The government men at the Bureau of Land Management office were edgy. They were expecting a group of wilderness-protection advocates, and a confrontation was possible. The dust-smeared, sweat-stained, mostly grandmotherly women dressed in hiking clothes who entered their office didn’t appear threatening. They looked like lost tourists.
“We’re the Great Old Broads for Wilderness, and we’re here to look over your land-management plans,” announced Susan Tixier, president of the group. The women, ranging in age from 40 to 75, had hiked through four Utah wilderness areas to generate publicity for the Redrock Wilderness Bill. At the end of each hike, they visited the local BLM office to talk about protection for the wilderness areas under federal jurisdiction.
The BLM officials, who oversee the leasing of mining, grazing and other commercial and recreational use on public lands, did a double take, then grinned.
“If a dozen women with a strident attitude walked into those offices, the situation could have been taken as confrontation,” recalled Tixier, 54, a founding member of group. “Instead, when we said our name, the BLM officials snickered and laughed. They were put into a relaxed state instead of getting their defenses up and probably not hearing what we had to say.”
The Great Old Broads for Wilderness organizes hikes into wild areas. They scrutinize the land-management plans of the BLM and make recommendations. They hike the halls of Congress to rally support for the protection of wilderness.
Anyone can join the Great Old Broads for Wilderness, regardless of age or gender. You just have to enjoy hiking in roadless wilderness, to have been doing it for a long time and to fervently believe that such wilderness should remain untouched.
The nationwide organization has 1,000 dues-paying members ($25 per year) and perhaps another 2,000 known sympathizers.
“Women, such as the Great Old Broads, are terrific for the environmental movement,” said Tom Lustig, a senior staff attorney for the National Wildlife Federation. “They have the ability to see beyond the in-your-face confrontation to a broader view. And they can get people of different points of view to work together. They are also capable of going chin-to-chin with strong adversaries.”
The Great Old Broads for Wilderness use humor in the court-jester tradition; behind the antics there is a serious message.
“We’ve never taken over BLM offices. We’re not leaders; we’re supporters. Our value is to make people laugh,” explained Tixier, who is also an environmental lawyer and president of the Colorado Environment Coalition.
“We inform members of Congress that if they don’t vote for wilderness, we’ll tell their mothers. We also give them solid information on our serious positions about wilderness protection. And we give them a the Great Old Broads T-shirt.”
The T-shirt depicts a female version of Kokopelli, the hunchbacked flute player of Southwestern Indian art notorious for its ribald humor.
“We are serious, yet irrelevant,” Tixier said. “We are not coming with battle axes. We go for humor in a particularly passionate arena. That makes people on both sides feel good. It defuses what might be possible incendiary situations.”
The Great Old Broads define wilderness as every acre of public lands with no roads, pipelines, mining, timber cutting or other man-made activities. Much of the national forest land does not qualify as such wilderness because of roads.
“Wilderness is a loaded word,” said Marilyn Reinbolt, another Great Old Broad for Wilderness. “It means that mankind is a visitor on that land. People have a hard time envisioning that nature can take care of itself without man managing it. It’s hard for a lot of people to accept that we have to let go of the land. The land doesn’t need our stewardship. We’ve got to keep our hands off of it.”
The Great Old Broads plan another “public interest action” from May 4 to Mother’s Day, May 11. They will hike the Kaiparowits Plateau area in the Escalante canyon country, near Glen Canyon, in southern Utah, to inspect grazing allotments leased by the BLM to local ranchers.
Great Old Broads will “adopt” grazing allotments and then walk the semi-desert land to assess the vegetation and wildlife conditions of the allotments. In October, they will revisit their allotments to determine what damage, if any, cattle have done to the fragile environment.
Gregg Christensen, BLM area manager for the Escalante region, welcomes the Great Old Broads’ effort.
“They provide us with information that we use to implement our allotments evaluations,” he said from his office in Escalante, Utah. “Their first-hand observations on if the range is overstocked or overgrazed helps us make land-use decisions. They also have input on what changes might be required.”
After each hike, which may take from one to several days, the Great Old Broads will talk to BLM officials to discuss what they saw and how that might affect the agency’s plan to protect the land.
“We want to make sure that not too many cows are allowed to graze for too long on the sparse grasses,” Tixier said. “These canyons are being beaten to death by cows. The ranchers have to be more diligent in managing their grazing allotments.”
The Kaiparowits Plateau includes the Grand Staircase, an isolated 50-mile cliff face and the wild plateau above it, which was designated a national monument by President Clinton last September.
“You cannot measure life by the dollar sign or how others view you,” said Linda Liscom, a Great Old Broad who worked for 20 years as a trekking guide. “Matters of the heart and spirit fuel our lives. Wilderness is the reservoir from which we refuel ourselves. It is a place where we clearly see truth and take that truth back to civilization.”
The Great Old Broads formed in 1989 in reaction to a bill proposed by the Utah congressional delegation. The bill would have allowed roads, campsites, mining, forest cutting, dams and pipelines in Utah Escalante wilderness areas that were devoid of roads or such activities.
“The rationale given was that the elderly could not have access to the wilderness without roads for RVs and campsites,” Tixier said. “I have been hiking with women my age for many, many years. I knew other women two decades my senior who were absolute advocates of wilderness. They were capable of getting into wilderness on their own two feet.”
The name Great Old Broads for Wilderness occurred to Tixier as she watched a group of older women who had just finished a hike. They were dusty, leathery skinned, tanned. Congress would pay attention if some of these great old broads walked into the hearing, Tixier thought.
“We want to stand up before Congress and give testimony that old folks indeed want roadless wilderness, would use it and want it preserved for their grandchildren to use,” said Franee Johnson, a grandmother and Great Old Broad activist.
“The first and foremost concern is that wilderness be protected,” Tixier said. “In protecting the wilderness, there’s nothing more daunting than a very determined Great Old Broad for Wilderness with a smile on her face, the dust of the wild land billowing up around her, and the free, clean air blowing through her hair. That’s our stance.”
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The Great Old Broads for Wilderness can be contacted at 1942 Broadway, Suite 206, Boulder, Colo. 80302, phone 303-443-7024.
