Earth Tales Session

President of The American Conservation Coalition - Interview with Benji Backer.

Welcome to EARTH TALES! A series of interviews and ‘Tales from the Earth’ from inspirational people whom are making a stance in the travel, sports and animal kingdom. We’ll be interviewing poignant people from travel & wildlife photographers, film and documentary makers, explorers, conservationists, biologists and adventurers.

In our 8th EARTH TALES Session - we had the opportunity to interview Benji Backer, the President and Founder of the American Conservation Coalition.

Benji is not only the President and Founder of the American Conservation Coalition but serves on the Wisconsin Conservative Energy Forum's Leadership Council and is a fellow at the Chapman Center in Seattle. Through his dedicated work, Benji has been awarded the Grist 50, Forbes 30 Under 30, RedAlert 30 Under 30, and GreenBiz 30 Under 30.

Through ACC, Benji is determined to unite Americans and republican environmentalists on pro-environmental reforms and change the narrative when it comes to environmental awareness. We couldn’t wait to hear more…

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BornWild: Benji, Welcome to Earth Tales! Tell us how it all began. Where did you grow up and when did your first interests in conservation begin?

Benji Backer: I grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin. I grew up there throughout high school and I really began to love the environment. My family would take us up to the lakes of northern Wisconsin when we were younger; even though it's not a national park, it's beautiful and a peaceful part of the world and you get to realize really quickly how much of an impact one person can make. Whether that's throwing trash in the ocean or doing something that hurts the animals around you, I found at a very young age, personally, just how much of an impact you can make.

It was really instilled in me at a young age to clean up after myself and to make sure that I left the outdoors how I found it. When I started to get older we went to national parks as a family during summer vacations, and there's just a special feeling that you get when you’re out in nature that you can’t explain. Everyone has felt this at some point while spending time in nature, even if it’s at a local park. Once you have that feeling, you don't want nature to be ruined and you want it to be protected for yourself selfishly, but for your kids and your grandkids too.

I’d always been a conservative political activist and always felt frustrated as a republican environmentalist that I didn’t feel represented in the conservative movement at all on environmental issues. That’s when I decided to change something about it and really dive into conservation from a policy and nonprofit perspective.

North Cascades National Park. Image: @rmarte

BW: You have accomplished astounding achievements in your career so far and at such a young age! What is the biggest goal you would hope to achieve through The American Conservation Coalition?

BB: That's a great question! My goal is to build a grassroots advocacy organization that has over a million members that are right-of-center on the political spectrum. A conservative environmental group that can mobilize one million people pretty much overnight to advocate for public lands, wildlife, or climate change policy, etc. Right now, there's nothing like that, and most environmental groups are either not political or they are incredibly liberal. You need to have an opportunity to mobilize the other side of the aisle as well with the values that it takes to get things done.

So, that's the goal. The goal is, and as cliche and broad as it sounds, in addition to building that movement, I want to make the environment bipartisan again. The environment should not be a partisan issue, and it's not just an issue in the United States - we have affiliates in the United Kingdom and in other countries across the globe. The environment is diverse: We all have a stake in the environment and we have to do what we can to protect it. Of course there's always going to be different policy solutions. Right now, both sides are pitted against one another as ‘the all good environmental party’ and ‘the all bad environmental party’ and there's no common ground. That has to change and, long-term, it will change with my generation growing up and becoming leaders. But you also need to engage the other side of the aisle that hasn’t been engaged for a while.

The environment is something that can always be pushed aside by the government, and it's often not an immediate project to tackle. Whereas fixing something with healthcare, immigration, or guns is so immediate. As crazy as it sounds, those issues have fewer long-term effects than the environment by a long shot! Both are important but it's hard to instill that need to get something done for the environment right away because you can always push it off.

BW: There is much news about the COVID-19 virus being transmitted from a wild animal to a human. How do you feel about that?

BB: Yeah, I think it really shows the danger of trying to mess with nature and it seems that a country like China should take a stronger stand against trading and consuming animals like that, especially wild animals. I am not of the belief that we need to go 100 percent vegan or that we have to stop eating meat - I feel that's an infringement on people's personal choices. But there are ways to go about it that are sustainable and not as detrimental to the environment like the way that it's done in certain countries. They have to do a better job of realising that nature is delicate and if you mess with it, it messes with you. We rely on the health of nature for our success. For example, if we cut down all the forests and pollute all the oceans, we would be screwed! That's because we rely on the environment so heavily. We rely on it for our breathing, for our day-to-day living, for our economy, for our jobs, for our personal happiness, and we rely on it for the wildlife around us so that we can eat too.

I think that, unfortunately, the environmental side of this is going to be cast aside pretty significantly because it's not as immediate of a concern. People’s health is, which is incredibly important, but it's also important to notice environmental concerns. It's really important to think about wildlife trade and the impact humans have on the environment, which has been made fairly clear during this pandemic. Lastly, we need to think about global engagement on the impacts of climate change. We have seen how fast the coronavirus has spread across the globe. It has hit pretty much every country so far. The same parallels can be seen with climate change—which is a global problem—and also spreads quickly without swift action.

