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Brock Evans papers and oral history interview, 1936-2017

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Evans, Brock, 1937-
Title
Brock Evans papers and oral history interview
Dates
1936-2017 (inclusive)
Quantity
152.84 cubic feet (154 boxes)
1 digital file (2.94 gigabytes)
Collection Number
1776
Summary
Northwest conservationist, lobbyist, and civic leader
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

The papers are open to all users.

Some material stored offsite; advance notice required for use.

Request at UW

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was partially provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities
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Biographical Note

Brock Evans' career as a leader in the environmental movement began in the mid-1960’s. He has held prominent positions in numerous environmental organizations. Evans represents the branch of the movement that believes in achieving environmental goals by changing government policy through political give and take, litigation, and legislative lobbying.

Evans served as the Northwest representative of the Sierra Club and of the Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs from 1967 to 1973, as acting director and director of the Washington D.C. office of the Sierra Club from 1973 to 1981, and as vice president for national issues for the National Audubon Society from 1981 to 1996. Evans also was the Audubon representative to the Ancient Forest Alliance circa 1988 to 1994. He also served on the board of a number of other environmental organizations, including the League of Conservation Voters and the Environmental Law Institute and the North Cascades Conservation Council. Most recently he has served as President of the Endangered Species Coalition

Born in 1937 in Columbus, Ohio, Evans earned his B.A. from Princeton in 1959. He spent two years in the U.S. Marine Corps and then earned his law degree at the University of Michigan while serving in the reserve of the Army Corps of Engineers. In 1963 Evans moved to Seattle and worked in a private law practice until his career changed course in the late 1960’s. In 1966 while hiking in one of his favorite areas Evans encountered signs indicating that the ancient trees there were about to be logged. Infuriated by the impending loss of this forest, he left his private law practice and dedicated himself full-time to fighting environmental destruction.

Within very little time, Evans established himself as one of the leading environmentalists in the Pacific Northwest. From 1967 to 1973 he was the Northwest Representative for the Sierra Club and represented the Audubon Society through the Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs. As the Sierra Club Representative, he also was a co-founder of the Washington Environmental Council in 1968. During this time He became heavily active in state and regional environmental issues during this time. He organized citizen support and was the primary lobbyist in Washington State during the final crucial years when legislation was being formulated to establish North Cascades National Park. He led efforts to ensure that key parcels were included in the Pasayten and Glacier Peak Wilderness areas. His efforts led to renewed strength for campaigns to gain wilderness protection for the Alpine Lakes and other unprotected regions in the Cascades. In 1972 he received the Environmentalist of the Year award from the Washington Environmental Council.

In 1973, Evans moved into the national arena when he was named Director of the Sierra Club’s Washington, D.C. office. In this position he lobbied Congress as well as administrative agencies, state and local governments, and other organizations on a wide range of environmental issues. Preserving Hell’s Canyon was one of the major issues during his time at the Sierra Club. Private and public utility companies had wanted to dam this 100 mile stretch of Idaho’s Snake River for over two decades, but had been unable to do so because of disputes about who would build and control the dam. In the 1970’s, these energy interests came together and appeared able and willing to cooperate enough to undertake the project, but Evans set a historic precedent by filing the first environmental lawsuit in the Northwest against the dams. Then he, along with other environmentalists, successfully lobbied for federal legislation in 1975 that prevented any dam construction, legislation that Evans drafted himself.

During his time with the Sierra Club, Evans continued to gain a higher profile and a reputation as an outstanding lobbyist and leader. In 1977, U.S. News and World Report named him one of the most influential lobbyists in Washington, D.C., as did Fortune in 1982, showing not only his own strength, but the lobbying strength and legitimacy that environmentalists had gained. During this time he also served on the Environmental Advisory Board of the Army Corps of Engineers.

In 1981, Evans became the National Audubon Society’s Vice-President for National Issues where he remained until 1996. During his career with the Audubon Society, the preservation of old growth forests in the Pacific Northwest was a major focus for Evans, as it had been throughout his career as an environmental advocate. Evans feared that timber companies were logging old growth forests too quickly and that the nation’s ancient forests would soon be gone if nothing were changed. He believed that the ancient forest ecosystem could not be preserved by clear cutting patches of trees, as the Forest Service allowed timber companies to do.

Many of Evans’s efforts to save ancient forests involved lobbying Congress, which had the power to change Forest Service policies and increase or limit logging in specific areas. In the mid 1980’s, Evans and the Audubon Society directed much of their lobbying efforts toward Congressional appropriations committees, but met with only limited success. Evans and the Audubon Society then changed their strategy and teamed up with other environmental organizations to form the Ancient Forest Alliance. One of the coalition’s new strategies involved focusing on the enforcement of existing laws to preserve forests, and the spotted owl soon became a central component of this strategy. The number of spotted owls was declining significantly because of logging in old growth forests. Environmentalists and biologists believed that the spotted owl was a “management indicator species” and that its fortune was an indicator of the entire group of species in the old growth forests. For people such as Evans, the demise of this animal bolstered their belief in the importance of preserving the ancient forest ecosystem, but the owl’s demise also gave them a new opportunity to prevent future logging. Because of the federal Endangered Species Act, which mandated the preservation of ecosystems that supported endangered species, classifying the owl as endangered would prevent logging in areas where they existed. However, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was reluctant to list the owl as endangered, which Evans and others alleged was a result of timber industry influence and not because of scientific research. Because of environmentalists’ litigious efforts, the federal courts in 1990 forced the Fish and Wildlife Service to list the spotted owl as “threatened” and issued an injunction forbidding further habitatae destruction. These decisions were major victories for environmentalists and ended logging in many areas of ancient forests where spotted owls were believed to live.

