“Constant Pressure,Constantly Applied”: Remembering Bob Witzeman,1927–2014

Introduction

Long before the Love Canal campaign and the efforts to halt the PCB landfill in Warren County, North Carolina, a group of environmentalists and American Indian activists in Arizona fought the construction during the 1970s and 1980s of largescale and expensive dam, aqueduct, flood control, and irrigation projects that were a part of the United States Bureau of Reclamation's (USBR) infamous Central Arizona Project (CAP). ¹ Dr. Robert (Bob) Witzeman was a key member of what a journalist called the “little people”—relentless conservationists, Yavapai Indians, and citizen taxpayers—who formed a coalition of organizations to resist the building of the $1 billion Orme Dam at the confluence of the Salt and Verde Rivers, as well as other CAP projects. ² A key component of CAP, Orme Dam would have flooded the Fort McDowell Indian Reservation, home of the Yavapai people, and the habitat of rare desert-nesting bald eagle pairs. ³ According to historian Ron Schilling, “You had David, represented by the Indians [and] the environmentalists, versus Goliath, which was most of the Arizona congressional delegation [and] the major water officials in the county and state governments.” ⁴ With Bob's invaluable leadership, help, advisement, and activism, the “little people” ultimately won, defeating the Orme Dam project and thus creating one of the most inspiring come-from-behind environmental and indigenous rights victories in U.S. history.

Following the victory against the Orme Dam, Bob and his allies went on to criticize, critique, and ultimately beat other CAP projects. ⁵ As a result of his efforts, Bob was one of the most successful and outspoken environmental justice activists of the last 40 years, particularly in the American Southwest. He died in August 2014. This essay considers Bob Witzeman's grassroots initiatives and ends with a call for action. ⁶

Discussion

The victory against the Orme Dam and other CAP schemes set Bob on a course that would pit him against the largest names in politics, economic development, and scientific research during the last 40 years of his life. Indeed, Bob had a knack for confronting, educating, and oftentimes scolding politicians such as Arizona Governor Bruce Babbit, Representatives Jim Kolbe and Morris K. Udall, and Senators Barry Goldwater, Dennis DeConcini, Jon Kyl, and John McCain. “The C.A.P. is socialism for all the freeloaders at the Federal water trough,” proclaimed Bob. He frequently criticized large governmental organizations. ⁷ “I get angry when these well-financed special interests lie to the public about their intentions,” Bob stated. “Righteous indignation sets in when I see the [USBR] use our tax dollars to destroy a river in order to line the pockets of some wealthy real estate developers.” ⁸ He loved to spoil their plans. Few government organizations, politicians, engineers, government agencies, developers, mining companies, ranchers, timber industries, or universities were spared Bob's critique. ⁹

Bob eventually took on an active role in the Maricopa Audubon Society (MAS), a Phoenix-based local chapter of the National Audubon Society. ¹⁰ Although he was born and raised in Ohio, he moved to Arizona in 1958 and became busy starting his medical practice in anesthesiology. As he told an Audubon Magazine reporter in 1981, “I'm just a birdwatcher who got into [activism] by accident.” ¹¹ Bob learned the language of scientists and economists in order to win arguments and effectively utilize the media. He knew the law and the full particulars of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act, legislation that was passed just as Bob was taking a more active and activist role in conservation. ¹² According to his wife Janet, “with the passage of NEPA, he had a tool to help in the fights by being able to answer environmental impact statements and sometimes going to court.” ¹³ He became president of MAS in June 1973 and served in that capacity until May 1979, when he became conservation chairman, a position that he held until his death more than 35 years later. Bob retired from his medical practice in March 1986 “so he could devote all his time to conservation battles.” ¹⁴

One of Bob's greatest and longest lasting campaigns was against the University of Arizona (UA) and its research partners, including the Vatican, German and Italian research institutes, and U.S. universities. ¹⁵ In the 1980s, UA astronomers and other research scientists selected Mount Graham, a sacred place to Western Apache people and ecologically unique mountain in Arizona, as the site for new astrophysical development, including a large telescope inappropriately named the Columbus Project. Bob was an early opponent of UA's efforts. He began speaking out publically about Mount Graham in early 1987—a delay brought about because of his retirement from practicing medicine. ¹⁶ He lobbied elected officials, created thick spiral-bound press packets, and travelled throughout the U.S. and Europe to attempt to stop this project. ¹⁷ He paid for Western Apache people to travel globally and meet with elected officials, government agencies, scientists, and university administrations, among other people. Bob helped to launch what was at the time the largest coalition of environmental and indigenous rights organizations in the U.S. It would be difficult today to imagine any living Mount Graham red squirrels, one of the most imperiled mammals on the planet, without Bob's efforts and organizing abilities. ¹⁸ Although three telescopes were ultimately built, the astronomer's grand plans were curtailed. ¹⁹

