The Wilderness Society: 75 years of saving America’s wild heritage
Seventy-five years ago today, a group of visionary individuals founded an organization whose sole purpose was to protect America’s wild heritage and all it embraced — rushing rivers, towering forests, vast deserts, scenic wonders, magnificent wildlife and quiet solitude. That organization was The Wilderness Society. Today, we are the nation’s leading public lands conservation group, using 21st century approaches to protect wilderness and inspire Americans to care for our wild places.
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"There is just one hope for repulsing the tyrannical ambition of civilization to conquer every niche on the whole earth. That hope is the organization of spirited people who will fight for the freedom of the wilderness."
So wrote Bob Marshall, a 34-year-old forester from New York and a principal founder of The Wilderness Society. Marshall was one of the first to propose that large expanses of Alaskan wilderness be set aside, and he shaped the U.S. Forest Service’s thinking on wilderness.
Among the others whose vision and foresight would change the way the nation — and the world — viewed wilderness:
- Aldo Leopold, who espoused the revolutionary notion of a land ethic, and shaped wildlife management on national forest lands for decades;
- Robert Sterling Yard, whose prose about the national parks linked them forever to our national identity;
- Benton MacKaye, the father of the Appalachian Trail;
- Ernest Oberholtzer, Bernard Frank, Harvey Broome, and Harold Clinton Anderson.
It was a radical idea — protecting wilderness at a time when the country seemingly had so much of it. But the need was real then, and remains even more so today. The very notion of wilderness is a part of the American psyche. As Wallace Stegner wrote:
"Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed…”
Wilderness Defined and Protected
Against daunting challenges, The Wilderness Society would rise to become the prime catalyst in Congress to enact conservation-based policies for our public lands, as well as to create the National Wilderness Preservation System and a legislative process for expanding this new wilderness system.
To do so, we galvanized people across the country to cherish the wilderness ideal — engaging teachers, writers, recreationists, sportsmen, business owners, lawmakers and others — all with a common goal to protect and care for our wild places.
By 1956, we had a draft bill to legislatively protect wilderness. Written by Wilderness Society Executive Secretary Howard Zahniser and introduced in 1957, the bill would be rewritten by him 66 times before it finally became law under President Johnson in 1964.
With passage of the act in 1964, America had a definition for wilderness:
A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.
(from The Wilderness Act of 1964)
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America also now had a new National Wilderness Preservation System with 9 million acres of wilderness on public lands, including Maroon Bells-Snowmass in Colorado, Gila and Pecos in New Mexico, Superstition in Arizona and Teton in Wyoming — all to remain forever wild.
Amidst the clamoring protests from those who would dig up, cut down and despoil our lands forever, The Wilderness Society became a strong ally for local communities and conservation groups and a fervent advocate for land protection in the halls of Congress, in the courts, and within the federal agencies.
Shoulder to shoulder with people from all walks of life who value these special places, we persevered against long odds to win bruising battles to protect the California desert, the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest, and national parks and wildlife refuges in Alaska, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We’ve won lasting protection for 756 wild places — 109 million acres — within our national parks, forests, refuges and BLM lands.
Our work has been enriched by the likes of Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day and our counselor for two decades; photographer Ansel Adams; and great writers such as Wallace Stegner, Terry Tempest Williams, and T.H. Watkins.
A Wilderness Society for the 21st Century
Today, The Wilderness Society is the largest, most effective public lands conservation group in the country.
We are led by modern-day conservation giants, among them Majora Carter, New York’s pioneer in greening urban centers; Dr. Jerry Franklin, father of “new forestry,” Amy Vedder, who founded Rwanda’s Mountain Gorilla Project; and writers William Cronon and T.A. Barron.
Our work remains rooted in science and the land ethic, and our tools are firmly a part of the 21st century, including the latest in GIS technology, social media and internet strategies wielded to mobilize a network of more than 400,000 activists. We work with a diverse array of partners — local communities, ranchers, conservationists, sportsmen, and people of faith as well as federal agencies, business owners, and decision-makers — to achieve balanced solutions that address development needs while protecting these unique places now and for generations to come.
