Mike Hudak

Formal higher education

Before he focused entirely upon environmental activism and advocacy, he was a computer industry researcher. His doctorate (1986) in Advanced Technology (Computer Science) and bachelor's degree (Mathematics) (1975) are from Binghamton University (also known as State University of New York at Binghamton), and his master's degree (Computer Science) is from Northwestern University (1977). His doctoral and industrial research within the field of artificial neural systems included modeling associative memory and investigating properties of Restrictive Coulomb Energy Classifiers. His PhD dissertation was titled "Life in an Associate Memory: Tales Demons Tell."

Sierra Club work

Ed Dobson, former secretary, Sierra Club Board of Directors, noted publicly that "Dr. Michael Hudak is a Sierra Club activist who has done more than anyone else to move the Sierra Club toward a science-based policy on the impacts of commercial livestock grazing on public lands. He is a tireless educator, fastidious researcher, and clear-minded political analyst. These three traits make him an invaluable asset to the cause of protecting natural resources from further destruction and to the cause of restoring lands already damaged."

Hudak's grassroots educational outreach on "public lands grazing” addressed thousands of Sierrans (Sierra Club members) and others. His photos and written explanations clearly picture the ecological problems of continuing livestock production on public lands.

From 1993–1994, he served as the Binghamton (NY) regional coordinator for the short-lived Beyond Beef Campaign (headed by Jeremy Rifkin and Howard Lyman), which mobilized grassroots support in favor of McDonald’s offering a meatless (vegetarian) eco-burger at all its North American outlets.

In 1997, after several years of hiking on western public lands during which he noted livestock impacts while, he began a more intensive study of livestock production by researching publications and traveling across the West for more than twenty months.

Between February 1998 and May 2000, Hudak presented forty-five photographic talks to Sierra Club groups, chapters, and committees in 20 US states to encourage a Sierra Club policy shift to oppose public lands ranching. He authored several articles for Internet display and for publication in Sierra Club newsletters. Fifteen Sierra Club chapters and twenty-two groups (37% of Sierra Club membership) by summer 2000 had signed resolutions calling for the Sierra Club to oppose commercial livestock grazing on federal public lands.

As a resource person to the Sierra Club's Grazing Task Force from June 1999 to May 2000, where he was privy to actions of the club as they pertained to its grazing policy, he learned in December 1999 that the club's National Board planned to consider revising that policy at its May 2000 meeting. When the board in early May decided to postpone that discussion until its September meeting, he began qualifying a member ballot initiative as an alternative to board action. Had the Sierra Club Board approve a weaker policy at its September meeting or further postponed action, it would have been too late to qualify such a ballot initiative for the next year’s club election. He called for the qualification of a ballot initiative in support of ending commercial livestock grazing on federal public lands, personally gathering nearly half (600 of 1,307) the signatures supporting the initiative (enough to qualify), with the rest gathered by dozens of other Club activists.

While gathering signatures on the ballot petition, he chaired a Sierra Club subcommittee advocating adoption of conservation policy to end commercial livestock grazing on federal public lands. These negotiations at the September 2000 board meeting led to the grazing policy adopted by the Club’s Board of Directors at that time. He gave the agreement tentative support despite policy weaknesses and called for withdrawing the ballot initiative for the following year. Some club members who had worked with him on the petition drive disagreed with his views and completed qualifying the initiative, which was subsequently defeated in the 2001 election by more than a 2-to-1 margin.

Despite the new policy’s potential weaknesses, one of its provisions, unavailable under the previous policy, has been used by some of the club’s groups (e.g., Glen Canyon Group, Utah Chapter). The policy also opened the way for club endorsement of the National Public Lands Grazing Campaign’s federal legislation that would provide compensation to ranchers who voluntarily relinquish their federal grazing permits.

In the years since the Sierra Club adopted its current grazing policy, Hudak continued investigating western grazing allotments and authoring articles, developing Internet photo essays, producing videos, and speaking to numerous organizations throughout the US about unsustainable ranching practices on America’s public lands.

Chrononology of Sierra Club involvement

Notability of research

Relatively few books have been written about the federal grazing program from a conservationist perspective for a general audience. Prior to Western Turf Wars: The Politics of Public Lands Ranching, there were:

A few works were directed at academics or professional environmentalists/bureaucrats.

A published doctoral dissertation at Princeton published around 2005 (title should be located) was reported to have addressed this issue.

Affiliations, awards, achievements