Why does it seem we’ve lost ground when it comes to protecting our public lands? Repeated complaints say our public lands aren’t really public, that our National Parks are rundown, dilapidated messes, and so forth. As hunters and anglers know, it’s not because we don’t do our part. We knowingly- willingly- pay excise taxes that go toward much needed work.

So what’s the rub? There’s a plethora of organizations, each working to help improve the plight of the land, the animals and the access. One possible explanation comes from a new organization whose very name defines what they think is the problem. Their name? Nature Is Non Partisan. This new organization believes extreme groups have radicalized the idea of environmentalism and demonized the conservation minded. Rather than standing for responsible stewardship, today’s definition of the “environmental movement” is primarily associated with the Green New Deal.

That’s the polarized situation NatureIsNonPartisan.org was founded to calm.

Ben Cassidy, Chief Policy Officer, Nature Is Non Partisan

Earlier this week, QA Outdoors spoke with Ben Cassidy, Chief Policy Officer of Nature Is Non Partisan. Cassidy’s name may be familiar to many, as he was previously EVP of SCI, where he oversaw international government and public affairs. He was also a senior appointee of the first Trump administration at the U.S. Department of the Interior, specializing in - you guessed it - policy and advocacy for public lands.

Ben Cassidy:
It's pretty literal. The name says it all. When I was at Safari club or over at Interior or NRA, it seemed that from any of those vantage points we have a whole spectrum of people - all in agreement - that they care about you know the environment. They care about abundant wildlife, and healthy habitat, and fresh air and clean water. But at the same time, they’re all fighting over it. Now I think that's healthy because it’s a sign that we care. What’s not healthy is when the whole conversation is being owned, dictated, or controlled by the extreme poles. They aren’t really reflective of where everyone else is in the conversation.

We call what we’re trying to do as a “reset back to normal” in earlier times. We can’t afford to have the environment hijacked by crazy folks. We need to give conservation, the environment, nature -the respect that we always have to make sure it’s maintained and handled correctly for the next generation. We need durable solutions. And my experience in DC is that durable solutions only happen when you get folks on both sides working together. We kind of fall prey to that toxic situation where actions are done by one side; then as soon as the other party takes control, they just tear it back. Then, we actually go backwards on things.

I've also seen some of the most unlikely scenarios where people come together and work on solutions - together - that are durable, and they’ve lasted through administrations and Congressional changes.

That should be the norm. So it’s really like a throwback to how things were, recognizing the situation now and calling out the absurd. Recognizing the situation now is what got us started on what we’re doing now.

Ben Cassidy
I'm here in DC as the Chief Policy Officer. I’m working with a lot of our partners and other like-minded groups in the spaces of hunting, and fishing, all the way to forestry, water and wildlife- the whole, entire outdoor space.

We’re looking at ten tent pole areas of agreement, right? The areas where we can have discussions and find specific policy prescriptions on. Whether it’s abundant wildlife, or reforesting our public lands; it could be having an Endangered Species Act that works and does the job it’s supposed to do - to recover species so they’re not in danger.

It's also about fixing degraded infrastructure that's hurting our water quality. It’s suggesting natural resilience, it’s protecting our communities that live around the outdoors. All those are things we’re working on with our partners, then we’re identifying where the cross-sections are.

Take, for example, when I worked at Interior under the first Trump administration. We would have these big conservation roundtables and we would bring in the full spectrum of stakeholders and the only qualification was that you had to be constructive, not obstructive. You were there to be a good-faith, willing partner on whatever side of the issues you fell. We could probably disagree on 90% of the issues, but needed to focus on the 10% where we did agree.

One example would be migration corridors, right? You could go to the NRA or even the Defenders of Wildlife and they’re both going to say that’s a priority. I think that’s very important.

They might want to do it differently, to give the power to the states, to let them decide now rather than later. Or go with a volunteer incentive base with private land owners on the other hand. Have land designations -to lock it up, you know- so that nobody can do anything in those areas.

We wanted to come to the middle ground on that. What we ended up with was the a Secretarial order that leaned on the states and their state management plans to work with state authority, with private land owners and find solutions to the interconnectivity. It worked- so well that after Trump left and Biden came in, they kept the program. They touted it as a success for themselves. That was one thing that didn’t get scratched.

