The Crusade of a Different Drummer
Don Henley's Battle for Walden Woods
Author: Thom Duffy
Publication: Billboard
Date: November 2, 1991
Abstract: Henley talks about how we need to save Walden Woods.
IN AN IDEAL WORLD, the battle to preserve Walden Woods would not need a rock star to lead it. In a more thoughtful society, the magazines and morning shows would vie to quote ecologists on the threat to lands where Henry David Thoreau gave voice to the environmental movement some 146 years ago.
"I regret that we live in a society that is so celebrity-driven that it takes the involvement of celebrities to call attention to some cause that should stand on its own merits," says Don Henley. "But that's the kind of world we live in. And if that's the case, I'm willing to be the bait."
In April 1990, Henley -- whose platinum recording streak began with the Eagles in the '70s and has continued through his solo work -- founded the Walden Woods Project. Its aim is to preserve the historic lands around Walden Pond in Concord, Mass., where Thoreau wandered, pondered, and wrote of the values of wilderness, simplicity, and conservation. The organization, working with the Trust For Public Land and the Thoreau Country Conservation Alliance, has successfully purchased one site in the woods where condominiums were planned and is fighting for another slated for an office park, just 700-plus yards from Walden Pond.
THE MOTIVATIONS AND MANEUVERS of pop activists are easy to criticize. "Pop culture doesn't always know what to do with the power it has," says Henley. "The good intentions are generally there but sometimes not the knowledge. I think a lot of artists are willing to help, but perhaps older artists need to point out how they can be effective and explain various options to them."
To that end, Henley recently gave Billboard a look behind the scenes at the options and strategies he chose to make his pop activism more effective than most.
"I've been what you might call an environmentalist for a long time," he says. "And as my success has grown, I naturally have been able to do more."
Lately, he has endured interviewers who ask if his environmental concern is a new-found influence on his songwriting -- oblivious to such tracks as "The Last Resort" from the "Hotel California" album in 1976, well before the latest wave of eco-chic.
Henley has been involved in less-publicized development battles from Los Angeles to Aspen, Colo., and became educated in those issues. "I have an entire battery of land-use attorneys and I've learned a great deal," he says. And outside of well-known music business colleagues like Irving Azoff, he acknowledges "a whole other set of advisers" on these matters.
As an umbrella for the Walden Woods Project and future efforts, Henley set up the nonprofit ISIS Fund. After launching the Walden campaign with two benefit concerts in April 1990 in Worcester, Mass., he went on an extended tour, channeling a small portion of each ticket through the ISIS Fund to the Walden project.
"It was a pain-in-the-ass for all the promoters," he says, "and I would like to thank them all here publicly."
THIS PAST SUMMER, Henley and rock critic Dave Marsh co-edited "Heaven Is Under Our Feet: A Book For Walden Woods" (Longmeadow Press, $ 18.95). It is a book of essays on Thoreau's legacy by 66 contributors, including environmentalists, politicians, authors, actors, and pop stars, with proceeds going to the Walden project. The success of the book was recently celebrated at the New York Public Library. Some of the most renowned environmentalists in the nation were present; the press and paparazzi chased down Don Johnson, Kathleen Turner, and Ed Begley Jr.
This past week, Henley staged three more benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden, on a bill with Sting and Billy Joel for two nights and Bonnie Raitt and Jimmy Buffett the third. He plans more benefit shows in L.A. in February or March and a book tour next month for "Heaven Is Under Our Feet," pledging to "autograph this baby right into the best-seller list."
Smiling, Henley adds, "I'm a tenacious mother . . ."
The Walden Woods Project will likely need to raise $ 8 million in all, according to its executive director, Kathi Anderson (whom Henley credits with the real, day-to-day work along with the Boston law firm of Hale & Dorr and the Trust for Public Land).
Why does this rock star think it's worth it?
"If Walden goes, then all the issues radiating out from Walden go," says Henley, quoting the remarks of Thoreau Society president Edmund A. Schofield. "That is what this is all about."
The issues and ideas Thoreau sent forth from Walden Woods shaped not only the environmental movement but an enduring ethic of community and shared responsibility that pop music, in its finest moments, also proclaims.
