Andy Kerr is a consultant  for the Larch Company. He has worked for two decades with the Oregon Natural Resources Council, the organization that made the Northern spotted owl a household name, and as director of the National Public Lands Grazing Campaign. He has been described by the Christian Science Monitor as one of the toughest environmental professionals in the Pacific Northwest.

What kind of reaction did you get when you participated in the Eastside Forest talks?

During the 7×7 talks, the timber guys would either individually take me aside or in front of the group and say, I wouldnt have been able to talk to you a few years ago. Now they find Im personable enough; they can talk to me. A reason I keep my hair short is so that people can see I dont have horns. We can agree to disagree on things, and move on.

Its all part of building trust and creating understanding. The Eastside Forest bill set a framework for that. The next challenge is to build on the collaboration that weve begun. 

 

A lot of folks seem surprised that you wound up at the table, given your reputation for confrontational tactics. Is that fair?

I got more than my 15 minutes. The Lake County Examiner once called me Oregons version of the anti-Christ. But during the timber wars, the industry needed a demon. Here I was, a native Oregonian who grew up in timber country, lived next door to timber kids, and had family friends who owned sawmills and logging companies. I became the industrys demon. 

Their perception of me was probably not totally accurate. 

It was Ken Kesey who said, Id rather be a lightning rod than a weather vane. I never took it personally. Being demonized isnt easy, but it wasnt in my best interests to reach out to them, to negotiate, during the height of the timber war.

 

Have you changed?

Yes and no. The times required me to be the way I was back in the 80s. I was going up against a dominant view that said we ought to cut down all the old-growth forest. To be heard, that demanded the kinds of behaviors I become famous, or infamous, for. 

My goals havent changed. Im still working to improve the ecosystem and have healthier forests. Im not less green, and probably more so, but the times are different now. Since 1994, the Forest Service has had a rule in place that generally prohibits the cutting of large old trees. The rules have changed. You can keep using the same tactics, but it gets to the point where doing something different would work better.