50TH ANNIVERSARY NATIONAL WILDERNESS CONFERENCE
Chris Bolgiano speaking at National Wilderness Conference, 2014, in Albuquerque, NM. Photo by Ralph Bolgiano
50TH ANNIVERSARY NATIONAL WILDERNESS CONFERENCE,
Albuquerque, NM, Oct. 15-19, 2014.
Summary by Chris Bolgiano www.chrisbolgiano.com for Virginia Wilderness Committee.
This huge conference had six tracks: Civic Engagement, Education, Experience, History, Science, and Stewardship. There were 20 keynote speakers, pre-and-post conference events, and 12 concurrent sessions mornings and afternoons with 3 speakers each (including me with a presentation in the History track titled, “Developing a Southern Appalachian WWIMBY* Response - *Welcoming Wilderness in My Back Yard). There was of course much I missed by being unable to attend all sessions at once, so this is merely a glimpse of the action.
PLENARY MEETINGS
Welcome to NGOs, agencies, tribes, cultural communities, and youth groups. Over 100 youth here, including 14 Youth Scholars. The history of the Wilderness Act and its Wilderness Warriors was reviewed, with some criticism over the omission of many Wilderness women. A most prominent topic was the urgent need to bring in youth and a more diverse constituency. “The future of Wilderness lies with today’s urban children.”
Virginia Wilderness Committee’s long-time advisor, conference facilitator and musician Bart Koehler sang his original Gila Gila, Spirit Land in honor of the Gila Wilderness of NM as the first ever, having been designated by Aldo Leopold in 1924, 40 years before The Wilderness Act was signed in 1964. Tears came to my eyes as I recalled crossing the pink canyon-walled Gila River on my backpack trip just a few days earlier. Everyone was wolf-howling. Looking around, I hadn’t seen so many pony-tailed men since the 1970s, and many of them clearly dated from then. A slide show featured work by the Internatl. League of Conservation Photographers. The West was overwhelmingly portrayed in images, politics, and case studies, but the love of wilderness transcended all. In fact, transcendence was a prominent conference theme.
Sticker on someone’s backpack: American Wilderness: Love It or Leave It Alone.
The Eagle Dance was performed by the Zuni Pueblo Buffalo Dancers – “Even though we live with modern technology, our spirit is from the old ways.” Many tribal representatives were visible throughout the conference, especially Sarah James, elder of the Gwich’in Nation and recipient of the 2002 Goldman Environmental Prize. She sang and danced and said that her nation may be the first indigenous group to request Wilderness designation, to protect the Porcupine Caribou calving grounds in the coastal plain of the Artic NWR – “the Sacred Place were life begins.” Without a word for Wilderness in their language, the elders had pondered and come up with a translation: Leave It as the Creator Made It. She also gave the audience this advice: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle, and REFUSE.
There were videos of interviews with Stewart Brandborg of The Wilderness Society, and Jimmy Carter, who recounted his efforts toward ANILCA. Mark Allison of NM Wilderness Alliance called us “the single largest concentration of wilderness advocates in the world,” which made me paranoid, especially when I heard there were protesters outside. Five or six people held signs, two of which seemed irrational: Wilderness=Dirty Water, and Wilderness Is Code for Unsustainable. But one sign touched on a legitimate issue: Wilderness=Fire. Fire use and management were topics in many sessions. I spoke with an agency guy who described how he had thinned the woods outside Wilderness borders to reduce intensity of fire as it moved out. Using bulldozers, etc. in the “Fire Industrial Complex” is seen as a major threat to Wilderness.
NM Senator Martin Heinrich said hiking in the Gila helped him decide to run for office. He strongly urged us to consider the Antiquities Act as a tool. Pres. Obama’s designation of Organ Mountains-Desert Peak Natl. Monument and protection of South Pacific waters were applauded.
Sylvia Earle remarked on increased knowledge and destruction of oceans in just the past 50 years. The next decade is a pivot point. 64% of the ocean lies outside national jurisdictions as an unregulated global commons. 20% of earth’s oxygen is generated by ocean microbes and oceans also capture carbon. “Protection of wild places is our best security,” she said. “My motto is ‘No Child Left Dry.” After astronaut Joseph Acaba spoke later, extending the Wilderness Act to the oceans and the atmosphere was discussed.
