[1] The New Yorker dubbed the Center as "the most important radical environmental group in the country" and Suckling a "trickster, philosopher, publicity hound, master strategist, and unapologetic pain in the ass.

He entered Salve Regina University, in Rhode Island, in 1982, then transferred the following year to double major in computer science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and philosophy at the College of the Holy Cross.

[5] He backpacked in national parks and wilderness areas throughout Canada, the United States and Mexico for two years, funding his travels by working as a cook in Missoula, Montana.

[5] During the summers, Suckling worked as a Mexican spotted owl and northern goshawk surveyor on National Forests and Native American reservation lands in New Mexico and Arizona.

[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] He has examined the implications of the global homogenizing of biodiversity, language and culture, and the relationship between environmentalism, the arts, and the rights of indigenous peoples and poor communities.