Our challenges are uniquely 21st century, as well. While some would rush headlong into development of public lands like the arctic coast of Alaska or the fragile desert landscapes of southern California, The Wilderness Society is helping the country manage the demand for renewable energy, economic recovery and answers to climate change through a practical, science-based approach.
In a world that is growing increasingly disconnected from the great outdoors, we are inspiring Americans to reconnect with the joy and awe of wilderness.
Our work to protect the remaining unspoiled areas of American wilderness continues. Within the last decade, we’ve managed to keep development and logging out of nearly 58 million acres of unroaded forest lands and we’ve passed wilderness legislation protecting five million acres of public lands in more than 100 different areas. Among those new Wilderness areas are the stunning Owyhee Canyonlands in Idaho; portions of Zion National Park in Utah; Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in California; and Colorado’s Dominguez Canyon and Rocky Mountain National Park.
Today, we thank all of our partners and supporters. We are proud to remain the organization of spirited people that Bob Marshall envisioned 75 years ago. Join us!
We’d love to hear from you about your most memorable wilderness experiences or about work you’re doing to help protect America’s wild places.
photos:
Woman and companion in Chattooga River flowing in Rock Gorge Roadless Area of Sumter National Forest, South Carolina. Photo by Butch Clay.
Maroon Bells in Colorado. Photo by Ann Morgan.
The Narrows in Zion National Park, Utah. Photo by Jason K. Bach.
Wilderness Experts View All >
Sam Goldman
Sam has been with The Wilderness Society since Fall 2007. He came most recently from M+R Strategic Services in Washington, DC where he worked with national environmental groups to improve their online campaign work and field organizing capacity. Before that, Sam was the Assistant National Field Director for U.S. PIRG where he covered a variety of issues including the fight to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
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Comments
How do you celebrate wilderness?
I respect it by eating almost all plant-based food and riding my bike whenever possible, and celebrate it by venturing,just barely, into it occassionally and just taking in whatever is there.It shouldn't have to be a national park or preserve.
Thanks for your conservation & honor over 75 yrs.!
I celebrate wilderness by eating only plant based food and using only as much engineered items as I know I can/could make myself. I also replace, replenish, remake, reestablish what is needed. Much like farm life in the 1800's . People think I'm obsessed religiously and an eccentric but I also believe in a life of faith and that it is a commandment to honor the earth and all it's creatures because we will end up where they have been in the end. Life is cyclical and turns out well if you live fairly justly and well and appreciatively of all its' beauty and glory and without possessory qualifications towards other organic life. Thank you for preserving the wilderness you encounter and sharing it with us, it is appreciated!
How I celebrate wilderness
To celebrate wilderness, I write something resembling the following to those considering activities that would endanger it.
I have not been out to a wilderness in a long time, but I do not need to "use" or even "enjoy" wilderness to feel exceedingly fortunate that it exists. I appreciate its functions in maintaining breathable air and drinkable water (which we experience daily almost without even being aware of it) and in providing wildlife habitat and possibly recreational opportunities. However, I do not require wildlife to provide any "tangible benefit" to me; it has a right to live because it is alive, and ought to continue to be allowed to be simply another part of that whole of which we humans ourselves are part. Without wilderness and wildlife, we are merely consumers of everything until we’ve used it all up—and what then? We can't make more of it!
Because humans need room to live, I know that it is difficult to entirely prevent human encroachment onto land heretofore unoccupied. Nonetheless, I think it is important to have areas that are off-limits to development so that people can go to those places and learn about the earth absent development—and have room to do so without crowding each other. Even as primarily a city inhabitant, I am inspired and comforted knowing that there are places where the earth can "do its own thing" without fear of damage from me or my fellows.
I'm with the writer who shows respect for wilderness mostly by not going there.
I celebrate wilderness in
I celebrate wilderness in poetry. I respect it by never going there.
wilderness of the brain
You have a brain but out of respect you don't use it. Your brain It's like a wilderness for thought for you, you don't go there. I respect your
remarks,but I won't go there. The wilderness is liken to your thoughts,wild..unexplored and void of natural understandings.
