"He liked it when people said he was unreasonable, he recognized it as a compliment," said David Brower's son of his notorious eco-warrior father. By far the most inspirational film of the Far North Conservation Film Fest last weekend was "Monument," a profile and chronological story of one man's tireless quest to save Mother Earth.

Cofounder of the Sierra Club and instigator of the "Wilderness Act‚" Brower undertook battles to save Earth's beauties all over the USA-from the Grand Canyon to the home of the tallest trees in the world, the redwood of California. The environmental movement in the 60s seemed encouraging, the prewar consciousness of preserving for the future. But there were still hard times. Scarily amusing were his efforts to save the Glen Canyon in Arizona from being dammed. Brower said that to be a conservationist in such a red neck and capital driven time and place was practically against the law. The Commissioner of Reclamation in Arizona at the time called him a "hysterical. A fanatical eco- lover."

It can make a person ponder if much has changed in the 50 odd years since, with the battle lines so fiercely drawn between developers‚ and environmentalists. A good illustration of these clandestine manifestations was the promotional video of the Glen Canyon Dam by the power company, with a streamlined eye-catching jet boat and even more aesthetically pleasing blonde jet skiers trailing dreamlike off the back. As one 60s journalist said, "It's hard when developers are seen on the side of angels of recreation and conservationists are seen sitting on the side of the mud and trees."

Brower was most famous for not giving in. "We can't conciliate something we didn't create, something which US politics loves to do." After being fired from the Sierra Club for not compromising on a forestry project (that would in part result in logging the area). He went to set up Friends of the Earth, now the biggest radical environmental network in the world, which founds itself upon providing practical solutions to environmental problems.