About ‘Through the Highlands Mist’

“A man does what he must – in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures – and that is the basis of all human morality.” John F. Kennedy

This site is owned and maintained by Scott Olson, Byram Township, NJ and is used as a vehicle for personal opinions and commentary, often on topics relevant to news taking place within the New Jersey Highlands region. The views and opinions expressed on this site reflect only those of the authors, unless specifically stated otherwise.


If you like what you see here – or in the weekly ‘Through the Highlands Mist’ email news updates – please consider making a donation via PayPal to help keep this domain, server and list server software up and running.


 Unfortunately, the NJ Highlands News has been discontinued…

…and has been replaced by a once-weekly email news compilation, Through the Highlands Mist (sometimes more often when times allows). It’s the same great compilation of news sources, authors and widely varied viewpoints on natural, built or human environmental issues impacting all of us in the Garden State.

The New Jersey Highlands News was a free, e-mail-based newsletter formerly available to help keep you informed of New Jersey Highlands and other Highlands-related environmental news stories.  It was sent out six times weekly – weekday mornings and once during the weekend. It ended on November 16, 2014. See the two posts below for additional information.


Regarding New Jersey Highlands News

November 12, 2014

Good morning, New Jersey Highlands News readers.

As many of you now know, I was informed on Monday November 10 that the Board of Trustees of the NJ Highlands Coalition voted to terminate the 2014-2015 funding of New Jersey Highlands News, effective immediately. The next quarterly payment, due at the end of the December, will not be paid, and the Coalition feels no obligation to complete the grant funding cycle, per my conversation with Julia Somers this past Monday morning.

Summarizing my conversation with Ms. Somers, she stated her Board felt their membership “is confused” as to why they are funding something that presents opinions contrary to and critical of the Coalition. They don’t feel that opinions posted on blogs by Bill Wolfe or me are “real news sources” and therefore not credible. They felt that New Jersey Highlands News (NJHN) has become “biased and was not presenting a fair view,” and that I was personally “advocating my own point of view.” I’ll let you, as readers, make those decisions for yourself.

As background, in April of this year I was summoned to Boonton for a conversation with Ms. Somers and Coalition Trustee George Casa. They suggested that the Coalition ‘Governance/Communications Committee’ was having issues with inclusion of WolfeNotes posts in daily NJHN mailings. After a lengthy discussion – during which I again offered the Coalition a daily news mailing tailored to their exact editorial wishes if they were willing to fully fund the cost (approx $2000/month for 6 issues a week as currently produced, or $1200/month for 3 issues on M-W-F of Highlands only news, if I recall correctly) – I was asked to present an ‘editorial statement’ for Coalition review prior to my small grant application being considered for approval.

This was my reply to the request from that meeting (bold highlighting mine for purposes of this discussion):

Subject: ‘Editorial Policy’
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2014 11:07:07 -0400
From: Scott Olson <@scottolson.us>
Reply-To: Scott Olson <@scottolson.us>
Organization: scott olson design
To: Julia Somers <@njhighlandscoalition.org>, George Cassa <@earthlink.net>


Julia and George:

It was good meeting with you two the other day. Please feel free to forward this along to your Governance/Communications Committee, or your Small Grants Committee, whichever is pertinent.

The ‘editorial statement’ of the NJ Highlands News is basically just a summary of what readers have seen over the last five years of its service, now ‘formally’ presented in writing as this:

The New Jersey Highlands News is an electronic clipping service of New Jersey Highlands related stories, editorials, opinion pieces or letters directly related to Highlands issues, as well as other farther-reaching regional, national or international information relevant to – or with an impact on – the NJ Highlands activist community.

The information aggregated and presented is in written, audio or video format from local, regional and national sources, including but not limited to newspapers, blogs, radio, TV and other internet / new media sources.

The purpose of this aggregation is to present as varied and diverse a base of information on Highlands issues as possible, allowing readers to educate themselves on topics from all sides of an argument, and understand the conflicts often inherent in Highlands policy issues.

