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New Ashlander Kerr still aims to check growth By PAUL FATTIG ASHLAND -- Andy Kerr insists that he is no longer hell to live with. "Oh no, this is the new Andy Kerr," said the longtime leader of Oregon's environmental movement, who once quipped that conservationists are hell to live with but make great ancestors. "I'm still not particularly charitable to the spoilers of nature, but I can be a nice guy," he said, paused, then added, "Really." Kerr, 44, who drew the ire of many in the timber industry and government as an outspoken leader of the Oregon Natural Resource Council (ONRC) before stepping down in the spring of 1996, has moved to Ashland and plans to continue his work as president of Alternatives to Growth Oregon (AGO). In addition to focusing on population and consumption issues, Kerr is writing several books and working as a consultant. He and his wife, Nancy Peterson, are selling the log home they built in Joseph five years ago. "There were 100 little reasons for moving, none of which was particularly consequential on its own -- milder winters, better bagels," he said. "Joseph was nice, but it was time for a change in habitat." Kerr, whose first book, a guide to 70 hikes in Oregon's high deserts, will be published this spring, is also working on two books about the state's forests. Reared in the mill town of Creswell, Kerr is the son of a retired Willamette Valley builder. After attending Oregon State University for three years, he dropped out of college to become a field organizer for the then-young ONRC in 1976. He became the group's conservation director and in 1994 assumed the role of executive director. Kerr, who was once arrested during an environmental protest in former U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield's office, was labeled a "white-collar terrorist" in a 1989 issue of Time magazine because of his leadership in administrative appeals and lawsuits against what he perceived as threats to the environment. When Kerr founded AGO upon leaving the ONRC, a columnist in The Oregonian newspaper suggested the activist would go from the most hated person in Oregon to the most loved. But Kerr says his reputation as an environmental mad dog may have been a bit exaggerated over the years. "When I got that reputation, I had 10 or 15 publicists working for me," he said. "They weren't paid by ONRC. They were paid by the timber and cattle and mining industries, which had chosen to demonize me." Yet he says there are plenty who opposed his environmental stand who are also concerned about growth. "The majority of Oregonians are concerned about overpopulation of Oregon," he said. "The growth issue crosses traditional alliance and political lines." Growth is also the ultimate environmental and social issue, he said, noting that it increases pollution and taxes. "When I'm on a stump speech, I always ask how many want Oregon to become another California," he said. "Nobody ever raises their hand." The reason, he concluded, is that no one, including Oregonians who originally hailed from California, want to trash the state. Like Tom McCall, the Republican governor who expressed concern about the direction of Oregon's growth in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Kerr believes that Oregonians can determine their future by acting now. "I think it's vital that we plan, but it's also vital that we do more than just plan," he added. For AGO, that means pushing Oregonians to talk about the impact of growth and consumption, he said. "Ashland is a town wrestling with growth right now," he said. "It's probably the most constructive in Oregon when it comes to confronting growth.' Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA