In this article, Joel Connelly of the Seattle PI describes the founding of the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition as a uniting of opposites.
Excerpt: “At a time America’s political life is ugly, brutish and polarized, the cause of Washington’s wilderness, farmlands and families has attracted opposites.
“This has brought together inside the room, behind common goals, a lot of people who were fighting outside the room,” Elliot (cq) Marks, former Washington director of The Nature Conservancy and coalition convener, said last week.
Coalition directors range from Nature Conservancy activists to a vice president of Washington Realtors, from the president of Port Blakely Tree Farms to the local Sierra Club’s land exchange expert.
Its co-founders are a dignified, almost regal Republican outdoorsman, ex-Gov. Dan Evans, and voluble, populist Democratic ex-Gov. Mike Lowry.”