#title What’s needed is a new feeling — Earth First!
#author Mike McInally of the Missoulian
#date November 3, 1983
#source Missoulian, November 3, 1983, page 12. <[[https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-missoulian/189114092/][www.newspapers.com]]>
#lang en
#pubdate 2026-01-17T23:25:26.396Z
#authors Mike McInally
#topics Earth First!, news story, Montana,

The Earth First! road show has not traveled in style.

Two members of the radical environmentalist group appeared Wednesday night in the Missoula City-County Library to spread the group’s message and add an urgent message of their own:

They had exactly $2 to make it to the next stop, Thursday night in Sandpoint, Idaho.

For that reason, they urged the more than 75 people there to buy some of the merchandise they had available T-shirts, calendars and so on.

But, although the money was needed, it 1 took a back seat to the real message, as stated by member Dave Foreman:

“What we are trying to do is create the revolution in the environmental movement.”

Later, Foreman elaborated: “We want to try to create a feeling that we can live in North America and not own it, that we can be a part of it, that we can fit in instead of dominating and conquering and controlling.”

Just as the exclamation point is part of the group’s name, it is often part of the group’s tactics. Earth First! members have resorted to lawsuits, civil obedience and demonstrations in their efforts to fight development in roadless national forest areas.

Wednesday night, the focus was on wilderness lands in Montana.

Another Earth First! member, Howie Wolke, said 3½ percent of all land in the lower 48 states is devoted to wilderness, “and when I say wilderness, I’m using the term pretty damn loosely.”

That 3½ percent isn’t nearly enough, he said, and the wilderness parcels are usually too small.

“It’s not real wild,” he said. “There’s very little real wilderness left.”

The two men are in the middle of an 11-city tour in hopes of drumming up interest in local Earth First! chapters.

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