![](http://investorshub.advfn.com/images/default_ih_profile2_4848.jpg?cb=0)
Friday, November 08, 2002 7:24:50 AM
Forbes Magazine
Fish and Chips
Thursday November 7, 5:26 pm ET
By Fen Montaigne
Intel cofounder Gordon Moore is out to preserve huge swaths of the Earth's wild places. Hungry Russian bears are the least of his obstacles.
Gordon Moore is deep in the wilderness on Russia's Pacific coast, casting for gargantuan rainbow trout in the shadow of a 9,700-foot volcano. The 73-year-old billionaire is here for the fishing, but he has a loftier purpose in mind: to use his Intel fortune to help preserve some of the world's remaining wild places, including the lovely Zhupanova River.
At the moment, however, an emissary from the wild world--a 350-pound brown bear--is padding toward Moore. It is 150 yards upstream and closing fast.
"We've got a problem," announces Pete Soverel, a salmon conservationist who has brought Moore to the Kamchatka Peninsula and who, from the opposite bank of the Zhupanova, is first to spot the beast. With visions of his generous donor becoming bear chow, Soverel, a retired U.S. Navy captain, dashes to his boat.
"Gordon!" he yells across the 300-foot-wide river. "Move downstream!"
Moore wades rapidly through the clear, jade-colored water, soon joined by his angling partner, Jack Stanford, a University of Montana ecologist, who whips out a can of pepper spray. Soverel crosses the river in seconds, and none too soon: The bear has stopped 15 yards from Moore and is sizing up the man whose microprocessors and semiconductors powered the PC revolution.
"Hooo! Hooo! Hooo!" Stanford bellows at the bear as Moore slips into the boat. Outnumbered now, the bear, closely related to the grizzly, decides to go no farther. Moore quietly thanks Soverel, and then, as the boat backs away, the retired Intel (NasdaqNM:INTC - News) chief pulls out his digital camera and photographs the creature as it heads downstream.
"He's just looking for fish," Moore says. "He couldn't give a damn about us."
Gordon Moore could have stayed home, counting his money--$3.3 billion on the latest Forbes 400 list--rather than risking close encounters with Kamchatka bears. But this unassuming chemist has created a $5 billion foundation (as of late 2001) with an ambitious goal: to preserve huge, relatively intact ecosystems and the abundant biodiversity they harbor.
"I'd rather do a few big things that have an impact than a lot of little things," he says. "Swing for the fences."
On his to-do list are helping to protect no less than two-thirds of the Amazon River basin and portions of the Andes Mountains; rain forests and coral reefs in Melanesia; and the great arc of Pacific salmon rivers that stretches from northern California up through Canada and Alaska and down the shores of the Russian far east and Kamchatka.
Created in 2000, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is the eighth-largest philanthropy in the U.S., though its assets have fallen recently. The Moore Foundation is working closely with organizations such as Conservation International, a nonprofit Washington, D.C. group that will receive up to $261 million from Moore in the next decade.
The main challenge facing the foundation and its partners is persuading foreign governments and local residents that wild lands are worth more to them in the long run if kept largely intact, rather than indiscriminately logged, mined or overfished. To that end the Moore Foundation will fund parks and protected areas and also encourage initiatives that pump income into local economies through well-controlled logging, commercial fishing and ecotourism. On Kamchatka that would mean capitalizing on the peninsula's extraordinary angling, which already lures Western fishermen on $4,000-a-week trips.
Much of the Moore Foundation's strategy is based on the thinking of renowned Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson, who warns that the globe's animals and plants will be squeezed through a bottleneck as the earth's population, now over 6 billion, peaks at about 10 billion late in this century. After that, the population is expected to level off as people in developing countries have fewer children.
"We'll go through a period of maximum stress on the environment that will then relax a bit," Moore says as he floats in a raft down the Zhupanova in late September. "If you can get a lot of the existing organisms through that period of maximum stress, they have a good chance of lasting a long time."
Moore and two of his salmon specialists, Charles Conn and Pic Walker, have come to Kamchatka for a weeklong tour to gauge the risks and rewards of working on this remote California-size peninsula.
"This is the Christie Brinkley of salmon habitat," Walker says, noting that Kamchatka and far-eastern Russia hold a third of the Pacific's estimated 500 million wild salmon.
