Carl Ross believes that grass roots activism can change the world, and he’s dedicating his life to that belief. As co-founder of Save America’s Forests (SAF), a nonprofit lobbying group, Ross lobbies daily against forces that want to cut old growth forests and against fellow environmentalists who disagree with his tactics. He has been attacked in the press and even had angry environmentalists storm his office. They might well find him there in the middle of the night—Ross works so late and starts so early, he often sleeps in the office.

Ross and two partners who later left the group, started SAF in 1990 as a national network that would enlist all environmental groups in a coalition to press for the legislation that would save America’s trees. It hasn’t worked out that smoothly.Through unrelenting lobbying and educating of politicians, tiny SAF has repeatedly attracted strong congressional support for forest-protection bills. Ross works to rally environmental groups behind the bills in question, but some well-funded national groups have proposed separate bills and then accused Ross of undermining their efforts. In spite of all difficulties, Ross is undaunted. His viewpoint: "We got the movement out of the doldrums.” Lobbying politicians and rallying grassroots environmental groups are only parts of SAF’s work.