest. Widespread coverage focused more national attention on the controversy.

Summer, 1991 AWR sends a Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for information on the status of the bull trout as part of an effort to determine whether to file a petition for listing under the Endangered Species Act.

July 17, 1991 AWR and the Badger Chapter prevail over Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans to drill in the Badger-Two Medicine wildland area south of Glacier National Park, land held sacred by traditional members of the Blackfeet Nation. Steve Solem, USFS Regional Appeals Coordinator, posed in a Forest Service newsletter with our 13 lb. "trophy-size" appeal, which caused the Interior Board of Land Appeals to overturn the BLM decision to allow drilling. This is the last serious attempt to drill in the Badger-Two Medicine area.

September 10, 1991 Senator Max Baucus introduces "The Montana National Forest Management Act, S. 1696," which sets off a national campaign to prevent the bill's passage.

Further down the timeline: 1992-94

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Alliance for the Wild Rockies
PO Box 8731 • Missoula, Montana • 59807
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E-mail: awr@wildrockies.org

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