Landmark Calls for Probe into EPA Grants to Nature Conservancy

For Immediate Release
May 15, 2003
CONTACT: Eric Christensen
703-689-2370
703-689-2373 (fax)
info@landmarklegal.org

(HERNDON, VA)...Landmark Legal Foundation has asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to investigate whether millions of dollars in agency grants to the Nature Conservancy and its state affiliates – the nation’s largest environmental organization with assets of more than $3 billion – were misused. The Foundation has also asked the agency to suspend current and future grant payments to the group pending the outcome of the investigation.

Landmark asked EPA to ensure that none of the more than $10 million in EPA grants received by the Conservancy between 1993 and 2002 were used for purposes other than those for which they were originally intended. According to a recent series of articles in the Washington Post, the Nature Conservancy spent millions to purchase parcels of undeveloped land and then resold the land to Conservancy backers and officials at greatly discounted prices, in exchange for limitations on future development of the land. The Conservancy also spent tens of millions of dollars on commercial and residential land development projects, oil and gas drilling and other ventures.

“It’s becoming increasingly apparent that one of the resources the Nature Conservancy actually conserves is questionable behavior,” explained Landmark President Mark R. Levin. “And as one of the EPA’s most frequent grant recipients, we want the agency to ensure that taxpayer funds aren’t finding their way into sweetheart deals for Conservancy directors or other losing business ventures.”

Landmark maintains the most comprehensive, searchable database of information on federal environmental grants to nonprofit organizations on the Internet. Since 2001, the Foundation has gathered information from the EPA, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service on grants made by those agencies to 501(c) nonprofit groups since 1993. Landmark’s database can be accessed at http://www.landmarklegal.org.

“In compiling our database we’ve learned a number of startling things about the EPA’s grants to nonprofits,” Levin explained. “First, the EPA did not competitively bid these grants. Second, there were no outside review panels to determine the merit of grant applications; and Third, there was no effective system to oversee the proper management of these grants. The EPA needs to determine whether taxpayer funds were used properly by the Nature Conservancy.”

Founded in 1976, Landmark Legal Foundation is one of the nation’s top conservative public interest law firms. The Foundation has won precedent-setting legal victories in the areas of environmental accountability, education reform and holding public officials accountable for their actions. Landmark has offices in Kansas City, MO and Herndon, VA.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62135-2003May15.html

Charity Hiring Lawyers to Try to Prevent Hill Probe

By Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, May 16, 2003; Page A27

The Nature Conservancy is hiring outside lawyers and one of the nation's largest public relations companies to help head off a congressional investigation following disclosure that the nonprofit has sold scenic properties to its own trustees, internal Conservancy memos show.

The Arlington-based charity has retained Edelman Public Relations, whose Washington office is headed by former Republican and Democratic advisers, as part of a damage-control strategy that includes Capitol Hill meetings, calls to donors, third-party letters to newspapers, full-page advertisements and attempts to pacify charitable foundations, the memos show. Conservancy staffers also are working to "place stories" in the media that describe successful conservation projects.

This came to me throught email today. I only posted part because it is a Post story. I do believe the Conservancy is nervous. They should be.

Daniel J. Edelman
Founder and Chairman, Chicago
Daniel J. Edelman is founder and Chairman of Daniel J. Edelman, Inc., parent company of Edelman Public Relations Worldwide; PR 21; Strategy One (Research); Blue (Advertising) and Edelman Creative Solutions (Interactive).

Edelman is the largest privately-held independent and sixth largest public relations firm in the world. The staff totals 2,000. Edelman Public Relations Worldwide offices are located in Chicago, New York City, Atlanta, Boston, Miami, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley, Washington DC, Montreal, Toronto, Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, London, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Stockholm, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney and Taipei. PR 21 offices are in New York City, Chicago, St. Paul and San Francisco.

A native of New York City, Edelman was graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia College in 1940 and earned an M.S. degree from Columbia Graduate School of Journalism the following year. During the Second World War he was an officer in the U.S. Army Psychological Warfare and Information Control Divisions, serving in England, France and Germany and received four battle stars and the Commendation Medal. He was a newspaper reporter and later radio news writer for CBS before moving into public relations in New York. He became public relations director of the Toni division of Gillette in Chicago in 1948 and started his firm there on October 1, 1952.

