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Migratory birds tell<br />
climate change story<br />
Backcountry skiing<br />
in wilderness<br />
Threat of oil drilling<br />
off the coast of Alaska<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY 2011-2012
© A. Vedder<br />
Tackling Radical Ideas that Threaten Your Land<br />
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT<br />
All of us who believe in protecting<br />
our natural heritage were<br />
dismayed when the third-ranking<br />
Congressman in the House<br />
leadership introduced a bill<br />
that came to be known as “the<br />
Great Outdoors Giveaway.”<br />
It would rescind policies that<br />
currently protect more than<br />
60 million acres of national<br />
forest and other undeveloped<br />
public lands. At a hearing, former<br />
Interior Secretary Bruce<br />
Babbitt testified that H.R. 1581 was “the most radical, overreaching<br />
attempt to dismantle the architecture of our public<br />
land laws that has been proposed in my lifetime.”<br />
A second major attack on our natural legacy was an effort<br />
to dramatically reduce the already modest funding for the<br />
protection of our air, water, land, and wildlife. Those pushing<br />
for these deep cuts simultaneously fought to retain the more<br />
than $4 billion in annual subsidies enjoyed by the oil industry.<br />
Meanwhile, Shell is moving closer to federal authorization to<br />
drill in marine mammal-rich waters of the Arctic Ocean.<br />
With so much focus on the economy, the upheaval in the<br />
Middle East, and other compelling stories, I suspect that very<br />
few Americans realize just how far outside the mainstream the<br />
House of Representatives has moved. <strong>The</strong> hard truth is that by<br />
the time it recessed in August, the House already had voted<br />
110 times to undermine environmental protections. It has<br />
earned a reputation as the most anti-environmental House in<br />
congressional history and will be pushing this agenda through<br />
the end of 2012.<br />
We are responding with a strategic campaign that will<br />
help citizens deliver a message to Congress about their opposition<br />
to these anti-environmental legislative initiatives.<br />
Joining with sportsmen, business people, the recreation community,<br />
and others, we are playing a leading role in mobilizing<br />
Americans. We are marshaling evidence that investing in<br />
public land conservation is smart economic policy, paying off<br />
in stronger local economies and jobs. For example, during<br />
the August recess, we organized volunteers in some of the<br />
WILDERNESS, winner last year of awards from<br />
the International Academy of the Visual Arts<br />
and Communications Concepts, is published<br />
annually by <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>. Members<br />
also receive a newsletter three times a year.<br />
Founded in 1935, <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>’s<br />
mission is to protect wilderness and inspire<br />
Americans to care for our wild places.<br />
nation’s most conservative congressional districts. At meetings<br />
with their representatives, they spoke forcefully about<br />
how much they value the natural treasures in their backyards.<br />
Perhaps the most important resource we provide is fierce<br />
determination. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>’s founders had that<br />
77 years ago, and it has remained a part of our gene pool.<br />
Certainly there are days that can be discouraging, but then<br />
there are days when I see unmistakable evidence of progress.<br />
During the summer I was in Utah and Idaho with county commissioners<br />
who traditionally have opposed our efforts to protect<br />
wilderness. On those trips, I found that they were open to<br />
working with us on positive conservation proposals, including<br />
those designating wilderness areas.<br />
How did this happen? It happened because these conservative<br />
political leaders and their constituents really do care<br />
deeply about the land near where they live. It was the natural<br />
product of years of one-on-one contact by members of our<br />
staff to build trust. When they realized <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong><br />
genuinely wanted to work with them, and not against them,<br />
and that together we could preserve beautiful areas they<br />
knew and loved, their attitudes began to change.<br />
I hope you will enjoy this issue of <strong>Wilderness</strong>. You’ll find<br />
stories about a man on Cape Cod who sold his land to the<br />
National Park Service instead of to a developer and about<br />
what migratory birds are telling us about climate change.<br />
You’ll meet five up-and-coming environmental leaders and<br />
find out what’s going on in the regions where we are most<br />
active. New this year is a crossword puzzle. We welcome your<br />
reactions to any of these features.<br />
William H. Meadows<br />
P.S. I can’t thank you enough for your commitment to helping<br />
us protect the lands that belong to all Americans. Without<br />
your support, this work would be impossible, and we will need<br />
to count on you as the fights intensify this fall and into 2012.<br />
Editor: Bennett H. Beach<br />
(ben_beach@tws.org)<br />
Photo Editor: Lisa Dare<br />
Design: Studio Grafik<br />
Proofreader: Connie Quinley<br />
© 2011 by<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>,<br />
1615 M St., NW,<br />
Washington, DC 20036<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
COVER PHOTO<br />
© Tim Fitzharris.com<br />
2 1-800-THE-WILD
Table of Contents<br />
17 <strong>The</strong> Final Frontier<br />
What is at stake if Shell drills off Alaska’s northern coast?<br />
By Marilyn Berlin Snell<br />
© Steven Kazlowski/AlaskaStock.com<br />
12 “My Favorite Place”<br />
Five citizens tell us about theirs<br />
13 Harbingers of Climate Change<br />
Bird migration patterns changing with climate change<br />
By Mel White<br />
22 Why I Sold My Land to the American People<br />
On Cape Cod, a campground operator put the public first<br />
By Kathy Shorr<br />
26 Skiing in <strong>Wilderness</strong> Wonderlands<br />