But given Russia's shaky legal system, Moore and his team must decide whether the proposed salmon refuges will, in fact, be protected by the peninsula's government. Moore is considering giving about $2 million a year to the Oregon-based Wild Salmon Center , which has been working with Russian officials to create the refuges.
Moore's expedition begins in Anchorage, where it soon becomes clear he is not your average pampered billionaire. In an Anchorage airport cafeteria at 5 a.m., he is the only one in his group to think of busing the table. Later, when a dime rolls out of Conn's pocket, Moore makes sure Conn picks it up. Forget the private jet; Moore flies to Kamchatka in a rattling TU-154 Russian airliner.
On the peninsula, a dented, exhaust-blackened MI-8 helicopter ferries Moore's group into the wilderness. The first stop is the Kol River, one of dozens on Kamchatka's west coast that teem with up to nine species of fish in the salmon family. After flying over golden birch trees and russet-colored tundra, the helicopter follows the parallel gray tracks of a gas pipeline being laid down the peninsula's southwestern coast. The accompanying road is opening up the region to caviar poachers, who eviscerate the females for their eggs, then leave the fish to rot.
The helicopter lands on the banks of the Kol next to a cluster of six white tents, part of a new biological station backed by an initial grant from Moore. The group is greeted by Russian and American scientists studying the extraordinary abundance of the Kol, a small river that harbors 6 million to 9 million salmon.
"This river is a fish factory," Stanford says. The air reeks of decaying salmon, which die after spawning, and Moore travels upstream to see how recent floods have scattered countless fish across the landscape, their carcasses feeding a web of mammals, insects, birds and plants. Such bounty has vanished from America's Pacific Northwest.
"Once salmon are destroyed, no amount of money can bring them back to the way they were--it's like trying to put Humpty-Dumpty together again," says Guido Rahr, president of the Wild Salmon Center. "Here in Kamchatka we have an opportunity to go back in time. This place is to salmon as the Serengeti is to wildlife."
If Moore decides to invest here, the money will be used to protect the Kol, the Zhupanova and several other Kamchatka rivers by creating parks and biological stations and hiring wardens to stop poaching. Activities harmful to salmon reproduction, such as mining, would be restricted. Overall, the Wild Salmon Center, the Kamchatka government and the United Nations hope to protect 5.5 million acres of prime, state-owned salmon watersheds on the peninsula.
Leaving the Kol, the group flies low over the mountains that run down Kamchatka's spine and lands at a camp on the Zhupanova, a 130-mile river that contains millions of salmon and huge rainbow trout. Here, Moore begins a five-day float through an autumnal mountain landscape. On his first night in camp, as the temperature heads toward freezing, Moore sits by a fire with a glass of Scotch and talks about the pitfalls of philanthropy.
"Everybody wants money," remarks Moore, who has thinning gray hair and wire-rim glasses. "You have to figure out how you can make a difference."
Moore's concern for the environment grew, in part, out of his love of fishing, as he saw development mar some of his favorite angling spots, such as the Baja Peninsula. Day after day on the Zhupanova he catches and releases rainbow trout, some nearly 30 inches in length, hooking them on an ersatz mouse called the "Verminator." Such fishing is at the heart of plans to protect the river with angling ecotourism.
Before leaving, Moore's group meets on the Zhupanova with Kamchatka's acting governor and President Vladimir Putin's representative on the peninsula. The two Russian politicians vow to support legislation protecting numerous Kamchatka rivers. Moore is impressed. Their cooperation, coupled with the productivity of the peninsula's salmon rivers and the painstaking efforts of the Wild Salmon Center, persuade Moore and his staff to put money into Kamchatka. As Moore's meeting with the Russian politicians ends, they ask their distinguished visitor for his autograph. He scribbles a plea before boarding a helicopter and flying to one final, bear-infested salmon pool: "Please save the fish."