The aggregated information is presented in its unedited, original format and clearly denoted in the table of contents as news (unmarked), Editorial, Opinion, or Letter. Editorials, opinion pieces and letters to the editor are the opinions of the writers or their organizations. Where multiple sources of a day’s policy-specific or event-specific items appear, the piece or pieces best conveying the broadest amount of information are chosen for inclusion.

+++

Please let me know if you need anything else.

Regards,

Scott

There was no further follow-up from the Coalition. I was sent the first quarter payment for the new grant on June 24, 2014 and invited to the July 30, 2014 recognition ceremony for recipients of this year’s Small Grant awards. I assumed that the above mentioned ‘editorial policy’ was acceptable to the Coalition.

I believe that the daily NJHN has met the obligations of the grant as defined by the Coalition, and the editorial policy requested by the Coalition in April.  It was not until Monday November 10 that this subject was raised again, as I was informed of Coalition funding being withdrawn. If you have further questions, I suggest you contact Ms. Somers or members of her board, as I have no further information I can offer on this subject.

Since Ms. Somers was clear the Coalition felt it had no obligation to fulfill the full year commitment to funding, my initial reaction is that I have no obligation to continue the daily NJHN beyond today. I will, however, be producing daily mailings while I seek professionals advice on the Coalition’s and my legal obligations, but it is my intention to end production of the daily NJHN as soon as possible.

I want to thank those of you who received the news on Tuesday and have already offered to help seek additional funding, or make personal contributions to assist in continuing this project. Given the events leading up to last week’s vote on Ballot Question 2, and the ongoing lack of financial support for this essential tool for Highlands activism, I believe it’s time to just bring this project to an end. I have to be honest, I just don’t have it in my heart to continue these battles any longer.

Thanks for reading!

Scott


Sadly, it’s a wrap.

November 16, 2014

This is it. The last New Jersey Highlands News.

For over 10 years – in one form or another – Highlands activists have received regular news and information via listserv emails. The first lists started on the Garden State EnviroNet server. When GSE ceased production of the daily EnviroNews in 2006, I created and maintained a new Highlands list on their server until they unplugged completely from the internet in April 2007. That’s when the current New Jersey Highlands News (NJHN) list began, run strictly with my volunteer time and out of pocket expenses. In 2008, the NJHN and the demands of producing it grew too big to continue doing for free, and the Dodge Foundation, through ANJEC, stepped in to assist with funding. They provided some income, but never enough to reimburse me for even half the time it takes to produce. When Dodge ended funding, the NJ Highlands Coalition, Victoria Foundation and various associated groups and individuals picked up some of the expenses through grants and donations. Over those 6 years, the grants/donations – on average – paid me between $8 to $14/hour.

While I appreciate offers from many of you to try and continue funding for this project, under my current personal financial conditions, shutting things down and cutting my losses is the only real option at this time.

It’s ironic though. Many of the same NGOs that are the biggest beneficiaries of the daily NJHN – for themselves and their membership – just spent well over half a million dollars to pass a ballot question that unquestionably harms current funding for important environmental programs – and will require thousands of man-hours to correct the inadequate level of funding to parks and historic sites. Yet they can’t cumulatively come up with $20K to keep their members informed?

Or maybe that’s the point of it? They don’t want their members to be informed. A reader wrote me after they heard news of the pulling of NJHN funds by the Coalition:

“This is all about control of information and analysis, and the power and influence that flows from access to it…about control and preserving privilege. That’s why they pulled the plug – broad distribution of information is subversive to top down power and control. Gotta keep the members in the dark – no criticism allowed!

I hadn’t thought of it that way before, but another note from a reader just a short while later made me realize that it’s most likely true:

Thank YOU for providing an unvarnished look at the world for the past years. The Highlands News did serve a real purpose and I applaud you for the undertaking.

We can howl at the lame, anti-intellectual stupidity of Fox News. It is easy to disparage ‘Faux News’ because they only present one side of any given argument or political position (posturing, in most cases.)

