Hangar, That's too bad. I liked Clark as top man for BRC.
"The Blue Ribbon Coalition was founded in 1987 by Clark Collins to promote off-road vehicle use on public lands. The organization now claims to represent several hundred member organizations nationwide and more than half a million individual recreationists.
BRC's motto is "Preserving our natural resources FOR the public instead of FROM the public." Blue Ribbon Coalition is active in the "wise use" movement, and regularly attends networking meetings. BRC is a member of the Alliance for America network, and its newspaper usually carries stories from other wise use group including the Mountain States Legal Foundation, Sahara Club, Eco, American Trails, and the American Policy Center's DeWeese Report. Article titles have included, "Hug a Logger, Not a Tree," and "Kyoto Protocol Could Cause American Economic Havoc." In recent years, BRC has made efforts to reach out to mountain bikers, equestrians, and even hikers, by promoting the idea that none of these things will ultimately be allowed in protected areas. BRC promotes negative images of environmentalists as uncaring, anti-rural, anti-progress and anti-human. (CLEAR fact sheet,
http://www.clearproject.org/reports_br.html) In addition to membership fees, funding has historically come from timber, mining, petroleum, and motorized recreation industries. Funders have included the Alaska Forestry Association, American Forest and Paper Association, American Petroleum Institute, Boise Cascade, Battle Mountain Gold, Chevron, Colorado Mining Association, Crown Butte Mines, Exxon, Honda (US), Idaho Mining Association, Louisiana Pacific, Marathon Oil, Polaris, Potlach Corp, Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas, Ski-Doo, Suzuki, and Yamaha. (Blue Ribbon Magazine) "
http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=18
"The BRC is made up of off-road motorcyclists as well as the timber, oil, and mining industries who want unhindered access to public lands. Their lobbying strategy is twofold:
block new wilderness designations
open up existing wildlife preserves for public and private use
Clark Collins, executive director of BRC, was "honored" as the most successful lobbyist at the 1992 "Wise Use" conference in Reno for his tireless efforts to keep dirt bike trails open, supporting the timber industry, opening the ANWR for oil exploration, weakening the Endangered Species Act, and pushing for cattle grazing rights on federal lands. Way to go, Clark!
FUNDING (partial listing)
American Honda
American Petroleum Institute
American Suzuki
Boise Cascade
Cycle News
International Snowmobile Industry Association
Kawasaki
Louisiana-Pacific
Motorcycle Industry Council
Potlatch
Western States Petroleum Association
Yamaha "
http://www.cat.org.au/a4a/fake8.html
"Clark Collins succeeded in making motorized recreationists (dirt bikers, ATV enthusiasts, 4 wheelers, snowmobilers, etc.) an element of the Anti-Conservation coalition. His organization, the anti-environmental Blue Ribbon Coalition, was initially funded by Honda Motor Company in large part to protect its American motorcycle and ATV markets. Collins' efforts were largely responsible for passage of the Trails Act - a rider to the 1991 federal highway-transportation bill which facilitated the creation of off-road trails for motorized vehicles in wilderness areas. Until the current Congress began its all-out attack on environmental protections the Trails Act was the only successful Anti-Conservation initiative at the federal level. "
http://www.wsn.org/history.html