Chris Barnes of the Arthur Carhart Natl. Wilderness Training Ctr. struck a warning note, literally, as he banged a bowl to evoke Shakespeare’s Henry IV (“the chimes at midnight”) and inadvertently knocked the bowl down. I hoped it wasn’t an omen. “The Wilderness System is in trouble,” he said. “’Outdoors’ is not Wilderness.” He fears we will lose the distinction of Wilderness from other lands. He decried agency participation and said the USFS was limited to 100; the BLM was cut from 75 to 37; the NPS, with 40% of Wilderness Areas, had 33. “They are embarrassed by Wilderness,” he said, “and feel they have to explain away its requirements.” He gave examples of agencies allowing “trammeling,” such as hunting predators and using prohibited tools. At a meeting recently, he said a 30-something had remarked, “Wilderness? That’s so ‘60s.” He criticized the softening of Wilderness to make it palatable to a new public.
Sally Jewel, Secy. of Interior, was impressive: she has climbed Mt. Ranier 7 times plus a peak in the Antarctic. “The best classroom is untrammeled nature,” she said. Her main points were civic engagement, which she called “the single most important factor;” landscape level planning; and reauthorizing the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Like many others, she invoked Howard Zahniser’s (author of The Wilderness Act) phrase, “Guardians not Gardeners.”
Ken Brower, son of Archdruid David (so called by writer John McPhee) told stories of his father and Zahnie, and recalled Justice William O. Douglas’s support for conservation and the principle that trees have standing. “If national parks are, as many have said, the best American idea,” he told us, “then Wilderness is the best part of America’s best idea.” But he suggested that Wilderness could be an opiate: as long as we have Wilderness Areas, the American landscape must be OK -- far from true. Some “gardening” is necessary due to climate change, like assisting pika migration. Interventions, especially against invasives, was another major topic with varying opinions. Brower also described the emergence of deconstructionist ideas, which arose in literature, to Wilderness. “We need to win the idea battle,” he said.
Deconstructionism was a topic of serious and, at times, academic jargon–laden conversation in several sessions on the philosophy of Wilderness. Its principal points are: Wilderness is simply a reflection of our own projections, like a mirror; the Act was written when scientists believed that forests grew back after a disturbance through a predictable ecological succession to a stable climax community, which we now know is untrue; and Natives changed the landscape so much that no place is truly wild. There have been op-eds in the NY Times stating this, as well as essays and books by authors such as William Cronon.
Other speakers countered with: Wilderness is more like a store window: you see some version of yourself reflected, but beyond it are real, valuable products like water, air, recreation, carbon sequestration, etc. Quotes from early ecologists showed they clearly understood ecological dynamism long before 1964. Comparing statistics on biodiversity from pre-European settlement to today shrinks Indian impact almost beyond visibility. Wilderness lives!
The heads of USFS, USF&WS, BLM, NPS, and USGS signed a 2020 Vision document to: complete “wilderness character inventories,” foster connections to diverse publics, strengthen support to the Carhart Training Ctr., and conduct climate vulnerability and adaptation assessments. Neil Kornze of the BLM was particularly well received on his upbeat approach after decades of BLM intransigence on Wilderness. Dan Ashe of USF&WS said about Millennials (a conference buzzword) that “we can’t tell them how to enjoy Wilderness” –i.e., bringing cell phones.
Author Terry Tempest Williams asked 20-, 30- and 40-somethings to stand up – about a third of the audience – and said “You will represent us at the 100th anniversary conference.” She then roused us by saying “It is time to lay our bodies down, to stage a public lands revolution, to reimagine our place on the planet.” In answer to questions from the audience about divisions within the Wilderness community itself, she described a terrible falling-out with Bill Meadows (former director of The Wilderness Society) and said, “We need to be civil, to work together -- but to always call bullshit when we see it.” Loud applause.
Albuquerque, NM, Oct. 15-19, 2014.