As winter nears, here are ten backcountry skiing gems<br />
By David Goodman<br />
30 <strong>The</strong> Bob and I, Under the Big Sky<br />
An essay by Ivan Doig<br />
32 Does Nature Affect Your Behavior?<br />
A Q&A with Dr. Frances E. Kuo<br />
32 <strong>Wilderness</strong> At Risk<br />
A photo essay features eight treasures that are in jeopardy<br />
This magazine was printed on 30-percent-postconsumer-waste-recycled,<br />
elemental chlorine-free<br />
paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. As<br />
a result, we used 196 fewer trees than we would have if<br />
printing on virgin paper. We also reduced our electricity<br />
consumption by 79 million BTUs, water use by 88,854<br />
gallons, solid waste by 5,632 pounds, and greenhouse<br />
gas emissions by 19,704 pounds. (Environmental<br />
impact estimates were made using the Environmental<br />
Defense Fund Paper Calculator. For more information,<br />
visit http://www.edf.org/papercalculator/<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong><br />
meets all standards as<br />
set forth by the Better<br />
Business Bureau/Wise<br />
Giving Alliance.<br />
44<br />
© Dave Showalter<br />
42 Building an Army of Young Conservation Leaders<br />
We are training a corps for the future<br />
By Hannah Nordhaus<br />
44 Too Wild to Drill<br />
Will rigs, roads and pipelines sprout south of Yellowstone?<br />
By Dave Showalter<br />
47 <strong>Wilderness</strong> Investors with a Long-Term View<br />
Barbara and Bert Cohn are philanthropic champions<br />
48 Everyone in the Car!<br />
How those summertime national park trips shaped<br />
our views<br />
By Susan Rugh<br />
52 On Safari in the Bodie Hills<br />
This California treasure is this year’s “great place to visit”<br />
By David Page<br />
58 my wilderness<br />
Frontier Airlines and its spokesanimals have taken up<br />
the cause<br />
By Tashia Tucker<br />
DEPARTMENTS<br />
4 Past Year’s Achievements<br />
6 News from the Regions<br />
51 Poetry<br />
60 <strong>Wilderness</strong> Heroes<br />
61 Crossword Puzzle<br />
3
© USFWS/Gary Kramer<br />
ALASKA: <strong>The</strong> 9.34 million acres of<br />
inventoried roadless areas in Alaska’s<br />
Tongass National Forest is now protected,<br />
once again, by the Roadless<br />
Rule…We were able to celebrate<br />
completion of a successful decadelong<br />
restoration of damaged salmon<br />
habitat in the Tongass’s Harris River<br />
watershed… Our coalition continued<br />
to fend off efforts to allow drilling<br />
in the biological heart of the Arctic<br />
National Wildlife Refuge, and the U.S.<br />
Fish & Wildlife Service’s new draft<br />
management plan for the refuge has<br />
opened the door to considering a<br />
wilderness recommendation for the<br />
coastal plain.<br />
FORESTS: <strong>The</strong> government agreed<br />
with our contention that a BLM plan<br />
calling for excessive logging in the<br />
Pacific Northwest forests should be<br />
shelved, and is now determining the<br />
best way to proceed… Proposed<br />
changes in rules governing the<br />
193-million-acre National Forest<br />
System would result in cleaner drinking<br />
water, greater recreational opportunities,<br />
improved wildlife habitat, and, for<br />
the first time, consideration of climate<br />
change… A ten-year effort paid off at<br />
Colorado’s White River National Forest<br />
in a plan that will minimize the impact<br />
of snowmobiles and other off-road<br />
vehicles and will eliminate unnecessary<br />
roads... Thanks to settlement of<br />
our coalition’s lawsuit, 900,000 acres<br />
Achievements<br />
Working with a broad array of<br />
partners over the past 12 months,<br />
we have succeeded in protecting<br />
many important natural areas.<br />
As always, the support provided<br />
by members of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong> was invaluable. <strong>The</strong><br />
success stories include:<br />
of roadless land in four Southern<br />
California national forests will receive<br />
greater protection… <strong>The</strong> U.S. Forest<br />
Service launched an initiative to substantially<br />
scale back its immense and<br />
decaying road system.<br />
WILDLIFE: Ruling in our favor, a<br />
federal court put the West Virginia<br />
northern flying squirrel back on the<br />
Endangered Species List, improving<br />
our prospects for preventing a<br />
large-scale logging project in the<br />
Monongahela National Forest… We<br />
played an active role in a state-andfederal<br />
decision to shelve a plan to<br />
allow the killing of wolves in a Unimak<br />
Island wilderness area in the Alaska<br />
Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.<br />
Our forest accomplishments included<br />
watershed restoration in the Tongass<br />
(below) and motorized vehicle regulation<br />
in the White River National Forest (right).<br />
© Sheila Jacobson/USFS<br />
© Fred Hanselmann/hanselmannphotography.com<br />
4 1-800-THE-WILD
ENERGY: We secured greater protection<br />
of water quality and other<br />
environmental safeguards in settling<br />
our lawsuit challenging oil shale<br />
development policy for public lands in<br />
the Rockies…<strong>The</strong> Interior Department<br />
moved closer to developing a national<br />
Smart from the Start renewable energy<br />
framework for development of solar<br />
energy on public and private lands, in<br />
part due to coalition efforts to bring<br />
diverse stakeholders together in support<br />
of these efforts.… <strong>The</strong> Federal<br />
Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)<br />
issued a rule on planning and financing<br />
new transmission lines that, if<br />
implemented properly, should reduce<br />
impacts on important natural areas<br />
and should facilitate renewable energy<br />
production.<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
OFF-ROAD VEHICLES: We helped<br />
defeat an attempt to overturn a Forest<br />
Service plan to protect the Badger-Two<br />
Medicine, near Glacier National Park,<br />
from off-road vehicle damage... We<br />
won our lawsuit challenging a plan for<br />
Idaho’s Salmon-Challis National Forest<br />
