Andy Kerr - North American Industrial Hemp Council biography

June 22, 2004

Andy Kerr is Treasurer and a founding board member of the North American Industrial Hemp Council, an organization dedicated to the recommercialization of industrial hemp in the United States.

He is best known for his two decades with the Oregon Natural Resources Council, the organization best known for having brought you the northern spotted owl. He's also Director of the National Public Lands Grazing Campaign.

He has lectured at all of the state's leading universities and colleges and at Harvard University. Kerr has appeared numerous times on national television news and feature programs and has published numerous articles on environmental matters. He is a dropout of Oregon State University.

He participated, by personal invitation of President Clinton, in the Northwest Forest Conference held in Portland in 1993 for which Willamette Week gave Kerr a "No Surrender Award."

Time reporter David Seideman, in his book Showdown at Opal Creek, described Kerr as the "Ralph Nader of the old-growth-preservation movement."

Jonathan Nicholas of The Oregonian characterized Kerr as one of the "Top 10 people to take to (the) Portland bank" for "his gift of truth."

The Oregonian's Northwest Magazine characterized him as the timber industry's "most hated man in Oregon."

The Lake County Examiner called Kerr "Oregon's version of the Anti-Christ."

In a feature on Mr. Kerr, Time magazine titled him a "White Collar Terrorist," referring to his effectiveness in working within the system and striking fear in the hearts of those who exploit Oregon's natural environment.

The Christian Science Monitor characterized Kerr as "one of the toughest environmental professionals in the Pacific Northwest."

Willamette Week said Kerr "is entirely unwilling to give an inch when it comes to this state's remaining old-growth timber."

In his book Lasso the Wind, New York Times correspondent Tim Egan said of Kerr, "(h)e has a talent for speaking in such loaded sound bites that it was said by reporters that if Andy Kerr did not exist, someone would have to invent him....(Kerr) forced some of the most powerful timber companies to retreat from a binge of clear-cutting that had left large sections of the Oregon Cascades naked of forest cover."

High Country News ranks Kerr "among the fiercest and most successful environmentalists."

Kerr also operates The Larch Company and consults on environmental, non-profit management and funding issues. He is doing some writing, including Oregon Desert Guide: 70 Hikes, published by The Mountaineers Books.

The Oregonian named Kerr one of the 150 most interesting Oregonians in the newspapers 150-year history.

A fifth generation Oregonian, Kerr was born and raised in Creswell (a recovered timber town in the upper Willamette Valley). He lives in Ashland (a recovered timber town in the Rogue Valley). Married to Nancy Peterson since 1984, they are childfree and live with two dogs and one cat. In his free time, Kerr likes to canoe, hike, raft, read, and work on projects that move their home toward energy self-sufficiency.

Andy Kerr; The Larch Company; 7128 Highway 66; Ashland, OR 97520 USA; 541/201-0053 voice; 541/201-0065 fax; andykerr@andykerr.net