Summary by Chris Bolgiano www.chrisbolgiano.com for Virginia Wilderness Committee.
This huge conference had six tracks: Civic Engagement, Education, Experience, History, Science, and Stewardship. There were 20 keynote speakers, pre-and-post conference events, and 12 concurrent sessions mornings and afternoons with 3 speakers each (including me with a presentation in the History track titled, “Developing a Southern Appalachian WWIMBY* Response - *Welcoming Wilderness in My Back Yard). There was of course much I missed by being unable to attend all sessions at once, so this is merely a glimpse of the action.
PLENARY MEETINGS
Welcome to NGOs, agencies, tribes, cultural communities, and youth groups. Over 100 youth here, including 14 Youth Scholars. The history of the Wilderness Act and its Wilderness Warriors was reviewed, with some criticism over the omission of many Wilderness women. A most prominent topic was the urgent need to bring in youth and a more diverse constituency. “The future of Wilderness lies with today’s urban children.”
Virginia Wilderness Committee’s long-time advisor, conference facilitator and musician Bart Koehler sang his original Gila Gila, Spirit Land in honor of the Gila Wilderness of NM as the first ever, having been designated by Aldo Leopold in 1924, 40 years before The Wilderness Act was signed in 1964. Tears came to my eyes as I recalled crossing the pink canyon-walled Gila River on my backpack trip just a few days earlier. Everyone was wolf-howling. Looking around, I hadn’t seen so many pony-tailed men since the 1970s, and many of them clearly dated from then. A slide show featured work by the Internatl. League of Conservation Photographers. The West was overwhelmingly portrayed in images, politics, and case studies, but the love of wilderness transcended all. In fact, transcendence was a prominent conference theme.
Sticker on someone’s backpack: American Wilderness: Love It or Leave It Alone.
The Eagle Dance was performed by the Zuni Pueblo Buffalo Dancers – “Even though we live with modern technology, our spirit is from the old ways.” Many tribal representatives were visible throughout the conference, especially Sarah James, elder of the Gwich’in Nation and recipient of the 2002 Goldman Environmental Prize. She sang and danced and said that her nation may be the first indigenous group to request Wilderness designation, to protect the Porcupine Caribou calving grounds in the coastal plain of the Artic NWR – “the Sacred Place were life begins.” Without a word for Wilderness in their language, the elders had pondered and come up with a translation: Leave It as the Creator Made It. She also gave the audience this advice: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle, and REFUSE.
There were videos of interviews with Stewart Brandborg of The Wilderness Society, and Jimmy Carter, who recounted his efforts toward ANILCA. Mark Allison of NM Wilderness Alliance called us “the single largest concentration of wilderness advocates in the world,” which made me paranoid, especially when I heard there were protesters outside. Five or six people held signs, two of which seemed irrational: Wilderness=Dirty Water, and Wilderness Is Code for Unsustainable. But one sign touched on a legitimate issue: Wilderness=Fire. Fire use and management were topics in many sessions. I spoke with an agency guy who described how he had thinned the woods outside Wilderness borders to reduce intensity of fire as it moved out. Using bulldozers, etc. in the “Fire Industrial Complex” is seen as a major threat to Wilderness.
NM Senator Martin Heinrich said hiking in the Gila helped him decide to run for office. He strongly urged us to consider the Antiquities Act as a tool. Pres. Obama’s designation of Organ Mountains-Desert Peak Natl. Monument and protection of South Pacific waters were applauded.
Sylvia Earle remarked on increased knowledge and destruction of oceans in just the past 50 years. The next decade is a pivot point. 64% of the ocean lies outside national jurisdictions as an unregulated global commons. 20% of earth’s oxygen is generated by ocean microbes and oceans also capture carbon. “Protection of wild places is our best security,” she said. “My motto is ‘No Child Left Dry.” After astronaut Joseph Acaba spoke later, extending the Wilderness Act to the oceans and the atmosphere was discussed.