that we believe allowed too much offroad<br />
vehicle traffic.<br />
OTHER VICTORIES: We played a<br />
leading role in defeat of an amendment<br />
that would have significantly<br />
weakened the Antiquities Act, used by<br />
15 presidents to protect places such<br />
as Grand Teton and Acadia national<br />
parks… President Obama issued an<br />
America’s Great Outdoors report<br />
recommending a number of valuable<br />
ways to promote outdoor recreation<br />
and protect natural areas…<br />
We helped secure congressional appropriations<br />
from the Land and Water<br />
Conservation Fund that will enable<br />
the protection of high-quality—but<br />
threatened—natural areas in dozens<br />
of states. <strong>The</strong> places that will benefit<br />
include Lower Rio Grande Valley<br />
National Wildlife Refuge, Golden<br />
Gate National Recreation Area, St.<br />
Marks National Wildlife Refuge, and<br />
Grand Canyon-Parashant National<br />
Monument… We helped defeat<br />
an amendment that would have<br />
defunded the National Landscape<br />
Conservation System.<br />
New rules will increase protection of our<br />
national forests (top), and we had a hand<br />
in a decision that will limit future off-road<br />
vehicle damage in the Badger Two-<br />
Medicine (below).<br />
© Bill Hodge<br />
© Jared White<br />
5
otes from the field<br />
ALASKA<br />
Bristol Bay in southwest Alaska is one<br />
of the most prodigious salmon fisheries<br />
in the world, contributing more<br />
than $500 million a year to the commercial<br />
fishing industry alone. Feeding<br />
this economic powerhouse is a large<br />
watershed, where Native communities<br />
have caught and smoked salmon for<br />
generations. But two mining corporations<br />
have combined to propose what<br />
could become North America’s largest<br />
open pit mine. <strong>The</strong> two billion tons of<br />
toxic pollutants from this 15-squaremile<br />
gold and copper operation would<br />
threaten not only the Bay’s famous<br />
salmon, king salmon, and rainbow<br />
trout, but humpback, finback, and<br />
minke whales.<br />
Lydia Olympic is leading our efforts<br />
to prevent mining in this special<br />
area. A Yupik/Sugpiaq from Igiugig, a<br />
village in the watershed, Olympic has<br />
become such a fervent opponent of<br />
the mine that she is sometimes called<br />
“the Pebble Rebel with a Cause.” On<br />
October 4 the residents of Lake and<br />
Peninsula Borough will be able to vote<br />
on the Save Our Salmon initiative,<br />
which aims to block the project.<br />
Nicole Whittington-Evans<br />
907-272-9453<br />
nicole_whittington-evans@tws.org<br />
We are working with many allies to<br />
prevent an open pit mine from being<br />
developed in the rich fisheries of the<br />
Bristol Bay watershed.<br />
© Flickr/toddraden<br />
PACIFIC NORTHWEST<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong> and the<br />
Methow Valley Ranger District of the<br />
Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest<br />
are working with the community to restore<br />
the health of the Chewuch River<br />
basin by reducing the environmental<br />
impacts of the 608-mile road network.<br />
This watershed provides precious cold<br />
water to a number of vital fish species<br />
and to working farms. It also is a<br />
magnet for those who enjoy hiking,<br />
camping, cross-country skiing, wildlife<br />
viewing, biking, firewood gathering,<br />
horseback riding, snowmobiling, or<br />
hunting. Such activities are the lifeblood<br />
of the local economy.<br />
After our team spent<br />
eight months gathering<br />
public views on this<br />
top-priority North Cascades<br />
watershed, it became clear that<br />
area residents want a road and trail<br />
system that: 1) provides outstanding<br />
and diverse recreational opportunities;<br />
2) represents sound fiscal and<br />
forest management by the U.S. Forest<br />
Service; 3) is environmentally sound<br />
and supports salmon recovery efforts<br />
in the Methow basin; and 4) uses<br />
partnerships to achieve these goals.<br />
Guided by these findings, the Forest<br />
Service will draft a plan for revising<br />
and managing the system. That draft is<br />
expected this fall.<br />
Peter Dykstra 206-624-6430<br />
pdykstra@twsnw.org<br />
© Flickr/ripkas<br />
CALIFORNIA-NEVADA<br />
Los Padres National<br />
Forest is home<br />
to the Big Sur<br />
Coast, mountains<br />
as high as<br />
8,800 feet, and<br />
the headwaters of<br />
many California rivers.<br />
Visitors enjoy<br />
chaparral-covered<br />
slopes, expansive<br />
grasslands, rolling<br />
badlands, and<br />
deep, winding river<br />
canyons. Featuring<br />
1,200 plant species,<br />
the forest provides habitat for 468<br />
species of wildlife, including the San<br />
Joaquin kit fox, southern steelhead,<br />
bald eagle (above), and the California<br />
condor. Of the state’s 19 national<br />
forests, the Los Padres is the secondlargest<br />
and is a major destination for<br />
those who enjoy outdoor recreation.<br />
But this special forest faces significant<br />
threats, including oil and gas development<br />
and uncontrolled off-road<br />
vehicle use. So we have helped create<br />
the Southern Los Padres Wild Heritage<br />
Campaign to identify wildlands and<br />
rivers suitable for permanent protection<br />
and to build public support for<br />
legislation that would preserve them.<br />
We hope to see a bill introduced this<br />
year. Our coalition includes many businesses<br />
in Santa Barbara and Ventura<br />
counties, a number of which depend<br />
on the $24 million generated annually<br />
by visitor spending.<br />
Dan Smuts 415-398-1111<br />
dan_smuts@tws.org<br />
Restoring the North Cascades’ Chewuch<br />
River basin is a major priority.<br />
6 1-800-THE-WILD<br />
© William Kramer/USFWS
IDAHO<br />
In 2009, climaxing an eight-year effort<br />
by a diverse coalition of Idahoans,<br />
Congress permanently protected<br />
a half million acres of the Owyhee<br />
Canyonlands by adding them to the<br />
National <strong>Wilderness</strong> Preservation<br />
System. But due to private tracts sprinkled<br />
