Proposed wilderness at Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada. What does wilderness mean to you? (Image: FWS)
Wilderness – do you appreciate wilderness for its mountains, free-running rivers, and wild, roadless areas? Or for its clean water, clean air, wildlife, and the promise of solitude? I value wilderness for all those reasons, and I hope we can preserve these special areas for our kids and grandkids. Or as the Wilderness Act says, “to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness.”
As the National Wilderness Coordinator for the Service, I like to visit wilderness whenever I can. Every summer, my family and I look forward to visiting refuges, parks, and national forests across the country. Our favorite part is always our arrival in the wilderness. That’s where we feel the stress of the noise and commotion of people and their machines melt away. As my son says, wilderness is where he gets to experience the earth as it was meant to be. You get a different feeling about being outdoors when a grizzly bear could be just down the path, or a condor may fly overhead; when no one will rescue you if you flip your canoe or forget your matches.
That’s why it is so important for the Refuge System to monitor trends in wilderness character, develop Wilderness Stewardship Plans that will preserve wilderness character, and recommend that additional lands be protected as wilderness. As we work to establish corridors and connectivity between existing refuges, we should choose places that exhibit wilderness character. Perhaps instead of responding to climate change by actively modifying habitat or transplanting plants and wildlife, the Refuge System should manage some corridors as little as possible to allow wildlife the freedom to determine where conditions are right.
I hope there will always be untamed, undomesticated wild areas where humans are not intentionally managing the water, the animals, the plants – calling all the shots. Where we can experience places on Earth, as it was meant to be. What do you think?
Nancy Roeper, National Wilderness Coordinator, National Wildlife Refuge System
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Nancy, You speak the thoughts that so often roll through my mind as I travel from home to work each morning…mountains surrounding me, endless trees, moose grazing, land as it should be all around me…untamed, undomesticated…we need places on earth where humans do not dominate…without this, there is no balance, no harmony. I am blessed beyond words to live in the Brooks Range of Alaska and to know intimately and immediately untamed nature…to be a part of the wild as it always has been. When I go walking in the hills, I am at peace in a timeless place where the soul knows the calm of the world as it should be…..we need to preserve these places…humanity is forgetting how to relate to wilderness that isn’t managed by man, and we must, we must, we must preserve wilderness, then step back and let wilderness reign….it is the right thing to do, not for humanity’s benefit (though we do benefit) but for the earth…we have dishonored our home with too much urbanization, pollution, excess use of resources….we must give back at some point…or we will reach that point where even if we try to give back, it will be too late….I hope we are not there yet…frankly I think we are damn close…and we ought to take massive action to turn things around. I once again turn to the “land ethic,” and believe that we must work collectively to spread an understanding of how critical the land ethic is….but I’ve gone on too long…if I had had a cup of coffee, this post might be twice as long, I better stop. Thank you for the wonderful post!!! Keep staying the course…..
I love what you’ve shared here……thank you.
Nancy, You speak the thoughts that so often roll through my mind as I travel from home to work each morning…mountains surrounding me, endless trees, moose grazing, land as it should be all around me…untamed, undomesticated…we need places on earth where humans do not dominate… with out this, there is no balance, no harmony. I am blessed beyond words to live in the Brooks Range of Alaska and to know intimately and immediately untamed nature…to be a part of the wild as it always has been, to know myself as part of wilderness…that knowledge is like a tonic in my blood, it protects me from the world that has become too loud, to obnoxious, to polluted.
When I go walking in the hills, I am at peace in a timeless place where the soul knows the calm of the world as it should be…..we need to preserve these places…humanity is forgetting how to relate to wilderness that isn’t managed by man, and we must, we must, we must preserve wilderness, then step back and let wilderness reign….it is the right thing to do, not for humanity’s benefit (though we do benefit) but for the earth…we have dishonored our home with too much urbanization, pollution, excess use of resources….we must give back at some point…or we will reach that point where even if we try to give back, it will be too late….I hope we are not there yet…frankly I think we are damn close…and we ought to take massive action to turn things around. I think that having more wilderness on our refuges is a wonderful and necessary idea. I once again turn to the “land ethic” that weighs heavy in my heart, and I believe that we must work collectively to spread an understanding of how critical the land ethic is….but I’ve gone on too long…if I had had a cup of coffee, this post might be twice as long, so I better stop…it’s hard to be quiet about the wilderness…there it is just out my office window, but so too is the sound of a motor…when will humans find a balance that works? Anyhow, Thank you for the wonderful post!!! Keep staying the course…..
I love what you’ve shared here… -Kristin
OK FOLKS…YESTERDAY AND TODAY I POSTED ONE POST, AND IT POSTS TWO TIMES….PLEASE CHECK INTO THIS….MY COMPUTER HAS NO VIRUSES….WONDER WHAT IS GOING ON???? SORRY FOR THE DOUBLE POSTS, I AM NOT DOING IT!!!
OK FOLKS…YESTERDAY AND TODAY I POSTED ONE POST, AND IT POSTS TWO TIMES….PLEASE CHECK INTO THIS….MY COMPUTER HAS NO VIRUSES….WONDER WHAT IS GOING ON???? SORRY FOR THE DOUBLE POSTS, I AM NOT DOING IT!!!
Thanks for starting this blog, Nancy. Its wonderful to see people in the Refuge System responding to these new avenues for communicating and collaborating. Spreading the word about not only the importance of wilderness to the natural world, but about the wonder and serenity it offers is particularly relevant as we move toward a new vision for the National Wildlife Refuge System.
I really liked your comment about instead of responding to climate change by actively modifying habitat or transplanting plants and wildlife, the Refuge System should manage some corridors as little as possible to allow wildlife the freedom to determine where conditions are right. I imagine there are pleny of innate behaviors and thought processess that have evolved over that ages that will drive wildlife in appropriate directions. Widlife is capable of some amazing feats–migrating hundreds (thousands in some cases) of miles, surviving in incredibly harsh conditions. Human-caused global climate change has affected and influenced conditions in the natural world at rates never before witnessed by people. We have the incredible opportunity to learn from wildlife and the physical world they depend on by allowing some areas (wilderness) to remain unmanipulated and wild as the effects of climate change continue to emerge.