Chris Barnes of the Arthur Carhart Natl. Wilderness Training Ctr. struck a warning note, literally, as he banged a bowl to evoke Shakespeare’s Henry IV (“the chimes at midnight”) and inadvertently knocked the bowl down. I hoped it wasn’t an omen. “The Wilderness System is in trouble,” he said. “’Outdoors’ is not Wilderness.” He fears we will lose the distinction of Wilderness from other lands. He decried agency participation and said the USFS was limited to 100; the BLM was cut from 75 to 37; the NPS, with 40% of Wilderness Areas, had 33. “They are embarrassed by Wilderness,” he said, “and feel they have to explain away its requirements.” He gave examples of agencies allowing “trammeling,” such as hunting predators and using prohibited tools. At a meeting recently, he said a 30-something had remarked, “Wilderness? That’s so ‘60s.” He criticized the softening of Wilderness to make it palatable to a new public.
Sally Jewel, Secy. of Interior, was impressive: she has climbed Mt. Ranier 7 times plus a peak in the Antarctic. “The best classroom is untrammeled nature,” she said. Her main points were civic engagement, which she called “the single most important factor;” landscape level planning; and reauthorizing the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Like many others, she invoked Howard Zahniser’s (author of The Wilderness Act) phrase, “Guardians not Gardeners.”
Ken Brower, son of Archdruid David (so called by writer John McPhee) told stories of his father and Zahnie, and recalled Justice William O. Douglas’s support for conservation and the principle that trees have standing. “If national parks are, as many have said, the best American idea,” he told us, “then Wilderness is the best part of America’s best idea.” But he suggested that Wilderness could be an opiate: as long as we have Wilderness Areas, the American landscape must be OK -- far from true. Some “gardening” is necessary due to climate change, like assisting pika migration. Interventions, especially against invasives, was another major topic with varying opinions. Brower also described the emergence of deconstructionist ideas, which arose in literature, to Wilderness. “We need to win the idea battle,” he said.
Deconstructionism was a topic of serious and, at times, academic jargon–laden conversation in several sessions on the philosophy of Wilderness. Its principal points are: Wilderness is simply a reflection of our own projections, like a mirror; the Act was written when scientists believed that forests grew back after a disturbance through a predictable ecological succession to a stable climax community, which we now know is untrue; and Natives changed the landscape so much that no place is truly wild. There have been op-eds in the NY Times stating this, as well as essays and books by authors such as William Cronon.
Other speakers countered with: Wilderness is more like a store window: you see some version of yourself reflected, but beyond it are real, valuable products like water, air, recreation, carbon sequestration, etc. Quotes from early ecologists showed they clearly understood ecological dynamism long before 1964. Comparing statistics on biodiversity from pre-European settlement to today shrinks Indian impact almost beyond visibility. Wilderness lives!
The heads of USFS, USF&WS, BLM, NPS, and USGS signed a 2020 Vision document to: complete “wilderness character inventories,” foster connections to diverse publics, strengthen support to the Carhart Training Ctr., and conduct climate vulnerability and adaptation assessments. Neil Kornze of the BLM was particularly well received on his upbeat approach after decades of BLM intransigence on Wilderness. Dan Ashe of USF&WS said about Millennials (a conference buzzword) that “we can’t tell them how to enjoy Wilderness” –i.e., bringing cell phones.
Author Terry Tempest Williams asked 20-, 30- and 40-somethings to stand up – about a third of the audience – and said “You will represent us at the 100th anniversary conference.” She then roused us by saying “It is time to lay our bodies down, to stage a public lands revolution, to reimagine our place on the planet.” In answer to questions from the audience about divisions within the Wilderness community itself, she described a terrible falling-out with Bill Meadows (former director of The Wilderness Society) and said, “We need to be civil, to work together -- but to always call bullshit when we see it.” Loud applause.