Today, you have Congress working on it. Former Secretary, now Congressman Ryan Zinke has a bill working to strengthen and codify migration corridors to keep them permanent. That’s an example that starts off with those discussions where we put aside the differences, work together, and get something durable and lasting because we all agree that we care about habitat, and we care about the wildlife that lives on that habitat.

We want to do the right thing for it. I want to see more of that, and be able to facilitate more of that and we see really good opportunities with the president we have right now. He’s open to big ideas, and doing big things. In fact, if you were to go through a laundry list of what Trump in his last term did -without saying who did it- you might start to see people recognize his historic investment in the Everglades protections, in protecting Bristol Bay, the Great American Outdoors Act, migration corridors, to historic opening of hunting and fishing access on public lands- a litany of things he didn’t talk about at his rallies. But I think he’s on a trajectory to surpass that this term. To actually leave behind a historic legacy. It’s just a matter of getting and keeping focus on these issues.

Ben Cassidy
Yep, it’s a weaponized word without a doubt. I deal with a lot of people just like you. When they hear “environmental” they automatically think “hell, no!” Then…when you walk through what it means or you look through the activities that hunters take during the course of a hunt- it’s everything an environmentalist does -you just don’t like the way the word sounds now.

Ben Cassidy
Words matter. There are a lot of loaded words out there that are used to make points by either side. So yeah, it will mean a lot if we go back to a time when the words weren’t used to divide the community.

Ben Cassidy
Yeah, we launched in March in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, which happens to be the geographic center of the country. It was like meeting in the middle, and I think that makes up who we are and what we represent. If you look at our staff, or our Board, the makeup was really purposeful. We wanted to have it balanced. Looking like a one-to-one makeup of left-of-center and right-of-center with the goal of meeting in the middle.

For example, our board has Michael Brun, who’s the former CEO of Sierra Club. By the same token, you have former Secretary of the Interior David Bernhart. It’s the same with my staff colleagues. One is in San Francisco, so you can guess her political affiliation. You don’t have to guess mine, just listen to how I talk and what I’ve done. If I’m a conservative and I work with the liberal, we keep things balanced. We keep our board balanced. And we work with groups with the balance formula, too. It’s really what we keep driving towards. Where we can find common ground and have civil conversations. From those conversations, we have ideas we throw against the wall and see what we can get to stick- because it will have support from both sides.

Ben Cassidy
Exactly. Showing that it’s possible. And that it works.

Ben Cassidy
I think that this group would've been started no matter who had won the White House, no matter who controlled Congress. It’s like “how do we work with who’s in power now? How do we affect real change to meet the moment? It’s going to require a full gamut of partners. On the policy prescriptions I think one opportunity we have today is to frame things from the top. Looking at DC today, I don't think that I’ve ever seen Congress and an administration that's in so much lockstep. Trump does direct things, and he’s very responsive to who brought him back into office. I don’t think it’s lost on anyone how important the hunting and fishing vote was for this president. So I think today is a real opportunity to highlight and show the conservation model - traditionally espoused by conservatives - as the route to really highlight possible solutions. Solutions that use our working conservation methods to get the goals both sides want. 

I think having a directive from the White House to Make America Beautiful Again and do so through common sense conservation solutions is that something that could really excite and unite across the country, not just folks in DC.

Ben Cassidy
Totally. And that’s the point we’re working to get to. It is undeniable that, at the end of the day, who doesn’t love trees, who doesn’t love sunsets, who doesn’t love water? It’s in our genetic makeup to want to protect it, to keep it for the next generation. We talk about what we want to experience, and it may all be different, but we all have the same end goal.

Ben Cassidy
For sure, I mean it's a distraction and it's not helpful 

Ben Cassidy
Totally. You’re focusing on the fight and not what you were trying to accomplish.

Ben Cassidy
Sure.. NatureIsNonPartisan.org or ninp.org. Everything is there. Our policy priorities, how to engage, how to join us in the movement, how to have your voice heard. It’s all there for you - we are very, very digital heavy.

Ben Cassidy
Sure. You can count on it.