BW: What would you hope that we and the government learn from this pandemic?

BB: I think unfortunately the environmental side of this is going to be cast aside pretty significantly because its not an immediate concern. Peoples health is, which is important but its also important to notice the environmental concerns. I guess its really important to think about wildlife trade and the consumption of wild animals. The second part of it is, how important global engagement is on this issue because you see how fast the Corona Virus has spread across the globe and its hit pretty much every country so far. What that tells us is that we know the impacts of climate change is a global problem and it is a much larger generational problem than any other right now.

BW: Its very refreshing to see a climate activist republican, what would you like to change and make happen in the republican party on the environmental agenda?

BB: Well, it's really interesting because if you were to ask that question four years ago, my answer would have been totally different. My answer would have started out by saying that climate change is real. But now, the vast majority of Republicans do believe that climate change is real. It's kind of gone underneath the rug in terms of the attention that it's gotten, attention which is largely due to our organization, but in terms of what happens next, we have to come up with specific solutions that both sides can get behind. The way that I look at it is that the impacts of climate change is not solved through various policies. It's going to be solved by dozens of steps in the right direction from state governments, federal governments, international agreements, and from individuals. It's going to take all of those paired together to get this done.

On a federal level, there needs to be dozens of steps in the right direction on climate change and we need to start taking them very soon. On conservation, I think what would be great is really coming together on protecting wildlife and public land like with the Great American Outdoors Act, which funds the land and water conservation fund and the national parks. Taking a step in that direction would be great!

Individual action is super important! Like with voting. Your singular vote in the scheme of things, won't make the difference but that mindset of voting and telling your friends that you’re voting and them telling their friends - it adds up and ends up making a huge difference. A great example: my family eats less meat and this has now rubbed off on me. I now eat less meat and am almost vegetarian. Because of the circle I hang out with, they are now trending that way too. I also use a reusable water bottle and people say to me, “Wow I could save money and use a reusable water bottle - that's interesting.” It's things like that where you are spreading the message without even doing much. If you’re driving smarter, eating smarter, traveling smarter, and using less waste, it will rub off on other people and end up making a huge difference.

BW: Does The American Conservation Coalition have a strong input into being able to change environmental laws and making sure wildlife and public lands are protected?

BB: Yeah! Our impact in terms of politics has been growing over the past two to three years since we became an organization. Now we are at a point where if there needs to be a co-sponsor on a bill, then we can get it done. If there is a bill that needs to get passed and needs to have Republicans to start pushing it then we can get that done too. We actually helped form the Roosevelt Conservation Caucus; it’s a Republican only caucus to help get more Republicans involved in conservation bills. That caucus was also one of the main drivers of the public lands package last year, which was the largest public lands package of all time in the United States.

We are definitely trending in the right direction and we are the most influential group in the United States in terms of grassroots environmentalism. What we need is more members to be enabled to mobilize. So, if we had a million members (which is our goal), the amount of change that we would be able to make would be faster, quicker, and more effective.

BW: How would people reading this interview and they wanted to get involved in what you do, go about signing up and joining?

BB: The best way is to join our membership program at ACC. What happens then is that you’re in our Rolodex of being able to call on elected officials to act on wildlife, conservation, public lands issues, and climate change. That's the best way to get involved but we also pump out a lot of educational content to our members, we do a lot of social media posting, and we also have a lot of resources on our website for different issues.

BW: We see that you have travelled to beautiful locations across the globe, if you were to recommend us to travel anywhere in the world - where would it be and why?

BB: The most beautiful place that I have been is New Zealand. I don’t think anyone should go there because I wouldn’t want to attract more tourists there; it's such a beautiful location because it's so remote. So if you're reading this, I’m telling you to go there but don't actually go! The whole country is incredible but the South islands specifically. It is just incredible - the mountain ranges, more sheep than people, and the beautiful water and forests. There are so many amazing hiking trails, skiing, and so few people which is one of the best parts of it. Yosemite and places like that are great but it is sad when you go to places that are supposed to be outdoorsy and you often feel like you’re in Disney World. New Zealand is the opposite to that and has complete tranquility!

BW: Lastly, as you are passionate about wild animals and wildlife. If you could choose any animal to be stuck on a desert island with, what would it be and why?

BB: It would be the Elf Owl! It is the smallest owl in the world and I've had a special connection to it since I was younger. It's always been special to me, it's always connected to me, and unfortunately, it's always been endangered. I’m in Arizona right now and that's where it usually resides. I have never seen one and this is supposed to be the hotbed of where it lives. I also care about its future. I have always really loved birds and they are often forgotten in this conversation. They play such a huge role in conservation.

BENJI HAS CHOSEN THE PAINTED DOGS CONSERVATION AS HIS PREFFERED ORGANIZATION FOR THIS INTERVIEW.

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EARTH TALES: BENJI BACKER