through the wilderness, public access<br />
is sometimes a challenge. We are<br />
working with <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> Land Trust<br />
and Back Country Horsemen of Idaho<br />
to solve this problem, and <strong>The</strong> Trust<br />
recently purchased three properties and<br />
donated them to the U.S. Bureau of<br />
Land Management, which oversees the<br />
canyonlands. One parcel, adjacent to a<br />
campground, offers spectacular scenery<br />
in the heart of the Owyhees and contains<br />
more than a mile of the North Fork<br />
Owyhee River. <strong>The</strong> other two properties<br />
border Shoo Fly Creek in the Little<br />
Jacks Creek <strong>Wilderness</strong>. <strong>The</strong>y feature<br />
wide-open vistas, stunning canyons, and<br />
abundant wildlife. Totaling 1,100 acres,<br />
the three tracts are the first in a series of<br />
planned acquisitions.<br />
Craig Gehrke 208-343-8153<br />
craig_gehrke@tws.org<br />
NORTHERN ROCKIES<br />
Montana’s Bob Marshall <strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
Complex, affectionately known as “the<br />
Bob” and named for a <strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong> founder, is one of the nation’s<br />
outstanding wilderness areas. Under the<br />
We are part of an effort to improve<br />
public access to Owyhee Canyonlands<br />
wilderness in Idaho.<br />
© John McCarthy<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
proposed Rocky Mountain<br />
Front Heritage Act, it would<br />
grow by 67,000 acres. <strong>The</strong><br />
proposal also would protect<br />
adjacent public lands from<br />
expanding motorized use<br />
through a 208,000-acre<br />
custom-tailored conservation<br />
management area and<br />
would help control noxious<br />
weeds, considered one of<br />
the greatest threats to this<br />
extraordinary ecosystem.<br />
<strong>The</strong> front, where the<br />
Great Plains meet the<br />
Rockies, features some of<br />
the continent’s most spectacular<br />
wildlife habitat and<br />
still has all the major species<br />
observed by Lewis and Clark as<br />
they traveled through two centuries<br />
ago, including grizzlies, wolverines,<br />
and lynx. To maintain the front’s natural<br />
qualities and area residents’ way of<br />
life, <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong> and other<br />
members of the broad Coalition to<br />
Protect the Rocky Mountain Front are<br />
urging Senator Max Baucus (D-MT)<br />
to introduce the act drawn up by the<br />
coalition. In August more than 450<br />
Montanans attended public meetings<br />
with the senator to convey their<br />
strong support for this initiative. Go<br />
to www.savethefront.org to learn<br />
more and to help.<br />
Peter Aengst 406-586-1600<br />
peter_aengst@tws.org<br />
© Gene Sentz<br />
A proposed bill to protect the Rocky<br />
Mountain Front (above) would expand<br />
Montana’s Bob Marshall <strong>Wilderness</strong>.<br />
UTAH<br />
Operators of Coal Hollow Mine,<br />
the state’s only strip mine, want to<br />
expand it onto 3,500 acres of adjacent<br />
public land ten miles southwest<br />
of Bryce Canyon National Park. This<br />
could extend the life of the mining<br />
operation about 20 years. Such a step<br />
would increase water and air pollution,<br />
raise noise levels, reduce the darkness<br />
of night skies, undercut tourism<br />
and recreation, and damage habitat<br />
vital to sage grouse, bald eagles, and<br />
7
© Flickr/mharrsch<br />
other wildlife—all on the doorstep of a<br />
prized national park.<br />
<strong>The</strong> U.S. Bureau of Land<br />
Management (BLM), which oversees<br />
the land, is finalizing a draft EIS and<br />
then will conduct public meetings in<br />
Alton, Panguitch, Cedar City, Kanab,<br />
and Salt Lake City to hear citizens’<br />
reactions. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong> is<br />
working to defeat this proposal. We<br />
believe it would be wiser to promote<br />
development of the energy sources<br />
of the future. For example, three solar<br />
energy zones on BLM lands are under<br />
consideration in Utah, and they are<br />
near the Coal Hollow Mine, in Iron<br />
and Beaver counties. To express your<br />
views, visit www.blm.gov/ut/st/en.html.<br />
Julie Mack 801-355-0070<br />
julie_mack@tws.org<br />
ARIZONA<br />
We are working with a broad coalition<br />
to protect significant public lands in<br />
western Maricopa County. Most of the<br />
acreage in the Sonoran Desert Heritage<br />
Proposal is within a short driving<br />
distance of Greater Phoenix, providing<br />
hikers, hunters, campers, and others<br />
with easy access to spectacular scenery<br />
and solitude. <strong>The</strong> area features striking<br />
variety: iconic Sonoran desert uplands<br />
along the Gila River, black basalt fields<br />
formed by ancient volcanic eruptions,<br />
jagged mountain ranges, and desert<br />
basins thick with creosote and brightgreen<br />
palo verde. <strong>The</strong> wildlife there includes<br />
bighorn sheep, desert tortoises,<br />
Gila monsters (photo at left), bobcats,<br />
and hundreds of bird species.<br />
<strong>The</strong> land also has a colorful and<br />
diverse history, created by the prehistoric<br />
Hohokam and Patayan peoples,<br />
Spanish explorers, U.S. Army expeditions,<br />
hard-riding cowboys, ranchers,<br />
and miners. <strong>The</strong> rapid growth of the region<br />
gives urgency to this conservation<br />
initiative, and we intend to finalize the<br />
proposal by the end of the year with a<br />
hope of introduction and consideration<br />
by Congress in 2012. <strong>The</strong> wide array of<br />
supporters includes the Fighter Country<br />
Partnership, dedicated to protecting<br />
the air space needed by Luke Air<br />
Force Base and other nearby military<br />
installations. To learn more, visit www.<br />
sonoranheritage.org.<br />
Mike Quigley 520-334-8741<br />
mike_quigley@tws.org<br />
In Utah, the Coal Hollow Mine (left) might expand onto public lands outside Bryce<br />
Canyon National Park, while Colorado’s progressive law promoting renewable energy is<br />