Dawes Arboretum
My husband, daughter and I are all lucky to live within four miles of Dawes Arboretum in Licking County, Ohio. Like The Wilderness Society, Beman Dawes and his wife Bertie Burr Dawes, decided to set aside more than a few acres for natural development: a huge collection of trees, flowering shrubs and other plants over their large acreage as a way to give back to the community. This was in 1929 just before the Great Depression. Thanks to the Dawes Family's gift and the continuing gift of members and other visitors, the Arboretum has grown to over 1,200-1,700 acres. Every time we walk through this incredibly beautiful place we are thankful for such far-sighted individuals such as the Dawes' and for others like the Wilderness Society for preserving this country's great natural heritage and, in turn, providing a home for wildlife.
Buckeye Lake area of Ohio.
Dawes is indeed a treasure. Another nearby protected area is the Cranberry Bog in Buckeye Lake which is controlled by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources as a state park There is also a wetland along the shore of Maple Bay at the lake which hopefully will be added to parkland in the near future. The Buckeye Lake Area Civic Association and Buckeye Lake For Tomorrow are actively working to protect the Buckeye Lake Watershed. While at the lake, a visit to the Buckeye Lake Museum will provide a historic perspective from the dam construction in the 1820's through recent times. The lake was originally constructed to supply water to Ohio's canals that connected Lake Erie to the Ohio river. The South Licking Watershed Conservancy District (SLWCD) includes the entire Buckeye Lake watershed. During the summer, there are lake tours for about $5 that give a great perspective.
Beavers
Thanks for your work supporting the Beaver population.
Go Beavers!!!
Celebrating through volunteering
I live near the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau where some popular trails have often flooded resulting in complaints to the Forest Service (FS). The FS considered trapping beavers to reduce flooding, so some of us met with officials to try to retain active beaver colonies. Beavers are a keystone species creating rich habitat for wildlife. They agreed to our volunteering to help control flooding. For two seasons three days a week, along with other volunteers, I have cleared culverts, partially removed dams, and fenced cottonwoods near trails. A volunteer ecologist provides immediate direction and training. In recruiting others we promote giving up your gym fee and joining us for an outdoor workout and comradere.
The Forest Service helped by replacing a faulty culvert, raising a roadbed and installing culvert-protector fencing at the Holding Pond outlet.
Learning of research from Washington State documenting that beavers create excellent habitat for juvenile salmonids, Trout Unlimited organized a small group from TU, our volunteers, FS, Juneau Watershed Partnership, Fish and Game, Trail Mix, and the USGS. Collaboration led to contributing funds to bring in a beaver management specialist. Following two days of evaluating 19 beaver conflict sites we have a report available at: http://www.juneauwatersheds.org/Beaver%20Solutions%20Report.pdf
We are making wonderful progress toward maintaining a beaver population, having a fully functional trail system, and supporting sound habitat! I cannot think of a better way to spend my retirement years than to be part of a small cadre of volunteers making a difference in this little corner Alaska.
What Rights
So much for being able to engage in political discussion and use my first amendment rights to criticize the Wilderness Society for it's eroding leadership qualities in the American wildlands movement. My post yesterday was erased because I told the truth behind the Wilderness Society in betraying the American public by being a large behind-the-scenes player in helping draft the erroneous Senator Jon Tester's Forest Jobs bill in Congress right now. To repeat my cause, the Montana Tester bill will wipe millions of acres of Wildland Study Areas (WSA's) off the books, demand the Forest Service cut millions of board feet in a forest(s) that has never even been able to sustain half that much, take disastrous steps towards building more roads and doing even more logging in highly critical grizzly bear habitat, and last but not least spend close to $100 million dollars of hard earned taxpayer money so that saw mills in Montana can have shiny equipment and paved roads to access roadless forests for wood there is no current demand for. Last time I checked the housing industry was in a slump. And to top it all off, like a plump cherry sitting on a cake, it was groups like the Wilderness Society, the Campaign for America's Wilderness, and the Montana Wilderness Association that agreed to meet in secrecy, behind closed doors, and negotiate a sweetheart deal with timber groups without true and genuine public involvement. So happy birthday Wilderness Society. Seventy something good years of leadership, honesty, integrity, and land ethic giving way to a future of corruption, deceit, shame, and ecological illiteracy. I wonder what Aldo Leopold would say.