Chris Bolgiano greeting participants at the National Wilderness Conference. Photo by Ralph Bolgiano
SESSIONS & OTHER EVENTS
In the one session on Eastern Wilderness (History), the Purity Doctrine and other history was covered, and I was disappointed that our beloved mentor Ernie Dickerman wasn’t mentioned, a gap I tried to fill in my own talk. Daniel Nelson of the University of Akron described Adirondack State Park as the best example of a non-federal wilderness area and said states can play a role in preservation. Steve Henry of the USF&WS presented the history of the Great Swamp NWR Wilderness Area in NJ (yes, that NJ, he emphasized). They used only hand tools on enormous trees across trails after Hurricane Sandy. Brent Martin, SE coordinator for The Wilderness Society, described a Wilderness strategy in NC similar to the VA Wilderness Committee stakeholder meetings. (I wish my talk had been placed here instead of in the “Wilderness: Preserving and Welcoming It” session, where my two co-panelists presented a short treatise on the word “untrammeled” and a long discourse on ecological succession theories. I spoke last with a completely unrelated PowerPoint tour through the dark side of Southern Appalachian history and the resulting need for Wilderness).
“Cores, connectivity, and carnivores” with Wilderness as part of a conservation mosaic including buffer areas and corridors was an idea mentioned in several discussions.
In a session on “Wilderness Travel, Transformation and the Human Spirit” several speakers explored ecopsychology and spirituality in Wilderness and the structure of the brain. Our brains are wired for spiritual feelings and there is a 1.5 million year tradition of going into remote places to explore the self through nature. Spirituality is more likely to be felt in vast spaces that dwarf humans. We shouldn’t be afraid to include spirituality as a benefit of the Wilderness experience; emotional connections may be even more important than cognitive ones, although science is now a more dominant approach to Wilderness. Personal stories of Wilderness experiences were sprinkled throughout the conference; an especially poignant one was told by a young woman abandoned as a child and raised in a group home in Chicago. “For some people, abuse is the only currency of connection,” she said. She connected herself with the wider world in Yosemite as a trail digger for the Conservation Corps, and noted, “Intact ecosystems show what community means.”
The session, “Wilderness and Connections to Everyday life” took on new meaning when my biologist husband texted me, “Found bedbug in hotel room, call ASAP.” We had to change rooms and have all belongings washed or steamed. But I caught the presentation, “Giving Wilderness a Digital Voice.” Social media implies audience feedback. Being right doesn’t matter; being convincing does. The average human online attention span is 8 seconds; the average goldfish attention span is 10 seconds. The latest Twitter abbreviation is TL;DR -- Too Long, Didn’t Read. The speaker’s advice: “Current, concise, constant, compelling.”
The session “Exploring the Future of Wilderness” featured George Nickas of Wilderness Watch, who warned that agency scientists think Wilderness is obsolete and must be managed for species we want; a “market triumphalism” ideology in which everything must be commodified to serve the economy. “It’s hard to watch invasives take over,” he said, “but we must allow nature to respond autonomously.” Dave Foreman of the Rewilding Institute (and Earth First! fame/infamy) called for 100-200 million more Wilderness acres just by mopping up Wilderness Study Areas, other specially designated places, and large parts of many national parks that have none. Wild and Scenic River law should be used much more, to preclude dams allowed in Wilderness. All ecosystems should be represented. Some management action may be needed in Wilderness, but very humbly. If he saw someone with a cell phone on his river trips, he warned he would throw it in the river. He ended with a plea, “Please don’t have kids!” when another panelist mentioned that he had urged his daughter to get pregnant. “It’s a selfish indulgence.”
On Sat. night we previewed the film Wrenched, a wrenching documentary profiling the already legendary author Edward Abbey (d. 1989), whose books passionately and wittily defend the wild redrock desert. The film tracks development of Earth First! A very young Dave Foreman and Bart Koehler (known as Sagebrush Johnny then) as well as many others are shown in 1970s-80s news footage. Scenes of Glen Canyon being blown up made me want to wail. They lost that epic battle, but made the rest of us realize what we were all losing. They proved that an ancient, intuitive wisdom is not buried under industrial secretions: the knowledge that we are all connected in a giant web, and I don’t mean the Internet.
The basic question remains: How do we change our culture to live in harmony with the rest of life? And a lesser question: Should there be a 2025 celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Eastern Wilderness Act?