being challenged in court.<br />
© Tim Wagner, Resilient Habitats Campaign, Sierra Club<br />
© istockphoto.com/kokophoto<br />
COLORADO<br />
Environmentalists cheered when their<br />
campaign paid off in a Colorado law<br />
requiring the state’s larger utilities to<br />
obtain 30 percent of their energy from<br />
renewable sources by 2020. As the<br />
second-strongest law of its kind in the<br />
nation, it made Colorado the face of<br />
the “new energy economy.” But the law<br />
was challenged in court by a businessman<br />
and two anti-environmental groups<br />
who said they “wanted to put wind<br />
energy on trial.” <strong>The</strong>y claimed it would<br />
force up electricity costs and violate the<br />
Constitution by imposing burdens on<br />
the interstate market for electricity.<br />
We have asked the U.S. District Court<br />
to dismiss the suit, arguing that the<br />
plaintiffs could not show they had been<br />
injured—a prerequisite to going to<br />
court. We believe that the nation must<br />
move quickly toward use of renewable<br />
energy to reduce reliance on climatechanging<br />
fossil fuels, improve our air<br />
and water, and decrease our dependence<br />
on foreign oil. Colorado has<br />
become a leader in clean energy, and<br />
the financial and environmental benefits<br />
are significant. For example, the state’s<br />
solar energy economy already features<br />
230 companies and employs more than<br />
2,500 people.<br />
Suzanne Jones 303-650-5818<br />
suzanne_jones@tws.org<br />
New Mexico’s Organ Mountains would<br />
be protected under a bill now being<br />
considered by the U.S. Senate.<br />
© Flickr/Dolor Ipsum<br />
8 1-800-THE-WILD
© Erin Paul Donovan<br />
Our coalition is opposing a logging project proposed for White Mountain National<br />
Forest (above). In Georgia’s Chattahoochee National Forest (right), we are part of an<br />
initiative to improve wilderness management.<br />
NEW MEXICO<br />
<strong>The</strong> Organ Mountains are named for<br />
the needle-like extrusions of granite<br />
that resemble organ pipes. Ranging up<br />
to 9,012 feet, their outline ripples the<br />
horizon just east of the fast-growing<br />
city of Las Cruces in Doña Ana County.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Organ Mountains are home to 870<br />
species of vascular plants, pronghorn,<br />
mule deer, quail, golden eagles, and<br />
many other species. Migrating duck<br />
and threatened grassland songbirds<br />
depend on the Organ Mountains during<br />
their long journeys.<br />
We are building public support<br />
for S. 1024, which would permanently<br />
protect more than 241,000 acres of<br />
wilderness and create 159,000 acres<br />
of national conservation areas in the<br />
Organs and elsewhere in southern<br />
New Mexico. For example, the bill<br />
would protect the gorgeous volcanic<br />
cliffs and buttes of Broad Canyon and<br />
the grasslands banking up against<br />
the cinder-cone and mantled basalt<br />
upthrust of the Potrillos Mountains.<br />
Included are seeps and springs of<br />
clean water feeding into the Rio<br />
Grande. Please urge your representatives<br />
in Congress to support this<br />
legislation, introduced by the state’s<br />
senators, Jeff Bingaman (D) and Tom<br />
Udall (D).<br />
Michael Casaus 505-247-0834<br />
michael_casaus@tws.org<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
NORTHEAST<br />
<strong>The</strong> Table Mountain Roadless Area inside<br />
New Hampshire’s White Mountain<br />
National Forest would be logged—<br />
and in some locations clear-cut—under<br />
the U.S. Forest Service’s proposed<br />
“Northeast Swift” timber project. <strong>The</strong><br />
land is visible to the north from the<br />
famous Kancamagus Scenic Highway.<br />
This is the eighth timber project<br />
proposed in the forest’s roadless areas<br />
since 2005, and we have submitted<br />
comments outlining our strong opposition.<br />
Standing trees in large blocks<br />
of mature forest store carbon that<br />
otherwise would exacerbate global<br />
warming, and they provide highquality<br />
wildlife habitat. In northern<br />
New England, the federal government<br />
is the landowner best able to create<br />
and sustain mature forest conditions,<br />
so that should be the management<br />
priority rather than creating additional<br />
early successional habitat. Timbering<br />
makes sense in some locations, but<br />
not in roadless areas, which feature<br />
mature forest. Moreover, this proposal<br />
does not make economic sense.<br />
Pristine national forest land supports<br />
recreation and tourism, the region’s<br />
largest revenue generators Timbering<br />
produces much less revenue. To read<br />
our comments, go to: www.wilderness.<br />
org/NH-Roadless.<br />
Ben Rose 802-222-7068<br />
ben_rose@tws.org<br />
SOUTHEAST<br />
In anticipation of the 50th anniversary<br />
of the <strong>Wilderness</strong> Act in 2014, the<br />
chief of the U.S. Forest Service created<br />
the Chief’s Challenge, with a goal of<br />
having all wilderness areas in national<br />
forests achieve certain management<br />
standards by that date. To help the<br />
agency in Georgia’s Chattahoochee<br />
National Forest, we assigned David<br />
Cohen, a ranger in our new Southern<br />
Appalachian <strong>Wilderness</strong> Stewards<br />
(SAWS) program. He is surveying visitors<br />
on their use of five wilderness areas:<br />
Blood Mountain, Raven Cliffs, Tray<br />
Mountain, Mark Trail, and Cohutta,<br />
which adjoins Tennessee’s Big Frog<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong>. He also provides visitors<br />
with information, including the Leave<br />
No Trace principles. Funding from the<br />
National Forest Foundation has made<br />
David’s work possible.<br />
We also have been active in<br />
Arkansas’ Ouachita National Forest,<br />
where an April tornado had forced closure<br />
of the popular Ouachita National<br />
Recreation Trail. We assembled a crew<br />
to spend a week helping Friends of<br />
the Ouachita Trail reopen the route,<br />
which was blocked by 30 fallen trees.<br />
