SUWA leader is from the trenches
Groene worked on and off for 17 years in trenches
Now that Young has moved on, SUWA has looked to its own bloodlines for a replacement: Scott Groene, who has worked off and on in SUWA's trenches for 17 years and who cut his teeth as a staffer to the late Rep. Wayne Owens, the godfather of Utah's wilderness movement.
It would seem that Young and Groene are cut from radically different cloths. Young, 49, is a native Utahn, married and Mormon. Groene, 46, is single, his religion is Utah's stunning redrock wilderness and he hails from Kansas, of all places.
"I grew up backpacking down cornfields," says Groene, who took the SUWA helm last month.
Young's appointment in 2000 was seen as a shift by SUWA to appeal to the Utah mainstream, and Groene's appointment could signal a shift back to what some may view as radical environmentalism.
It could, but it shouldn't, he says.
"Larry and my backgrounds are different, but our views on the issues are the same," said Groene, making the argument that passion for wilderness is something that brings people together of all backgrounds, politics and religious beliefs. "Larry and I are an example of that," he said.
"We have demonstrated a willingness to sit down with those we don't see eye to eye with to pursue possible solutions to the impasse over the future of Utah's wild lands," he said. "I am confident that (Groene's) leadership will help SUWA not only maintain its effectiveness on behalf of Utah wilderness, but improve upon it."
Earlier this week, Groene stood shoulder to shoulder with Utah Gov. Olene Walker to pledge SUWA's support for a process to resolve wilderness disputes in Washington County. That came despite SUWA's long-held opposition to any wilderness proposal that did not resolve wilderness designations statewide.
Groene brings a wealth of on-the-ground experience to the job. Upon graduating from law school at the University of Colorado, he worked in San Juan County representing poor people, mostly Navajos. While there, he got involved in a local protest against a local strip mine, something that whetted his appetite for environmental law.
He later went to Washington, D.C., where he was chief of staff in Owens' office for a short time before leaving to join the Utah wilderness wars as a Moab field representative for SUWA.
Groene says he was just not cut out for life in Washington, D.C. "I struggled with living in a basement apartment and wearing a tie everyday," he said.
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