Forest Jobs and Recreation Act
The Wilderness Society supports the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act because it would designate nearly 700,000 acres of Montana backcountry as wilderness. That includes the headwaters of Rock Creek, the craggy Italian Peaks, the majestic Snowcrest Range, and the crystal-clear upper reaches of the Blackfoot River watershed.
This comprehensive legislation also calls for restoring national forest land that has suffered from road building and other development. We were leaders in a collaborative effort that brought together ranchers, outfitters, loggers, conservationists and others to develop a stewardship and wilderness proposal for the Blackfoot, which is now one of three parts of S. 1470.
We are working with Senator Tester and others to see this important legislation is improved and passed.
Check out the fact sheet below for more information on why we support the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act
http://wilderness.org/content/forest-jobs-and-recreation-act-background
I was in my late teens in
I was in my late teens in 1960. There was a camp located on the Colorado Divide north of Denver, right by Central City. It was my first time in the Rockies. All was so pristine. If thirsty, I remember just putting my mouth into Clear Creek and drinking my fill. The air smelled beautifully, the scenery was beautiful, and the mountain tops were spectacular. But what I remember most and will continue to remember forever is that in this natural beauty I fell in love with a girl.
I visited this exact place 30 years later, but all was McMansions with frequent signs on Clear Creek saying "Do not Drink - Giardia". Although this was a perfect example of what is happening to our wilderness, I will never forget the girl. I have lost complete track of he long ago, but just like the Rockies, she will always remain beautiful and unchanged.
andrew
25 years ago when my husband
25 years ago when my husband and I were married, we went to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA) in Minnesota on our honeymoon. It is the most beautiful and peaceful area I know. You camp on a remote island with only the sound of the waves the loons and the eagles to keep you company. We've returned almost every year since. I'm very thankful that in my wonderful state, this area was set aside to be preserved as wilderness forever!
Couldn't live without it
I put myself there and I love it and it loves me back. In fact, it is the most loved and accepted I ever feel as a human.
Everytime it is a celebration!
~Thanks and Praise to the Creator~
And sometimes, when someone wants to listen, I tell them about it.
Wilderness Elegy
Many things have been written in praise of wilderness. Some are famous works by Thoreau, Leopold, and others – and some are more obscure. An example of the latter led to an interesting encounter for me and a small group of my backpacker friends while on a trip to Arkansas a few years ago.
We had spent a fall weekend hiking a section of the Ozark Highlands Trail in Western Arkansas – a favorite section known as Briar Hollow. It’s a wilderness jewel hidden away by a distance of several trail miles from the nearest backroad access. We were delighted once again at finding the hollow joyfully clad in its red and gold mantle against a blue sky with waterfalls everywhere cascading over giant boulders. And we were both thankful and saddened that few people know it exists. In its struggle to survive in a modern world, the wilderness quality of this hidden hollow was not yet gone.
We were returning home from the trip and stopped for lunch at a café near Fort Smith. We walked in and sat down at a table across the room. We looked up and saw hanging on the wall above our table a small poem in a frame. It was entitled “Wilderness Remnants” and was written, it said, by a local Arkansas woman named Susan Morrison.
And it went like this:
Tiny parcels of Earth,
Still free
from the heavy hand of man.
Hidden away,
Tucked safely in secret valley
or atop inaccessible mountains.
More real
than anything we know,
They seem a dream.
Lost in the memory
of a time
when these were
the only surroundings of man.
Today,
Remnants.
Tomorrow,
Legends to be told
to unbelieving children.
The café was along our usual route, and became a regular stop on our outings to the area. The poem remained on the wall there for another year. Then one Sunday we stopped by again and found that the café had been remodeled for needed space – perhaps under new management.
And the poem was gone.
Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for sharing that beautiful poem! It gives one much to think about. It's a shame the poem and the cafe disappeared. Just another piece of Americana gone forever. But you have kept it alive by posting it here! God bless you!
Thank you for this
Thank you for this bittersweet poem and story. And thank you Susan Morrison, wherever you are.