Your work fairly presented both sides.  If the Far Left was given too much ‘credibility’, the best argument is that it made moderate positions appear to be reasonable.  As a moderate, I appreciated seeing what was on the other side of the argument because it gave me real reason to examine my own positions.

Anyway, thanks. You done good and I want you to know that I appreciate the thought and industry you put into this.  Even when you pissed me off!  (Interpret that as ‘made me think.’)

Hmmm. Made people think. Question authority. See things from different perspectives and make up their own minds and not mindlessly play follow the leader. That’s threatening to those ‘with power.’ No more funding for you.

Find the missing ‘advocacy’

My NJHN archive contains over 13,445 emails since 2004, and while reviewing it for this post, I came upon a series of emails that seem sadly prophetic now.

As a founding Trustee of the NJ Highlands Coalition in 2006, I participated in creation of the original draft of the Mission Statement for the Highlands Coalition. It read: “The mission of the New Jersey Highlands Coalition is to advocate for the protection preservation, and enhancement of the water, forests, wildlife, farmland and other natural, historic and cultural resources of the Highlands, to enhance the sustainability of natural and human communities and the quality of life for current and future generations.”  The purpose statement contained the word advocate or advocacy another five times. It was a strong statement.

If you go to the New Jersey’s Highlands Coalition’s ‘Mission’ page on their web site today, you will find that advocacy is completely missing.

Not. Even. There.

You know why? When a number of us argued for its inclusion while writing the bylaws, the new executive director insisted that foundational funders will question the term ‘advocacy’ when making funding decisions for the new group. Advocacy is too aggressive a term and would cause pause with funders. They only want to fund groups who work collaboratively and without controversy, or so we were told. Groups who do as they’re told and bow to the philanthropic social engineering of the funders like a dog performing for a treat, will get the grant gold.

The price we pay for honesty

Maybe I’m naive, or idealistic – I’m fine with that – but I believe that if you are seeking financial assistance, you present your mission and goals, and ask a source for funding. If they believe in what you are doing, they give you the assistance you need. That is the relationship I thought I had established with the Highlands Coalition for the NJHN. I guess I was wrong.

I won’t compromise my goals and ideals for the sake of a dollar, as most large groups seem willing to do to get the ‘sponsorship’ money or chase after mitigation funds.

I was to “present as varied and diverse a base of information on Highlands issues as possible, allowing readers to educate themselves on topics from all sides of an argument, and understand the conflicts often inherent in Highlands policy issues. I did just that, and quite well according to the numerous calls and emails of support I received over the past week.

At times we’ve had our disagreements, and I certainly have with Bill, …[I believed] the Highlands News funding was for you to present his, your, AFP’s, KIG’s, landowners, the public’s views… and it’s a job you’ve done well and very fairly…

I am sorry to see you go. Yes the Wolfe Notes were disturbing, but it also gave another viewpoint. In order to defend the environmental issues of northern NJ, we should know all sides of the story.

Hmmm. People who know all sides of the story. That too is threatening to those ‘with power.’ No more funding for you.

Dropping the ‘F-bomb’

One of the other issues that also arose within the Coalition board, supposedly, is the ‘coarse language used by Bill Wolfe in his columns.’ Let me pose a question to you. What do Bill McKibben, Dennis Gaffney, and David Roberts have in common with Bill Wolfe?

Answer? Since September 1, 2013, they have written pieces for Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, and Grist (respectively) that have appeared in the NJHN and contained at least one use of the ‘F-bomb’ or a derivative of it. Yet no complaints from any Coalition board member about McKibben, Gaffney or Roberts.