Because we were inside a wilderness<br />
area, power tools were not permitted,<br />
so we used cross-cut saws and axes.<br />
SAWS has been teaching this type of<br />
non-mechanized tool use to southeastern<br />
trail clubs’ volunteers, introducing<br />
a new generation to stewardship of<br />
wilderness trails.<br />
Brent Martin 828- 587-9453<br />
brent_martin@tws.org<br />
© Bill Hodge<br />
9
Glacier National Park and the<br />
rest of northwestern Montana’s<br />
pristine “Crown of the Continent”<br />
is number one for me.<br />
Soaring eagles, snowcapped<br />
10,000-foot peaks, and worldrenowned<br />
fly-fishing create a<br />
breathtaking outdoor paradise<br />
that has it all. Large elk, bighorn<br />
sheep, moose, and grizzly<br />
bear populations prove that<br />
this isn’t just human habitat. I<br />
also like the snowy, not-toobitterly-cold<br />
winters; warm, dry,<br />
sunny summers; and folks that<br />
make you feel right at home.<br />
Sasha Goldstein<br />
Reporter<br />
New London, Connecticut<br />
My favorite wild place is Mesa<br />
Verde National Park in western<br />
Colorado, where I can see the<br />
comprehension of nature and<br />
history come alive on children’s<br />
faces. Life in the open air, in the<br />
sun, in nature, and the wilderness<br />
are so precious to the<br />
body, mind and spirit of children.<br />
Honor the sacred. Honor<br />
the Earth, our Mother...so we<br />
teach at Escuela Tlatelolco in<br />
the inner city of Denver.<br />
Nita Gonzalez<br />
Educator/activist<br />
Denver<br />
© Steve Goldstein © Camille Brightsmith © Paul Zink<br />
© Megan Quinn<br />
“My Favorite Place”<br />
Most of us can name a place that is our<br />
idea of paradise. Its allure may stem from<br />
the memories, the scenery, the wildlife, the<br />
things we do, the sounds and smells, or some<br />
combination of ingredients. We asked a<br />
number of people to tell us about their favorite<br />
places, and here are five of the answers.<br />
My favorite place is the scenic Black Hills area of western South<br />
Dakota and eastern Wyoming. <strong>The</strong> Black Hills are a Great Plains<br />
anomaly: <strong>The</strong>y resemble an island of ponderosa pine rising out of a<br />
sea of short-grass prairie. This area is home to mountain lions, mule<br />
deer, elk, American bison, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, and<br />
other wildlife often associated with the Rockies or environs farther<br />
west. Mountain lakes and streams offer great trout fishing. I learned<br />
to fly-fish on Spearfish Creek near Spearfish, S.D., in 1989 and have<br />
made the eight-hour trek from Omaha nearly every year since.<br />
Aaron Quinn<br />
Engineer<br />
Omaha, Nebraska<br />
I’m not sure if it’s the arid<br />
desolation, raggedy peaks of<br />
perfection, or the gal I chased<br />
after to get there, but my<br />
favorite place in the world is<br />
the Sierra Nevada. Two seasons<br />
working on public lands out<br />
there is enough to convince<br />
anyone to be a conservationist.<br />
From chasing bears out<br />
of campgrounds to filming<br />
cowboys in the backcountry, or<br />
even just drinking fresh, cold<br />
spring water, my experiences<br />
there make me think about the<br />
Sierra every day and wonder<br />
when I’ll ever get back there.<br />
Jeff Chen<br />
Co-founder of Pick Up America<br />
Columbia, Maryland<br />
<strong>The</strong> John Day Wild and Scenic<br />
River in central Oregon (Clarno<br />
to Cottonwood stretch) with<br />
bighorn sheep, smallmouth<br />
bass, Native American pictographs,<br />
and swallows and<br />
raptors in the basalt cliffs is<br />
extra special. Sometimes I’m<br />
so overwhelmed by the beauty<br />
paddling down this beautiful,<br />
remote river that I tear<br />
up. Multi-day river trips with<br />
friends are my favorite mode<br />
of travel; since my canoe carries<br />
my gear, it’s much easier<br />
to escape into roadless areas<br />
than backpacking!<br />
Lana Lindstrom<br />
Retired finance manager<br />
Eugene, Oregon<br />
© Gail Patrick<br />
10 1-800-THE-WILD
Harbingers of<br />
Climate Change<br />
Acreek runs just below my house in Little Rock,<br />
and from the trees along it I often hear the<br />
buzzy call of an Eastern Phoebe. Despite its<br />
drab gray plumage, this small flycatcher is popular<br />
even among casual birdwatchers, both for its propensity<br />
to nest near (and even on) our houses and for its<br />
helpful habit of constantly identifying itself with its call: a<br />
scratchy, insistent fee-bee.<br />
In the past, I would have expected to hear the<br />
phoebe less and less frequently as fall progressed.<br />
Most birds in the flycatcher family flee our winter for the<br />
tropics, where the invertebrates they eat aren’t stilled by<br />
cold weather.<br />
Something has changed, though. Now, even<br />
in winter, I often hear that buzzy fee-bee in<br />
the woods. To confirm my anecdotal<br />
experience, I checked the past<br />
five decades of records<br />
of the Little Rock<br />
<strong>The</strong> Blackthroated<br />
Blue Warbler<br />
is expected<br />
to lose a<br />
significant<br />
amount of its<br />
prime habitat.<br />
Illustration by David Sibley<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
By MEL WHITE<br />
Christmas Bird Count (CBC), one of a series of midwinter<br />
censuses held across the continent. Sure enough, from<br />
typical Eastern Phoebe counts of zero or one in the 1960s<br />
and 1970s, the most recent decade has seen an average<br />
count of seven, including a high of 13.<br />
Our lingering phoebes hardly rank as an aberration.<br />
A 2009 report from the National Audubon <strong>Society</strong><br />
analyzed four decades of CBC data and determined<br />
that 58 percent of bird species had shifted their winter<br />
ranges northward; more than 60 species were found to<br />
be wintering more than 100 miles north of their historical<br />
ranges. While factors such as increased bird feeding<br />
may play a part, sunflower seeds alone can’t explain this<br />
phenomenon.<br />
Something has changed, all right: We’re experiencing<br />
a long-term trend of higher temperatures, and<br />