The Wilderness
The wilderness owns us, we do not own it. I would hate to think that dangerous politics and lack of common sense could lead to the demise of these special places...the wilderness is all we have left in a plastic society...please save it for our children and don't be brainwashed like it's "not cool" to protect our wilderness but better to drill...not true!!
I try to catch every sunset
like a butterfly in my hands, and then let it go, every night.
I feel for you. I could not
I feel for you. I could not live without walking outside into the forest around me, and feeling the air as it brushes the needles and branches above me, and my cheeks and limbs like a lover.
Celebrate with music
When I am without adequate nature time, I can relate with the person who commented "I grieve for wilderness" - not only for it's loss to development and man, but also in my loss of time to spend in it, as my responsibilities seem to grow wider every year. I find that I am literally "not right" without adequate time in wild nature.
We also celebrate by making people sing and dance to music that is about or influenced by nature and wilderness. The Johnson Party recently formed a record label that will donate profits to groups like the wilderness society. We also continue to celebrate with multi-day raft trips, backpacking, backcountry skiing, and regular au naturale baptisms in pure streams and lakes when life permits.
The Johnson Party at http://www.wildernessrecords.com
Plan wilderness trip 4 all interested in the beauty !
It would be nice to enjoy a trip canoeing, a hike in the beauty of Gods creation, (wilderness Beauty trip )
Thank you,
Dan
Enjoying Wilderness
Congratulations!
My enjoyment of wilderness involves volunteering for the New Jersey Audubon Society on a weekly basis, year round.
In the growing season, I volunteer for the Monmouth County Park System, also in N.J.
I have been an avid birder since 1982, and have put out birdseed each fall and winter for years, as well as grow bird and butterfly related plants in my home garden.
My home area is a Certified Wildlife Garden.
I have expressed my concern for wildlife to my congressman, in person, and to all my congressional reps by e-mail.
I enjoy photographing wildlife, flowers and landscapes, and a photo I took of a sunset at Sandy Hook, N.J. is on the
home page of the Sandy Hook Bird Observatory of the New Jersey Audubon Society.
I love ALL animals and know
I love ALL animals and know they have a place here, wild or not. I love animals enough not to eat them. Show compassion over killing.
celebrating wilderness
24 years ago i bought 3 1/2 acres of forest and i manage it for wildlife as best i can.
i walk everyday i can
and when i travel, i always make a point of experiencing the nature of that area.
wildreness
I love nature and our yard is a nature place for all bird's and wildlife everyday of the year. That is how I enjoy the wildlife
I celebrate the wilderness
I celebrate each time that I am drawn closer to earth in its natural beauty
The Wilderness in my Apartment
I am fortunate that my apartment complex allows pets. I see so much of the wilderness in my dog. Besides the fact that his colors are like a tan version of a wolf's, he has so many of the wild instincts. I don't hold to the school of dog training that wants to train out everything that makes a dog, a dog, supposedly to render it suitable for "civilized" human life. Beyond such basic training as not jumping up on people, and doing his business outside, I prefer to celebrate his primal dogginess. So he digs up and eats the grubs in the lawn; I take him out on the woodland trails to sniff and explore; where it is safe, I let him off-leash to run. The half-decayed sea turtle on the beach, the dried bones of a fawn -- to him these are tasty snacks; and I understand, because at the same time, I am munching wild persimmons or collecting hickory nuts. Rather than force him into civilization, I let him lead me back to wildness. Who needs a wolf-dog? All dogs are wolves.
Nice. My dogs are treated the
Nice. My dogs are treated the same. The people who dumped them couldn't appreciate them anyway. Few things are more beautiful than a dog in its prime on a run.
How I celebrate wilderness
I have the good fortune to live 19 miles from a major city, Dallas, and still be 5 minutes away from wilderness. The area I live in was strip mined for gravel in the 40s and 50s and, although not reclaimed, nature has done a fine job of reclaiming it on its own. I enjoy the brilliant colors during migration and the coyotes, hawks and owls the rest of the year. Cougars are commonly sighted and there are rumors of a Red Wolf. I have contacted some of the landowners as well, in an attempt to gently convince them of the value of what they see as wasteland, possibly to cede it to the state as a wilderness area. But wilderness is where you find it. Here's a link to what I found in the ditch next to my road one rainy year. Enjoy.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2198&id=1621985836&l=46fef0e9ea
Beautiful!