Here’s what I found:

Jonathan Golob (It’s Time to Freak Out About Climate Change, TheStranger.com, September 9, 2012)
David Roberts (Solar panels could destroy U.S. utilities, according to U.S. utilities, Grist, April 20, 2013)
(Audubon Urges That “Stewardship” Funding Go From $0 to $40 Million Per Year, WolfeNotes, July 19, 2013)
David Roberts (Goodbye for now, Grist, September 1, 2013)
(Despite Irene Wakeup Call, Gov. Christie’s April 2012 Hazard Plan Update Failed…, WolfeNotes, September 5, 2013)
Margaret Klein (Our Society Is Living a Massive Lie About the Threat of Climate Change — It’s Time to Wake Up, Climate Psychologist, October 19, 2013)
(Gov. Christie Claims NJ Had a “Massive Plan” in Place Prior to Sandy, WolfeNotes, October 27, 2013)
Bill McKibben (Obama and Climate Change: The Real Story, Rolling Stone, December 18, 2013)
(Open Space Program: Fix It Before You Fund It, WolfeNotes, December 21, 2013)
(What Pete Seger Taught Me About Activism, Mother Jones, February 14, 2014)
(Spotlight Investigation Confirms Our Claims – Finds Christie Administration’s…, WolfeNotes, March 6, 2014)
(Why Did Gov. Christie Kill the State Planning Commission?, WolfeNotes, March 14, 2014)
Bill Wolfe (People’s Climate Collapse? What Is Wrong With The NJ Environmental Community? A Wake Up Call, WolfeNotes, October 11, 2014)

Thirteen uses of the ‘F-bomb’ in more than 600 posts (with more than 5000 articles) over the course of 26 months, and half of them from renowned writers in national publications? Really? Are we adults here? Or are we just upset with the pieces Wolfe is writing, and looking for excuses to exclude him from NJHN posts?

Someone’s head would have exploded if I’d have used renowned climate activist Wen Stephenson’s Earth Day essay from The Nation, Let This Earth Day Be The Last, in which the VERY FIRST word is the F-bomb!

I very deeply regret NOT including Mr. Stephenson’s post in my Earth Day coverage this year. One of the few regrets I have. It was written just days after my summons to Boonton to discuss the Coalition’s proposed censorship, and I was gun shy. It was a huge mistake not using it, so I’m linking it above. If it offends you, don’t read it.

This Stephenson piece is what REAL advocacy looks like. Strong, coarse and with a point that’s tough to argue against.

What can you do?

If you are not happy with what the Highlands Coalition is doing by defunding the NJHN, and you thought of sending me money to support continuing the NJHN, do something better with it. It’s the end of the year and time to make tax-deductible donations to non-profits. Do what I do – speak with your checkbook. Support local, grassroots groups who are actually doing real boots on the ground work and advocacy in your part of the Highlands. They are dwindling in number and need your help. Send them a check, become a member.

If you want a few suggestions, you can drop a check in the mail to any of the groups below – four of my favorite, hard working local groups who will certainly have their job cut out for them in the years to come:

Friends of Waterloo Village Inc.
Attn: Randy Klein
PO Box 763, Stanhope, NJ 07874

Grow It Green Morristown
Attn: Abby Gallo
PO Box 230, Morristown, NJ 07963-0230

Musconetcong Watershed Association
Attn: Beth Styler Barry
PO Box 113, Asbury, NJ 08802

Upper Rockaway River Watershed Association
Attn: Connie Stroh
19 Dogwood Trail, Randolph 07869

Or pick a local, grassroots group in your neighborhood that needs help and send them a check. When you do, please tell them Scott sent you! Do it today, while it’s fresh in your mind.

So it’s come to this…

I’m all out of words. I’m tired of fighting people who should be on our side, but are more worried about themselves and their small fiefdoms than the greater good. Right now, my decision to end the Highlands News definitely feels like the right thing for me to do, personally and professionally. Don’t think for a moment, however, that it’s not emotional. Saying goodbye to something I’ve done with such passion for so long is very hard. So let’s just leave it at this:

You and I will meet again
When we’re least expecting it
One day in some far off place
I will recognize your face
I won’t say goodbye my friend
For you and I will meet again.
–– Tom Petty

Be well, friends. Stay strong, and don’t let the ‘Green Weenies’ screw up the Highlands, OK?

Scott

ps – the rent on the list server is paid through the end of March, so most of you will continue to receive special announcements or important news articles when I have time, on an irregular basis. And if reading this piece in some way offended you, please don’t complain to me – just use the links at the bottom of this email and un-subscribe yourself.