Bob was at the forefront of every single major environmental and human rights struggle and victory in the Southwest from the early 1970s onwards. ²⁰ In fact, he did not take a break from environmental justice related work from at least 1972, when he read his first Environmental Impact Statement regarding the Orme Dam construction, until he died in 2014. ²¹ According to his wife, he “moved from Orme to Cliff, to Mt. Graham, to the copper mine at Oak Flat and at the same time—many fights concerning logging of old growth forests, grazing, roads through important wildlife habitat.” ²² Bob helped to stop the construction of Orme and Cliff dams, as well as Charleston, Conner, Hooker, and Buttes dams, the Kofa Power Lines, and the Rio Verde Road. Among many other initiatives, he worked with MAS to make certain that the Topock Marsh was not dredged, that the Spur Cross Exchange was halted, and that grazing on the Salt and Verde Rivers was altered to aid bald eagles. He worked tirelessly to ensure that Maricopa County voters rejected the Rio Salado Taxing District. ²³ In the case of astrophysical development on Mount Graham, with which Bob concerned himself for the last 30 years of his life, the number of telescopes was limited to three from over 17 planned. Many universities dropped their participation in the project because of Bob's organizing. ²⁴

His track record of protecting indigenous people's land and riparian areas (bird habitat along the banks of a river, within in a desert landscape) is likely unparalleled in the Southwest. ²⁵ Scott Burge, a longtime friend of Bob's, said, in the case of Hooker, Charleston, and Buttes dams, “they were proposed but never authorized.” However, said Burge, “[USBR] was intent on having Cliff Dam built and when that failed, there was no chance the other dams would be authorized by Congress. Bob had already written about the negative aspects of those dams.” According to Burge, USBR officials “knew that if they tried to push for them, they would find Bob sitting on the court house steps.” ²⁶ As Burge put it, “[Bob] changed the face of Arizona. Without him, Arizona would have been dramatically different.” ²⁷

From the headquarters in his house or “war room,” as he referred to it, he launched assaults on any politician, businessman, company, or government agency that threatened human and indigenous rights, the environment, or protected places in Arizona. Armed with a station for sending out mailings, a typewriter, rows of file folders and boxes, and eventually a fax machine, copier, and computer, Bob was able to take on and often slay giants. Bob testified at numerous hearings by the Forest Service (USFS), Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and Arizona Game and Fish Department, among others, according to his wife. ²⁸ “I never met anyone like Bob,” stated Burge. “He would go to any public meeting with a politician, municipal government, anywhere, grab the podium, and take over.” ²⁹

Bob was regularly recognized for his grassroots activism. According to a biographical sketch at the time, “through an aggressively educational campaign to the public on the environmental, social and economic fallacies of Orme Dam,” Bob was able to defeat the project, despite opposition from the “entire [Arizona] Congressional delegation … and the largest newspaper in the state.” The Phoenix New Times praised Bob in its 1984 yearbook as a “dissident” and effective “troublemaker.” In 1999, the Southwest Forest Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, and Audubon Society presented Bob with a lifetime achievement award. In her letter to various supporters, environmental activist Anne Carl wrote, “Bob has made all the right people feel uncomfortable.” Throughout the rest of his life, he participated in the annual Orme Dam Victory Days parade and celebration on the Fort McDowell Yavapai Indian Reservation. ³⁰

He mailed thousands of often lengthy letters, as well as massive lobbying packets, to elected officials, journalists, activists, and allies. According to Carolina Butler, a longtime friend and fellow activist against the Orme Dam, in terms of letter writing, “Nobody beats Bob.” ³¹ Congressmen Udall and Kolbe, and Senators DeConcini and McCain, among many others, all have letters from Bob in their archives. He was on a first-name basis with many elected officials and Bob could be extremely persuasive. Bob was “completely at peace with himself. He had his eye on the ball and the ball was the world can be a better place,” as Burge saw it. Furthermore, “he knew that the politicians had a thousand issues and he had one [issue] and all of his contacts, so he knew he could win”—a great strategy that worked well for him. ³²