Beautiful photos! Thank you for sharing the link to your album! Good luck with the book!
The wilderness
Keep up the good work and hope you can make it another 75 years.
Happy Anniversary
Every day I try to be conscious of the impact that my life has on this earth. As a member of the "Developed World", my footprint is huge. Shrinking that footprint is my goal so I look to reduce it in as many ways as I can. It is a very satisfying challenge and the way I appreciate the Wilderness.
Appreciate the everyday things.
Enjoying wilderness can be something as basic as watching the rabbits, squirrels and birds in my back yard. I still look foward to each bicycle ride or hike as a chance to learn something new or renew my appreciation for something that I had started to take for granted. It still makes me feel like a small child on Christmas morning whenever I have a close encounter with a fox, deer, bear, coyote or bobcat while on my bike or on foot.
Each spring brings the return to a local lake of migrating ospreys who put on dazzing displays of trout fishing that just have to be witnessed in order to fully appreciate their strength and grace. The sound of hawks circling overheard and calling to each other still fills me with awe.
I an currently recovering from my second heart attack and my biggest fear is that it will prevent me from resuming my passion of cycling the country roads of central Pennsylvania. The stealth of the bike allows me to get so much closer to animals and birds that people in cars never even see or if they do see them, too many of them take these opportunities for granted. I only wish that the bike didn't afford me the ability to see the pollution and disregard for the wonders of nature that so many humans feel is their right.
Learn to appreciate the everyday wonders that surround all of us and work to educate others so that the human race doesn't destroy the planet and itself due to its' hubris and greed.
Wilderness is as precious as
Wilderness is as precious as the air we breath, so how do I celebrate wilderness? Simply trying to get more people as possible conscious of this undeniable truth.
Celebrate it by making more of it
The best way to celebrate wilderness and to honor the memory of those who fought for its designation is by making more of it. We have what appears will be a very narrow political window of time in which to act. Proposals for new wilderness areas should be pushed hard in 2010!
How I celebrate wilderness
I celebrate wilderness by learning about its inhabitants. An ornithologist was studying song birds to try to understand the meanings of their calls. He identified 3 reasons they had for singing: 1) males announced their territory to competitors, 2) in mating season, males announced their availability and viabilty to prospective mates, 3) females instructed their young. However, he couldn't identify the reason for songs that seemed to have no relationship to one of these motivations. During the course of his research, he happened to become a believer in Jesus Christ. Upon considering the Bible's substantial commentary on nature, his conclusion was that birds' reason 4) for singing is simply celebrating their Creator.
I, too, celebrate wilderness by worshiping its Maker:
"Sing for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done this;]
shout aloud, O earth beneath.
Burst into song, you mountains,
you forests and all your trees,
For the LORD has redeemed Jacob,
he displays his glory in Israel.
"'This is what the LORD says--
your Reedemer, who formed you in the womb:
I am the LORD,
who has made all things,
who alone stretched out the heavens,
who spread out the earth by myself...'" Isaiah 44:23-24
When I take my rightful part in nature, I am at peace with the One who created both nature and me.
commune daily and give back
It doesn't take an expensive trip or expedition to the other side of the country or world to commune with and aid God's wonderful creation and creatures. Our backyards can be harbors of shelter and peace for myriads of creatures. I am blessed by many feathered friends who come to eat, visit and stay each winter, and they share their joy and praise in their sweet songs, or nasal honks in the case of talkative nuthatches.
Local parks are welcome nature space too. Communing is easy when one takes a furry friend for a brisk walk.
Nature blesses us so much and is so giving and forgiving. We need to be more thankful and responsible for this generous gift and start taking better care of this planet and its precious biodiversity. Advocating for and helping wilderness and our fellow creatures is something everyone can do and is a way of giving back, and can be one's daily prayer for wildlife.