birds are reflecting that fact in their practical responses.<br />
Migration requires energy and brings multiple dangers.<br />
If a bird can travel south in fall only 500 miles instead of<br />
800 and still find the food, habitat, and survivable climate<br />
it needs, why should it go farther? If earlier-warming<br />
spring temperatures stir a Gray Catbird wintering<br />
on the Gulf Coast, why shouldn’t it fly north<br />
toward its Ontario home and get a head<br />
start on nesting?<br />
With so much else to worry<br />
about regarding climate change,<br />
some might look at birds<br />
and ask: Is there a problem<br />
here? Carolina Wrens<br />
now nest in upstate<br />
New York, where they<br />
once weren’t found. People in<br />
Alabama will see fewer Purple Finches in<br />
winter, but people in Michigan will see more. Species<br />
get in the elevator, move up a floor, and live happily ever<br />
after. Right?<br />
11
© Andreas Kanon<br />
© Flickr/Kelly Colgan Azar<br />
© Larry Master/masterimages.org<br />
12 1-800-THE-WILD<br />
© Mary Curtis © Larry Master/masterimages.org
On the highest mountains in the Northeast, summer hikers<br />
might hear an oddly beautiful song that seems to combine<br />
harsh chattering with echoing flute-like trills. Those<br />
lucky enough to spot the singer will see a dull brownish<br />
bird a little smaller than an American Robin, skulking in<br />
dense growth of balsam fir. This high-elevation environment<br />
is home to the Bicknell’s Thrush, one of the rarest<br />
birds in the United States and quite possibly the avian<br />
species in this country most at risk from global climate<br />
change.<br />
As the climate warms, vegetation zones move up<br />
mountain slopes, with hardwoods replacing conifers, the<br />
composition of coniferous forests changing, and the tree<br />
line rising. “<strong>The</strong> future doesn’t look good for Bicknell’s<br />
Thrush,” Wellesley College ecologist Dr. Nicholas L.<br />
Rodenhouse says. “It’s a bird of high-elevation forest in<br />
the United States, and that forest is expected to basically<br />
disappear with climate change.”<br />
Rodenhouse headed a 2006 study that showed that<br />
even under best-case scenarios of global warming, habitat<br />
for Bicknell’s Thrush would be reduced at least 50<br />
percent in the United States, and the species could disappear<br />
as a breeder in New York and Vermont. Though<br />
Bicknell’s Thrush nests at lower elevations in Canada, the<br />
climate elevator offers no more stops for this bird in the<br />
United States; it’s already on the top floor.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Search for Solutions<br />
Can anything be done<br />
to help birds—and other<br />
wildlife—survive climate<br />
change? <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong> has hired Dr. Peter<br />
McKinley, an ecologist<br />
and ornithologist, to help<br />
answer that question. “We<br />
should try to buy time,”<br />
he says, “by identifying,<br />
and then protecting, landscapes<br />
that will change<br />
more slowly and that have<br />
high biological diversity.<br />
That would at least present<br />
the future with an<br />
opportunity to reassemble<br />
ecological systems.”<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
McKinley points to<br />
populations of Bicknell’s<br />
Thrush that use small,<br />
regenerating spruce<br />
and fir farther down the<br />
mountain in some parts<br />
of their range in addition<br />
to the alpine spruce and<br />
fir predicted to disappear<br />
under warmer conditions.<br />
“Biological variability,<br />
especially genetic variation,<br />
is a wonderful thing,”<br />
he says, “and maintaining<br />
it as long as possible in<br />
as many places as possible<br />
is an important part<br />
of the research program<br />
we are building at <strong>The</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Rodenhouse study also looked at the Blackthroated<br />
Blue Warbler, a small songbird that nests across<br />
much of the northeastern United States and southeastern<br />
Canada. Less demanding in its habitat requirements than<br />
Bicknell’s Thrush, the warbler would seem to be safe for<br />
now from serious climate-change threats.<br />
But this warbler thrives best in areas where a mix of<br />
hardwoods and understory shrubs provides high levels<br />
of invertebrate prey. <strong>The</strong> Rodenhouse study showed that<br />
a warmer climate would result in a loss of a significant<br />
amount of prime habitat, leading to lower populations<br />
over much of the warbler’s range. Black-throated Blue<br />
Warbler was chosen for the study because it is considered<br />
representative of the region’s birds, and after examining<br />
various predictions for climate change, the report ominously<br />
concluded: “[W]e are unaware of any scenarios in<br />
which the effects of such interacting disturbances on the<br />
biological communities of the Northeast will promote the<br />
stability and viability of bird populations.”<br />
Conservation planning for migratory birds must consider<br />
more than just nesting ranges. “If you want to understand<br />
how climate change might influence birds in the future, you<br />
need to understand their exposure throughout the annual<br />
cycle, whether it’s in the tropics, during migration, or on the<br />
breeding grounds,” says Dr. Peter Marra, a scientist with the<br />
Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>.” We<br />
have scientists tackling<br />
this work from Maine,<br />
where McKinley is based,<br />
to Alaska.<br />
In addition, we are leaders<br />
in efforts to restore national<br />
forests and other lands<br />
damaged by industrial<br />
activities such as logging.<br />
Once restored, these<br />
places can provide better<br />
wildlife habitat and store<br />
more climate-changing<br />
carbon. Public education<br />
is another high priority for<br />
our climate team because<br />
an aroused citizenry is<br />
necessary to enact strong<br />
laws and change behavior.<br />
For example, we are<br />
producing reports on the<br />
best carbon-storing public<br />