Recent INTC News
- Intel to Report Second-Quarter 2024 Financial Results • Business Wire • 07/10/2024 08:30:00 PM
- Microsoft and Apple Exit OpenAI Board, TSMC Exceeds Forecasts with Record Revenue, and Other Key Updates • IH Market News • 07/10/2024 10:42:17 AM
- BP Slashes Profit Forecast by $700 Million; Morgan Stanley Predicts S&P 500 10% Drop, and More News • IH Market News • 07/09/2024 10:54:32 AM
- Intel Corporation Incorporated Sued for Securities Law Violations - Contact the DJS Law Group to Discuss Your Rights - INTC • PR Newswire (US) • 07/01/2024 07:25:00 PM
- Intel Corporation Sued for Securities Law Violations - Investors Should Contact The Gross Law Firm for More Information - INTC • PR Newswire (US) • 06/28/2024 09:45:00 AM
- Intel Demonstrates First Fully Integrated Optical I/O Chiplet • Business Wire • 06/26/2024 03:00:00 PM
- Class Action Filed Against Intel Corporation (INTC) - July 2, 2024 Deadline to Join - Contact The Gross Law Firm • PR Newswire (US) • 06/25/2024 09:45:00 AM
- Intel Corporation Sued for Securities Law Violations - Investors Should Contact The Gross Law Firm for More Information - INTC • PR Newswire (US) • 06/20/2024 09:50:00 AM
- Intel Corporation Securities Fraud Class Action Lawsuit Pending: Contact The Gross Law Firm Before July 2, 2024 to Discuss Your Rights - INTC • PR Newswire (US) • 06/17/2024 09:45:00 AM
- Form 8-K - Current report • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 06/14/2024 09:17:08 PM
- Form 11-K - Annual report of employee stock purchase, savings and similar plans • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 06/13/2024 09:11:27 PM
- FDA Panel Supports Eli Lilly’s Donanemab, Rio Tinto Expands Stake in Boyne Smelters, and More News • IH Market News • 06/11/2024 11:11:40 AM
- July 2, 2024 Deadline: Contact The Gross Law Firm to Join Class Action Suit Against INTC • PR Newswire (US) • 06/10/2024 09:45:00 AM
- Apollo Buys 49% of Intel’s Irish Plant for $11bn, BlackRock and Citadel to Create Texas Exchange, and More News • IH Market News • 06/05/2024 11:41:36 AM
- Class Action Filed Against Intel Corporation (INTC) - July 2, 2024 Deadline to Join - Contact The Gross Law Firm • PR Newswire (US) • 06/05/2024 09:45:00 AM
- Form 8-K - Current report • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 06/04/2024 08:07:51 PM
- Intel and Apollo Agree to Joint Venture Related to Intel’s Fab 34 in Ireland • Business Wire • 06/04/2024 08:05:00 PM
- Intel Accelerates AI Everywhere at Computex 2024; Redefines Compute Power, Performance and Affordability with new Xeon 6, Gaudi Accelerators and Lunar Lake Architecture to Grow AI PC Leadership • Business Wire • 06/04/2024 03:00:00 AM
- Form 4 - Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 06/03/2024 08:42:58 PM
- Form 4 - Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 06/03/2024 08:40:51 PM
- Form 4 - Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 06/03/2024 08:39:15 PM
- Form 4 - Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 06/03/2024 08:37:22 PM
- Form 4 - Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 06/03/2024 08:35:10 PM
- Form 4 - Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 06/03/2024 08:31:04 PM
- Intel Corporation to Participate in Upcoming Investor Conferences • Business Wire • 05/16/2024 08:30:00 PM
FEATURED Cannabix Technologies and Omega Laboratories Inc. Provide Positive Developments on Marijuana Breathalyzer Testing • Jul 11, 2024 8:21 AM
ECGI Holdings Enhances Board with Artificial Intelligence (AI) Expert Ahead of Allon Apparel Launch • ECGI • Jul 10, 2024 8:30 AM
Avant Technologies to Meet Unmet Needs in AI Industry While Addressing Sustainability Concerns • AVAI • Jul 10, 2024 8:00 AM
Panther Minerals Inc. Launches Investor Connect AI Chatbot for Enhanced Investor Engagement and Lead Generation • PURR • Jul 9, 2024 9:00 AM
Glidelogic Corp. Becomes TikTok Shop Partner, Opening a New Chapter in E-commerce Services • GDLG • Jul 5, 2024 7:09 AM
Freedom Holdings Corporate Update; Announces Management Has Signed Letter of Intent • FHLD • Jul 3, 2024 9:00 AM