David Parker
Celebration
I celebrate wilderness every day - whether I watch the moon coming up over the mountains near my home and write a poem about it, write letters to my Senators asking them to learn more about why wilderness matters so much to all our lives and the lives it supports, read everything I can find to learn more about what is has done and will do in the future for our collective health whether mentally, physically, spiritually, psychically. I hike along a mountain stream, sit on a rock beside it and listen to the rhythm of the water and ouzel song. I study with other writers who have expressed ideas of wilderness well in the past. I celebrate wilderness in photographs and send them to others so they can see what will be missing if we do not treat all creatures better. Celebrating wilderness begins in our hearts and homes, churches, synagogues, and temples. It begins with the understanding that all life is truly connected in a web. What one does affects all of us. It can be tempting to become discouraged, but we must have courage in endeavor and faith in the possibility that we can all make a difference for good when we speak and act well toward each other and toward the world around us -- whether it is under water in the sea, in the clouds above the summits, in a clear flowing stream, or just in a small place where we can lie down beneath a pitch pine, cedar, sequoia, or maple and watch clouds flow by.
Celebrate by being grateful every minute of every day for what we have been given in the world around us. Then do something to show you are grateful and teach others to be grateful and expect more good.
How I Celebrate Wilderness
I don't celebrate wilderness. I grieve for it. What use is a stand of trees next to a highway to hide the devastation of the forest beyond? Corporate exploiters will try every trick to hide what they want and do. Chopping Earth up into little garden patches is not protecting wilderness. Plants and animals migrate to survive. Not many can do that anymore. Earth will continue to lose species at a maddening rate as human kind poses as Earth's savior. Nothing less than an aggressive campaign in every venue of politics, economics and science will possibly reverse the trend. I won't be here to see if it's possible. I grieve for the wilderness.
Arden, I know how you feel.
Arden, I know how you feel. I've struggled with this for years. (How can I enjoy nature when every time I look at something in nature I realize how threatened it is by humans.) But I can get healing from it by just BEING in it. I sit on the ground or in a comfortable lawn chair and see how long I can just sit in silence, listening for tiny sounds, watching for tiny movements, or watching the absolute stillness of one tiny plant or one great tree, -getting out of my head and into my senses. The longer I do this the softer the pain in my heart. I believe in a way I'm receiving love and consolation from nature herself.
How I Celebrate the Wilderness
I celebrate "my" wilderness by making sure that when I go to a park or a field or a forest that when I leave, very few would be able to tell that I had been there before them. I have tried to teach my children the importance of this. Hopefully one day, they will understand.
Amy
Poem: Open Spaces
Open spaces
Fields of green
Blades of grass swaying as ecstatic dancers
To the tunes of the playful wind,
Toes of children and grownups wriggling
In joyful exultation amidst the splashes of color
Wildflowers of yellow, blue, white, orange,
Butterflies and honeybees,
Free from horticulturists.
Open spaces
Natural preserves
A safe haven for thriving and surviving species
Giant Sequoias, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Coho Salmon and Emperor Penguins,
Bogs, marshes, fens, lagoons
Supporting and nurturing bullfrogs, minnows, lily pads and algae,
Celebrating diversity in organic forms
The essential oneness of the web of life,
Protected from civil engineers and homeowners.
Open spaces
Friendship circles
Daily rituals of smiles, hugs and good cheer
Leading to peace of mind and joy of heart,
Understanding in the flames of conflict
Unconditional love extinguishing fear and hate,
Our natural inclination to help our neighbors
In times of need and plenty,
Undeterred by cynics and skeptics.
Open spaces
Expanded consciousness
Deep breathing into the open spaces of the heart and mind
Allowing compassion and appreciation
For all forms of life, all creations
To oxygenate our humanity,
Flowing through our daily interactions
Humbling us before all works of Divine Creation,
Embracing our role as stewards of planet Earth.
How I Celebrate Wilderness
I have chosen to celebrate and preserve wilderness by not having children. The earth is already unsustainably overpopulated, wildlands are under pressure everywhere, and the extinction of species is increasing at an alarming rate. The earth's carrying capacity (providing for a decent lifestyle and rich biodiversity) is estimated at between 1.5 and 2.5 billion, but we are now at 6.8 billion humans and growing rapidly. The problems of poverty, lack of adequate food, lack of stable and just social systems will not be solved but only made worse by increasing human numbers. Continued growth on a finite earth is a recipe for disaster -- disaster for other species and wilderness and, finally, a disaster for ourselves.
