This article is long overdue. I have lived here for 13 years and am angry about these “pseudo-environmentalist” black-hearted souls calling themselves true environmentalists. I wrote this article as a birthday present to myself.

I retired to here, my BearKat Ranch, from an aerospace career around America, and joined most of the local environmental organizations in order to support their efforts to save wildlife and their habitat with forest wilderness designations and also protect the wildlife by honoring and upholding the Endangered Species Act. 

Now I have to retreat from an endorsement of many of them… and narrow down my support to only a few of them.

National forests and designated wilderness areas should be recognized as primarily the home of wildlife, not the playground for human-caused noisy, smoke polluting, gas and oil spilling, motorized recreational vehicle access, and sources of wildlife habitat-destroying tree harvesting for the timber industry. 

Private sector environmental groups should be defending these areas for wildlife since the public sector U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife agencies do not see it as their charters and/or mission statements to do it (in contrast to the National Park Service which does.) Rather, they protect humans from wildlife, not wildlife from humans, and cater to the timber industry and recreationists who are favored by politicians needing their votes. 

Animals cannot vote and so don’t matter, nor do visiting out-of-state tourists who come here to view the wildlife, as Montana’s biggest job-creating industry, but who cannot vote in our local elections. Many local people don’t even understand how their jobs are directly or indirectly related to tourism and wildlife viewing.

However, over these years I have watched some of these private-sector environmental organizations egregiously betray wildlife and foster “collaborative” relationships with evil politicians, greedy loggers, and obnoxious snowmobilers, so as to enhance their own personal fame while only focusing on increasing their own incomes from membership dues as executive directors of their organizations, and receiving other donations, and other lesser staffers getting salaries from local positions with larger state and national groups. 

It is about time that the dues-paying members of the now “pseudo-environmental” organizations wake up and come to their senses and resign these bad memberships led by those black-hearted souls and join up with other real, valid environmental groups instead. To not do so is to have your dues work against wildlife.

Let me help you navigate through the lists of good and bad groups… based on their love of wildlife vs. love of themselves, as I view it in my own opinion. All you have to do is Google my name and contact me via e-mail and I will reply by sending you the two lists.

For the time being, I highly recommend and endorse supporting only these few true environmental organizations: Web Of Life Foundation (W.O.L.F.), Footloose Montana, Friends of the Wild Swan, Swan View Coalition, Defenders of Wildlife, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Center for Biological Diversity, Endangered Species Coalition, and Sierra Club. You can Google them for contact information and to learn about their activities on behalf of wildlife. 

In addition, I recognize and heartily endorse Brian Peck as the premier independent wildlife consultant to many private sector environmental organizations and an advocate for wildlife to the public sector Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service and national park organizations.

And in the meantime, in my opinion, do avoid the Montana Wilderness Association as they are now in bed with the logging industry and snowmobile organizations and cozying up to politicians, and supporting them will defeat your cause to benefit wildlife. There are also other... when you see my personal opinion lists.

Baum lives near Martin City, and describes himself as an independent wildlife advocate.