Edelman is the recipient of Columbia University's Distinguished Alumnus Award and John Jay Award. He is the 1992 Jewish United Fund of Chicago "Communicator of the Year." He was voted the 1993 "PR Professional of the Year" by readers of PR News and was an Inside PR Creative All-Star for 1994. He received the Ball State University 1996 National Public Relations Achievement Award. He was awarded the 1997 Top Gun Award from the Chicagoland Public Relations Society of America and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Inside PR magazine in 1998. The Arthur Page Society inducted him into the Hall of Fame in 1997. He was selected for the Chicago Business Hall of Fame by Junior Achievement in 1998. He also was named in 1998 for the Thomas Mosser Award by St. Bonaventure University "in recognition of extraordinary performance in communications." His firm has won 32 Silver Anvils awarded by the Public Relations Society of America for outstanding programs and also was selected 1993 "Agency of the Year" in the Inside PR magazine survey of public relations firms. Edelman is the 1999 Gold Anvil Award Recipient from PRSA, the highest honor accorded in the public relations field. In 1999, he also received the first-ever Outstanding Achievement Award from the China International Public Relations Association "for bringing modern public relations practices to China." The award was presented in Beijing. He was awarded the Lion of Finland for professional public relations services to that country.

Edelman served on the first Illinois Lottery Control Board; was President of the Chicago Chapter of the Young Presidents' Organization; and is a member of the Chief Executives Organization. He's a former Board member of Save the Children Federation, served as Chairman of the University of Chicago Library Board and was a Board member of the Northwestern University Music School. He was formerly a member of the Board of Illinois Children's Home and Aid Society and is a current member of the Board of Lyric Opera of Chicago. He's a member of the Public Relations Society of America, the Publicity Club of Chicago and former Chairman, Counselors Academy, Public Relations Society of America. He's a member of the Arthur Page Society and PR Seminar and is a PRSA Fellow. Clubs: Arts Club, Chicago Club, Casino Club, Standard Club, Harmonie Club and Mid-America Club.

source

The Senate Finance Committee's chairman, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and the ranking Democrat, Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, are drafting a letter to the Conservancy seeking answers to a range of concerns about the land deals.
"Taxpayers have the right to know how The Nature Conservancy conducts its business," Grassley said in a statement May 9 to the Washington Post. "I'll be overseeing the charity's actions, asking tough questions and following through until satisfactory answers are given."
Some of the prominent families that have given to the Maine chapter include Richard G. Rockefeller of Falmouth, son of David Rockefeller Sr. of New York; and Leon and Lisa Gorman of Yarmouth.

(snip)

The IUCN: From the UN to Your Back Yard

Why is it that Biosphere Reserves, World Heritage Sites, Sustainable Development Programs, The Wildlands Project, and Convention on Biological Diversity all call for greenways, protected areas, wilderness reserves and natural corridors surrounded by regulated "buffer zones"? And why do federal agencies, the Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club, and other environmental groups strongly promote the same "sustainable" development agenda?

It is no coincidence. All of these programs, treaties, and organizations have one thing in common; the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Through the IUCN, government agencies such as the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, the US Forest Service, the EPA and other federal agencies can huddle in private with the Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy, National Wildlife Federation, National Audubon Society, Society of Conservation Biology, UNEP, UNDP, UNESCO and many others to develop strategies to implement their "ecospiritual" agenda on the ground by changing US policy -- without any knowledge of Congress or the people who will be affected.

Making US policy is constitutionally the exclusive right of Congress, by the consent of the people, and not federal bureaucrats. Nonetheless, an August, 1993 EPA Internal Working Document states, "Natural resource and environmental agencies... should...develop a joint strategy to help the United States fulfill its existing international obligations (e.g. Convention on Biological Diversity, Agenda 21).... The executive branch should direct federal agencies to evaluate national policies...in light of international policies and obligations, and to amend national policies to achieve international objectives." (Bold and italics added)

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