Unless a person desperately desires children, they should consider what a substantial contribution it would be to not add yet another human (and their many descendents) to this already overburdened earth. For me, a child-free life has been very joyful and fulfilling, with time to follow my own star, to learn, to contribute, and to live every day knowing that I am doing everything I can to assure all species (including our own) will live in peace and wellbeing.
Celebrating Wilderness
I celebrate the Wilderness whenever I can scrape together the time and money to do so. I'm a sea kayaker, and my favorite trips involve kayaking to destinations inaccessible to hikers, where I can camp in isolation. Remote islands are great for this. Some of the trips involve friends; others are solo, but in either case, we practice leave-no-trace principles. We need to ensure that wilderness remains pristine for those who follow us.
The Supreme Court just dealt a moral blow to our democracy, ruling in favor of corporations purchasing legislators with unlimited, unregulated funds. We need to do whatever we can to counter this, because when the big energy companies achieve total domination of all three branches of government, there won't be a patch of natural earth anywhere safe from their rapacity.
redwoods
I celebrate the wild old trees that stand near my home. I take a blanket, spread it on the ground underneath ancient redwoods, lay my body down, and watch their top branches sway together and apart in the wind. Imagine having the same neighbors for 1,000 years! You would really get to know them and probably figure out a way to tolerate their quirks. These trees are wise and forgiving beings. Natural healers to humans and others. Thanks, Wilderness Society, for your wonderful work!
I celebrate wilderness by writing poety in and about wilderness
Hope
The ant carries twice her body weight up a steep incline
And there is hope.
I witness the 30 year old white bark pine, small yet strong, growing between granite,
And there is hope.
The chipmunks chase each other in a flurry of love and play.
Magnificent orange butterflies dance and flitter around my body,
And there is hope.
Bright and brilliant green valley in a dry and seemingly stoic ring of mountains
And there is hope.
Sunlight glistening and sparkling her riches in the rock,
Paintbrush, lupine, heather grace the meadows and our souls,
And there is hope.
River roars down the mountain, we gasp at the glacial water on our bodies, she washes away our fears
And there is hope.
We drink a spring burst forth as Earth’s nectar,
We are filled with peace at the simplicity and goodness of it.
Intoxicating fragrance of the forest fills our lungs, scrambling along the knife-edge ridge, our bodies fully alive,
And there is hope.
Kestrals catching the thermals, soaring effortlessly. Bursts of verdant green buds on the subalpine fir,
And there is hope.
Clark’s nutcracker sings melody, rosy finches share their joy. A distant dawn bugle signals the age old ritual of new life to be,
And there is hope.
Lake sapphire, lake aqua, lake oh lake, it is our plunge.
Oasis in the desert. Moon’s light on our faces,
All is well and there is Hope.
Written in Eagle Cap in Oregon
Poetry
Your poem was wonderful!
Poetry
As I a poet that has contributed a poem as comment, I joy your poem. With exquisite imagery and love you recount many of the infinite reasons we can hope. Hope for an even better planet Earth. Again thank uou.
How I Celebrate Wilderness
I spent the last half hour of a numbing day in a conference room filled with computers and florescent lights picking up the plastic cups and aluminum cans and taking them outside to the recycling containers our company purchased in response to a conservation initiative I led. As I walked around the edges of this massive brick building, I could see the lingering alpenglow on the snow-capped mountains ringing our town and feel gratitude for the wilderness that is protected there, welcoming me as soon as I can get to it. A bald eagle regularly watches over the building in the mornings; deer cross the road as we leave and occasionally a fox plays in the adjacent field. They are small moments, but reminders that all moments of our lives are connected and the need to protect wilderness is everpresent. Just because I wasn't able to be immersed in trees and rivers and prairies today doesn't mean a significant part of my spirit isn't always there. It's the part of me I like best. Thank you to the many people for generations who have worked to protect wild places.