Despite this victory, political battles over ancient forests continued between environmentalists and logging interests. Evans and others tried to press for more protected areas while logging interests tried to portray environmentalists as people who cared more about spotted owls than about loggers and the communities that depended on the timber industry. In 1993, the newly elected president Bill Clinton called a forest summit in Portland, Oregon to try to find compromise between logging interest and environmentalists. As a leader of one of the largest environmental organizations, Evans participated in the summit.

Another major issue for Evans during his time with the Audubon Society was the preservation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), located along the northern coast of Alaska. In the late 1980’s, oil interest believed that there might be huge oil reserves in the Refuge but needed special legislation to open it to drilling. In 1989, a bill to allow drilling in the ANWR was about to pass through Congress when it suddenly was shelved because of the anti-oil backlash after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Nonetheless, legislation to open the refuge continued to surface in the early 1990’s, but Evans, along with other environmentalists, was able to block its passage through Congress. After 1992, bills to open the refuge did pass through Congress on more than one occasion, but with President Clinton sure to veto such legislation, Evans and other environmentalists gave the issue less attention.

Throughout most of his environmental career, Evans took a pragmatic approach to conservation and at times received harsh criticism from those who said he was willing to compromise. This tension was often evident between local grassroots organizations, including chapters of the Audubon Society, and D.C.-based groups such as the Sierra Club and Audubon offices that Evans helped guide. However, on at least on occasion, Evans took a militant stance when he, along with a former U.S. Representative, Jim Jontz, and other environmental activists, was arrested in 1995 for blocking a logging road in Oregon’s Siskiyou National Forest. Evans was protesting what was known as the “Salvage Rider” that allowed tree cutting but had passed into law only because it was attached to an important piece of unrelated legislation.

During his time with the Audubon Society, Evans continued to undertake many activities both related and unrelated to the society’s work. In 1984, he ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives from Washington’s first congressional district. In the mid 1980’s, he helped found and served on the Board of Directors of the Coast Alliance, an organization that tried to influence the government’s coastal zone management plans. From 1985 until 1991, Evans was the Washington, D.C. representative of the Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs, and from 1989 to 1991 was on the Board of Directors of the Boundary Waters Wilderness Foundation. The Foundation raised funds and tried to expand the Boundary Waters Wilderness, as well as outlaw the use of motor vehicles for portaging. Throughout much of the 1970’s, 1980’s, and 1990’s, Evans was on the Board of Directors of the League of Conservation voters and chaired its Political Strategy Committee. For the League, Evans helped review and choose political candidates for the group’s endorsements. From 1989 to 1994, he was also on the Board of Directors of the Environmental Law Institute, a think tank for members of the American Environmental Bar. Evans also was a board member for RESTORE: The North Woods, a grassroots organization that pushed for forestland protection in the North Woods eco region (a region extending over the northern tier of states from Maine to Minnesota). He also served on the Steering Committee of the Environmental Coalition for North America in the late l980’s.

The overlapping issues of race and the environmental activism surfaced many times during Evans’s career. From 1984 to 1991 he was a board member for the Human Environment Center, an organization that tried to bridge the gap between mostly white, middle-class environmentalists, and underprivileged minorities who typically had little involvement in the movement. The Center focused largely on the environmental problems of the cities, especially those that affected mostly poor minority groups, and tried to get minorities more involved in environmental issues. In the early 1990’s, the issue of race and environment again took center stage when Evans helped found the Green Wave Movement. The Movement’s goal was “to restore American life and the American continent” and creates “the foundation of a new green society based on the principles of environmental justice and a sustainable economy.” However, the group became divided over internal issues, mostly focusing on the homogeneity of its leaders, which critics believed was paradigmatic of the environmental movement as a whole. For Evans, it was a difficult and frustrating experience and he stepped down from the Steering Committee to open a position for someone other than a white male.

After retiring as Vice-President for the Audubon Society in 1996, Evans remained in Washington, D.C. as a lobbying consultant and in this capacity has continued working for environmental groups. In 1997 Evans became President of the Endangered Species Coalition in Washington, D.C. The Coalition is an association of 450 environmental, scientific, and religious groups dedicated to protecting and strengthening the Endangered Species Act.

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Content Description

The Brock Evans papers and oral history interview document Evans's career as a wildlife conservationist and environmentalist. His primary interest was in issues which may be broadly described as pertaining to the preservation of ancient forests and natural resources, wilderness conservation, rare bird conservation, preservation of wild rivers and waterways,and the creation and preservation of recreational trails, wilderness areas, national forests and national parks.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Some restrictions exist on copying, quotation, or publication. Contact the Special Collections division of the University of Washington Libraries for details.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Organized into 4 accessions.

  • Accession No. 1776-006, Brock Evans papers, 1936-1975
  • Accession No. 1776-017, Brock Evans papers, 1968-1996
  • Accession No. 1776-018, Brock Evan ancient forest preservation campaign files, 1985-1997
  • Accession No. 1776-019, Oral history interview with Brock Evans, May 20, 2017

Acquisition Information

Donated by Brock Evans in multiple installments from 1971 to 2004.

Processing Note

Processing levels vary. Contact Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries for details.

Related Materials

The University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center holds over 69 cubic feet of related material donated by Brock Evans, concerning his work not directly concerning the Pacific Northwest.

Records of Brock Evans’ tenure as head of the Sierra Club Washington Office (1973-1981) were retained by the National Sierra Club Office and are held by the Bancroft Library at University of California Berkeley.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

 

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Corporate Names

Geographical Names


2009 (Last modified: 7/1/2022)

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