Wild Earth Society, Incorporated (a Vermont corporation)
Formerly known as The Cenozoic Society, Inc.: Wild Earth
PO Box 5284 
Titusville,  FL  32783
www.wildlandsproject.org
Tel: 877-554-5234 
Fax: 877-554-5234 
Contact: Ms.  Tracey  Butcher tracey@wildlandsproject.org
Website: www.wildlandsproject.org
EIN: 16-1402497
Incorporated August 21, 1991
Exempt since 1992
Revenue $155,326 and Expenses $122,386 Year 2007
(Form 990 available at guidestar.org)

See The Wildlands Project - Disambiguation page for the context of this profile.

The First of The Three Wildlands Project Corporations

On August 21, 1991 a number of Dave Foreman's friends incorporated a non-profit group in Vermont first known as the Cenozoic Society, Incorporated - Wild Earth.

The hyphenated name changed in 2000 to Wild Earth Society Incorporated and Vermont records no longer show the original name.

The Cenozoic Society's sole activity was publishing Wild Earth, edited by former Earth First! Journal editor John Davis, "melding conservation biology and wildlands activism".

The Cenozoic Society, Incorporated - Wild Earth was not originally the official organization of The Wildlands Project, because The Wildlands Project had not yet been developed. However, less than two years after its 1991 incorporation, Davis began saying, "Wild Earth serves as the publishing voice for The Wildlands Project, and as an independent voice for the new conservation movement."

In January 1992, the second of The Wildlands Project corporations, North American Wilderness Recovery Incorporated (see profile) was registered in Arizona by close friends of Dave Foreman. Shortly thereafter, the Vermont corporation's filings were included as part of the Arizona annual report filings of North American Wilderness Recovery Inc, causing confusion among critics and the media as to who, what, and where The Wildlands Project really was. The leaders did nothing to clarify the ambiguity.

The Wildlands Project origins: The Wildlands Project itself was developed from a concept conceived by Dave Foreman, Howie Wolke and Bart Koehler in 1983 while on a Northern California recruiting "road show" for Earth First!, the radical environmental group they co-founded in 1980 with Mike Roselle and Ron Kezar. Foreman, already the charismatic leader of Earth First!, later emerged as the leading advocate of "The Wildlands Project."

The 1983 concept was called the "Earth First! Wilderness Preserve System." Foreman, Wolke and Koehler co-authored an article with that title in the June 21, 1983 issue of Earth First!: The Radical Environmental Journal, summarizing the idea:

It is not enough to preserve the roadless, undeveloped country remaining. We must re-create wilderness in large regions: move out the cars and civilized people, dismantle the roads and dams, reclaim the plowed land and clearcuts, reintroduce extirpated species.

Earth First!, as a "non-organization" (it claimed to be a "movement" with no members)had no power to influence the legislation and policy-making necessary to establish such a system, and the idea remained idle talk. Foreman befriended numerous highly qualified people in mainstream society during his Earth First! days, and several among them became interested in the idea and subsequently turned the non-viable "Earth First! Wilderness Preserve System" into a coherent plan with scientific and legal underpinnings. The plan was developed primarily by three credentialed academicians (although others were influential).

Along with Dave Foreman, the most influential co-founders of Wild Earth Society, Incorporated, originally known as the Cenozoic Society, Incorporated - Wild Earth, the Vermont corporation that registered the trade name The Wildlands Project in 2001, were:

Reed F. Noss, Ph.D. (1988, Wildlife Ecology, University of Florida), who in 1991 was a research associate at Stanford University and research scientist at the University of Idaho, later an endowed professor at the University of Central Florida, with the specialty of "Multicriteria conservation planning on regional to continental scales."

Michael E. Soulé, Ph.D (1964, Population Biology, Stanford University) in 1991 was the Chair and a Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz, now emeritus. Soulé is credited with promoting the concept of "conservation biology," which, in the words of retired U.S. Forest Service scientist Richard Everett, "is concerned only with plant and animal habitat and does not consider human use of the land."



David  A. Johns, Juris Doctor, earned degrees in law and political science from Columbia University. Currently Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Portland State University, Portland OR. He specializes in "place-based ecosystem conservation on a continental scale" and in "assuring the accountability and financial health of small nonprofits." In addition to teaching law and political science, he serves as treasurer of the Society for Conservation Biology, co-founded and remains a board member of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative and co-founded and was the first executive director of The Wildlands Project.

All three were the brains behind "melding conservation biology and wildlands activism".

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