During the last 45 years of his life, Bob published hundreds of op-eds and letters to the editor, and faxed countless press releases to his media contacts. For 35 years, Bob wrote the conservation opinion columns for MAS's newsletter, the Cactus Wrendition. ³³ He always looked at the larger picture of any environmental issue. ³⁴ With regards to the dams that were part of CAP, Bob wrote or assisted with more than 120 press releases from 1973 until 1986. ³⁵ Bob created MAS's first news release in 1973. ³⁶ According to Janet Witzeman, “He wrote fund raising brochures and we had many mailing parties at our house to send them out along with envelopes asking for money to help pay lawyers and print brochures. He passed out postcards at meetings and environmental events—getting people to write to their congressman or the [USFS] or BLM etc.” His letters were published in major daily newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. ³⁷ After having the same letter published in four separate newspapers, Bob beamed, “It never hurts to send the same letter to all the papers.” ³⁸

Witzeman filed Freedom of Information Act requests and cultivated friendships with a number of secret informants—some of whom he communicated with for decades. These were “inside” women and men—for example, biological scientists, researchers, astronomers, engineers, attorneys, and university professors—who provided him intel regarding, among other things, the machinations of UA leaders, astronomers, and politicians, as well as fudged building costs and astronomical studies. “Graduate students funneled him information. They knew about this older guy named Bob who did conservation work,” stated Burge. “Bob taught me that enemy identification is the key. We got secret memos all the time. They would be hostile to you in public meetings, then funnel materials to you after the fact, as long as you had not impugned their honor or insulted their character.” ³⁹

No person seemed to know more about how to deal with the media. He would send out fax blasts and sign-on letters that included nearly every single major environmental organization in the world. He maintained a list of media contacts that he would put to good use anywhere he traveled. In fact, he seemed willing to go anywhere for causes in which he believed. Lawyer Brock Evans of the Endangered Species Coalition wrote, “one incident stands out as a supreme example of Bob's total commitment to fight for his vision, whatever it takes. It was January 1996,” according to Evans, who was giving a speech in Columbus, Ohio. “As I was getting ready, I looked around the room and saw a familiar, yet totally out of context, face in the audience—Bob Witzeman!” ⁴⁰

In 2002, Bob spoke during a rally in Phoenix to protest ongoing ecological destruction caused by Glen Canyon Dam and stresses placed on the Colorado River. ⁴¹ The Living Rivers/Colorado Riverkeeper organization stated that “he ended his speech with advice for forcing action from the powers-that-be: ‘Constant pressure, constantly applied.’” ⁴² Bob commented, “Don't expect to win overnight. And don't focus on minor setbacks. Keep your eyes on the big picture.” Furthermore, Bob stated, “Sometimes you'll lose an area but make tremendous gains in public awareness and support. Use that to win the next one,” he urged. In other places, Bob urged, “You have to be motivated to motivate others. Then let everyone play to their skills, whether they be speakers, writers, or organizers.” As Bob put it, environmental justice work is “a never-ending process. The only way to stay sane is to make it fun.” ⁴³

Bob possessed an inexhaustible amount of energy—coupled with a tireless work ethic—that afforded him the ability to harness many of the skills in an activist's toolbelt. ⁴⁴ As climate change activists Hilary Moore and Joshua Kahn Russell wrote in their indispensable pamphlet, Organizing Cools the Planet, activists generally fall into one or a few of seven distinct organizing roles. Bob arguably had the skills to be considered a representative for all seven, sometimes in overlapping ways. He represented “direct support people” through his work for and with organizations such as MAS, Committee to Save the Fort McDowell Reservation, Citizens Concerned About the Project, Mount Graham Coalition, Apache Survival Coalition, and Apaches for Cultural Preservation, among many others. Bob was a “movement servicer” who offered specific skill sets such as his knowledge of law, research expertise, and media literacy to assist “different groups, networks, and institutions.” He was clearly an “amplifier” who was able to engage “political networks [and] media to highlight movement work and put pressure on targets.” Some of Bob's best work was as a “bridge” who worked “at the intersections of different … movements,” such as that of indigenous and human rights and environmental groups. Indeed, while working with indigenous communities, he was able to build the largest U.S. coalition of native peoples and environmentalists at the time. He was a “mobilizer” who was able to “leverage broader networks [including large environmental and indigenous peoples' organizations] to flex their muscles when needed,” even when he did not live in the areas about which these struggles were being waged. As a birdwatcher and photographer, as well as a superb writer, speaker, and storyteller, he acted as a “cultural worker” who was able to amplify stories and do so in careful and accountable ways. Lastly, he was a “community organizer” who embedded himself within various communities and stayed “for the long haul.” ⁴⁵ Bob was “democracy in action,” the true embodiment of astounding citizenship and public ethics. One of his last actions taken on behalf of the environment and indigenous peoples was to create a poster for Salt River Indian Community Earth Day event in April 2014.