In the one session on Eastern Wilderness (History), the Purity Doctrine and other history was covered, and I was disappointed that our beloved mentor Ernie Dickerman wasn’t mentioned, a gap I tried to fill in my own talk. Daniel Nelson of the University of Akron described Adirondack State Park as the best example of a non-federal wilderness area and said states can play a role in preservation. Steve Henry of the USF&WS presented the history of the Great Swamp NWR Wilderness Area in NJ (yes, that NJ, he emphasized). They used only hand tools on enormous trees across trails after Hurricane Sandy. Brent Martin, SE coordinator for The Wilderness Society, described a Wilderness strategy in NC similar to the VA Wilderness Committee stakeholder meetings. (I wish my talk had been placed here instead of in the “Wilderness: Preserving and Welcoming It” session, where my two co-panelists presented a short treatise on the word “untrammeled” and a long discourse on ecological succession theories. I spoke last with a completely unrelated PowerPoint tour through the dark side of Southern Appalachian history and the resulting need for Wilderness).
“Cores, connectivity, and carnivores” with Wilderness as part of a conservation mosaic including buffer areas and corridors was an idea mentioned in several discussions.
In a session on “Wilderness Travel, Transformation and the Human Spirit” several speakers explored ecopsychology and spirituality in Wilderness and the structure of the brain. Our brains are wired for spiritual feelings and there is a 1.5 million year tradition of going into remote places to explore the self through nature. Spirituality is more likely to be felt in vast spaces that dwarf humans. We shouldn’t be afraid to include spirituality as a benefit of the Wilderness experience; emotional connections may be even more important than cognitive ones, although science is now a more dominant approach to Wilderness. Personal stories of Wilderness experiences were sprinkled throughout the conference; an especially poignant one was told by a young woman abandoned as a child and raised in a group home in Chicago. “For some people, abuse is the only currency of connection,” she said. She connected herself with the wider world in Yosemite as a trail digger for the Conservation Corps, and noted, “Intact ecosystems show what community means.”
The session, “Wilderness and Connections to Everyday life” took on new meaning when my biologist husband texted me, “Found bedbug in hotel room, call ASAP.” We had to change rooms and have all belongings washed or steamed. But I caught the presentation, “Giving Wilderness a Digital Voice.” Social media implies audience feedback. Being right doesn’t matter; being convincing does. The average human online attention span is 8 seconds; the average goldfish attention span is 10 seconds. The latest Twitter abbreviation is TL;DR -- Too Long, Didn’t Read. The speaker’s advice: “Current, concise, constant, compelling.”
The session “Exploring the Future of Wilderness” featured George Nickas of Wilderness Watch, who warned that agency scientists think Wilderness is obsolete and must be managed for species we want; a “market triumphalism” ideology in which everything must be commodified to serve the economy. “It’s hard to watch invasives take over,” he said, “but we must allow nature to respond autonomously.” Dave Foreman of the Rewilding Institute (and Earth First! fame/infamy) called for 100-200 million more Wilderness acres just by mopping up Wilderness Study Areas, other specially designated places, and large parts of many national parks that have none. Wild and Scenic River law should be used much more, to preclude dams allowed in Wilderness. All ecosystems should be represented. Some management action may be needed in Wilderness, but very humbly. If he saw someone with a cell phone on his river trips, he warned he would throw it in the river. He ended with a plea, “Please don’t have kids!” when another panelist mentioned that he had urged his daughter to get pregnant. “It’s a selfish indulgence.”
On Sat. night we previewed the film Wrenched, a wrenching documentary profiling the already legendary author Edward Abbey (d. 1989), whose books passionately and wittily defend the wild redrock desert. The film tracks development of Earth First! A very young Dave Foreman and Bart Koehler (known as Sagebrush Johnny then) as well as many others are shown in 1970s-80s news footage. Scenes of Glen Canyon being blown up made me want to wail. They lost that epic battle, but made the rest of us realize what we were all losing. They proved that an ancient, intuitive wisdom is not buried under industrial secretions: the knowledge that we are all connected in a giant web, and I don’t mean the Internet.
The basic question remains: How do we change our culture to live in harmony with the rest of life? And a lesser question: Should there be a 2025 celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Eastern Wilderness Act?