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IN FRONT:: John D. Rockefeller, Jr., did it. Ted Turner does it. Now, Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, the former CEO of Patagonia, Inc., is getting in on it. The "it" in question is a movement known as Wildlands Philanthropy. Instead of lobbying politicians to enact more stringent environmental rules, wealthy environmentalists are making their own rules by purchasing private national parks. This trend is not new. Rockefeller created the Grand Teton National Park. Over the past 30 years, Ted Turner has quietly amassed great swaths of land from Montana to Tierra del Fuego. McDivitt Tompkins' Patagonia Land Trust (PLT), a nonprofit charitable foundation set up in May 2000, is export- ing th is phi lanthropy to the Patagonia region of Argentina. "The foundation receives both financial and in-kind support from Patagonia, Inc.," Jil Zilligen, a spokeswoman at Patagonia, Inc., said. " It is very much in keeping with the company's cul- ture of corporate responsi bi I ity." PLT bought 230,000 acres of mountain grasslands and forests, including 25 miles of Argentine coastline and 13 miles of the Santa Cruz Ri ver, in May 2001. The foundation plans to buy enough land to create three or four national parks for the Argentine people. "Visitors can expect what one would expect in areas of remote wilderness," sa id Zilligen. "They are places for reflection and witnessing the incredible diversity of intact ecosystems. In certain parts, visitors will be able to hike and fly- fish." McDivitt Tompkins' husband, former CEO of The North Face and Esprit, Doug Tompkins, was already a part of the Wildlands Philanthropy movement. In 1990, Tompkins started the Foundation for Deep Ecology in San Francisco. The Deep Ecology theory attaches equal importance to all species on earth, whether people or penguins. A year later, he moved to Chile and his conservat ion land trust started buying enormous chunks of land, over 600,000 acres of rainforests, in southern Chile. But, he quickly fell into a political mosh pit. The military gave him a hard time, Chilean politicians even purported a theory that he was creating a new Jewish state (David Ben-Gur"lon and the origi- nal Zionists did consider South America as a potential site for a Jewish state, but never saw it through). Development advo- cates accused him of ruining native Chi leans' ability to earn a living. Tompkins' supporters say his intentions are to create a new national park and a vibrant rural economy. But, three years ago the government stymied his efforts to own a continuous landmass by selli ng adjacent land to an energy company. Nonetheless, Tompkins remains in Chile. McDivitt Tompkins, who stepped down as Patagonia's CEO in 1993 and joined her husband in Chile in the late 1990s, does not see herself getting drawn into similar squabbles in Argentina . Not only can she learn from her husband's mistakes, but Argentina has a very different polit ica l cultu re than Chi le. After the land purchase, Agentina 's National Parks administrator said, "The Argent ine Republic accepts the dona- tion with great happiness."- Jonathan Kaplan