Conclusion: the Fight Bob Did Not Live to Win

During the last decade of his life, Bob was tirelessly working to protect Oak Flat (or Chich'il Biłdagoteel in the Apache language), an area within Tonto National Forest that is sacred to Western Apache people. Since “time immemorial,” Western Apaches have travelled to Oak Flat in order conduct religious activities and girls' coming-of-age ceremonies. Oak Flat is also a valuable riparian area that is cherished by birders. ⁴⁶ Bob was angry that McCain marginalized Western Apaches again and attempted an end run for a private mining company against an incredibly important ecological area that was significant and unique enough that both Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon protected it. ⁴⁷ Indeed, in 1955, Eisenhower signed Public Land Order 1229, which placed this land off limits to future mining activity.

After Bob's death, Arizona politicians gave large portions of this federal forest, including Oak Flat, to an international copper mining company, in exchange for degraded privately held land elsewhere in Arizona. The Arizona delegation attached a rider to a must-pass military appropriations bill in Congress that privatized 2,400 acres of this federal land. That Arizona's congressional delegation was unable to give the land away until after Bob's death speaks volumes about his abilities as an adversary. ⁴⁸ “Bob is the only one in the conservation community who actually went out and investigated these places and found them to be degraded and worthless.” Indeed, “Bob visited these sites and took photos and found them to be overgrazed, bone dry riverbeds with no riparian values,” according to Janet Witzeman. ⁴⁹

Bob had a tell it like it is attitude and was willing to call out the hypocrisy of the organizations he supported, such as Audubon Arizona (AA), the Nature Conservancy, and the Sonoran Institute. “It seems everybody is being bought off,” exclaimed Bob. ⁵⁰ Bob asked, “Were you aware the National Audubon office in Phoenix (it's called Audubon Arizona) favors the RCC [Resolution Copper Company and Rio Tinto] mine land swap and has been bought off by their cash contributions to them?” The reason as Bob saw it was because of the money. “AA has published in their newsletters the hundreds of thousands of dollars the mine has given them annually in charitable contributions. It amounts to way over $300,000. … And National Audubon will receive some $5,000,000 or so worth of land (some 1,000 acres) to add to their NAS research ranch in Elgin, Arizona, from RCC if the land swap is consummated.” Wrote Bob, “What a tragedy to think Audubon is prostituting themselves and destroying an irreplaceable riparian and ecological treasure in GAAN (Devil's) Canyon and an extraordinary USFS campground wetland ecosystem removed permanently from mining by Eisenhower and Nixon.” ⁵¹ Bob proclaimed, “We would be brain dead to believe that the money they've given to Audubon Arizona doesn't have anything to do with the land exchange. … It's a red flag.” ⁵²

Bob was clearly ahead of the times. The concerns he raised in the 1970s about dam construction and the USBR have been supported in the recent past as various citizens and public officials have called for the abolishment of the USBR, a halt on any new dam projects, the elimination of government subsidies for desert agriculture, and even the removal of Glen Canyon Dam. ⁵³ He certainly would have involved himself against plans to build new dams and reservoirs in Alaska, Colorado, and Texas. ⁵⁴

Bob created and actively pursued a clear formula for success: intense and scrupulous research, enemy identification, no boundaries on range of values linked to an issue (as basis for recruitment of diverse allies; for example, he was willing to work with groups as diverse as Earth First!, native tribes, and hunting organizations), coalition building (he was willing to work with anyone or any group, so long as they agreed with him on the issue about which he was fighting), willingness to experiment and take calculated risks, deep personal engagement coupled with strategic and lateral thinking, educating the public, and endless pressure. This formula has been applied to a certain extent in the fight for Chich'il Biłdagoteel, but it is clear that other scholars and activists must now step in where Bob let off. For as much as this essay is a tribute, it is also an invitation. ⁵⁵ As his longtime friend and fellow activist (and conspirator) Frank Welsh put it during Bob Witzeman's memorial service, “His fight is over and now we must carry on” what he started. ⁵⁶