forests in each state.<br />
Of course, the work we<br />
have been doing every<br />
day since 1935 to protect<br />
land pays important dividends<br />
by limiting climate<br />
change and offering<br />
plants and wildlife a better<br />
chance to adapt. For<br />
more on <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong>’s effort, visit:<br />
http://wilderness.org/campaigns/global-warming.<br />
Among the many species of birds that may suffer as the climate changes are, clockwise from top left, Black-throated Blue Warbler,<br />
Bicknell’s Thrush, Gray Jay, Common Loon, and young American Redstart.<br />
13
Bicknell’s thrush migration routes<br />
Both Bicknell’s Thrush and Black-throated Blue<br />
Warbler winter primarily in the Greater Antilles in the<br />
Caribbean, where climate change brings a different set<br />
of environmental concerns. “Change is happening in the<br />
tropics, and there it’s not just temperature; it’s also the influence<br />
of precipitation,” Marra says. “Major droughts are<br />
occurring in the Caribbean, and are predicted to continue<br />
over the next 30 to 50 years.” Marra’s studies on wintering<br />
American Redstarts in the Caribbean have shown that<br />
the amount of winter precipitation directly influences the<br />
birds’ physical condition when departing in the spring for<br />
North America. “<strong>The</strong> abundance of redstarts throughout<br />
their breeding range is influenced more by winter climate<br />
than it is by breeding climate,” Marra says.<br />
Climate change threatens birds in ways that few<br />
could have predicted. <strong>The</strong> Gray Jay, a bird of the boreal<br />
forests of North America, depends for winter survival on<br />
food cached in fall. Warmer autumn temperatures cause<br />
this stored food to rot, diminishing breeding success the<br />
following spring. <strong>The</strong> Common Loon, an iconic waterbird<br />
of the North, has evolved to leave the freshwater lakes<br />
where it nests before a winter molt that leaves it flightless;<br />
warmer temperatures cause loons to delay their migration,<br />
so that when freezing weather does come they are<br />
trapped, unable to fly or find food.<br />
Though it’s probably true that it will be decades before<br />
significant numbers of bird species become endangered<br />
or suffer wide-scale extirpation as a direct result<br />
© Courtesy of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies<br />
“Change the temperature and that<br />
changes everything. It doesn’t do it<br />
instantaneously. It’s going to do it<br />
in fits and starts: ice storms in the<br />
Northeast, fires in the Southeast,<br />
drought in many areas.”<br />
of global climate change, it seems increasingly likely that<br />
serious impacts reducing biodiversity will show up long<br />
before that point. Populations of vulnerable species will<br />
decline, in some cases substantially. Species composition<br />
of birds and other organisms will change, as will complex<br />
ecological interactions, with unknown environmental<br />
consequences.<br />
“We’re changing the basic way the climate works on<br />
the planet,” Rodenhouse says. “Change the temperature<br />
and that changes everything. It doesn’t do it instantaneously.<br />
It’s going to do it in fits and starts: ice storms<br />
in the Northeast, fires in the Southeast, drought in many<br />
areas. <strong>The</strong>re’s going to be a period of tremendous variability<br />
as all these changes occur. What’s going to come<br />
out at the other end is going to be so dramatically different<br />
that we can’t even speculate.”<br />
David Moulton is <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>’s director<br />
of climate change policy and a life-long birder. “In the<br />
past,” he points out, “a lone canary could issue a clear<br />
warning of dangerous gases by dropping dead in a mine<br />
shaft. When will we heed the warning of entire species<br />
facing extinction due to greenhouse gases?”<br />
<strong>The</strong> phoebes wintering near my home are sending<br />
us a clear message, as are the Carolina Wrens nesting<br />
in New York and the waterfowl that no longer fly so far<br />
south in the fall. Our climate is changing with a speed<br />
that could strain or snap vital strands in the web of planetary<br />
life—the relationships that sustain all of Earth’s organisms,<br />
including ourselves.<br />
Mel White is a freelance writer in Little<br />
Rock, Arkansas, and specializes in travel<br />
and natural history. He has written for<br />
National Geographic, Audubon, Living Bird,<br />
and Outside, and his books include<br />
National Geographic Complete National<br />
Parks of the United States.<br />
© Hope Coulter<br />
14 1-800-THE-WILD
<strong>The</strong> Final Frontier<br />
By Marilyn Berlin Snell<br />
© Kevin Smith/AlaskaStock.com<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
15
LONG BEFORE ALASKA BECAME A<br />
STATE IN 1959, THE TERRITORY’S VAST<br />
RESOURCES—INCLUDING GOLD,<br />
WHALES, FISH, AND SEA OTTER PELTS—<br />
HAD LURED PROSPECTORS INTO VAST<br />
AND SPECTACULAR TERRAIN.<br />
Today’s booty is even farther north, in the federal waters<br />
of the Arctic Ocean’s Outer Continental Shelf (OCS),<br />
which begins three miles offshore. Beneath the icy, turbulent,<br />
and fog-bound Chukchi and Beaufort seas lie potentially<br />
rich oil and gas deposits.<br />
Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski (R) calls it America’s<br />
“last great frontier” and is a vocal advocate for development.<br />
Conservation groups and Native communities<br />
dependent on the ocean for sustenance have fought to<br />
keep drilling at bay. <strong>The</strong> region is vital to orca and beluga<br />
whales, ringed and bearded seals, and walrus. It’s a key<br />
migratory route for the endangered bowhead whale. All<br />
of the nation’s polar bears, already threatened by melting<br />
ice, live there, too.<br />
Unless <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong> and its partners can secure<br />
a victory before all the decisions to allow drilling are<br />
finalized, Royal Dutch Shell will begin drilling exploratory<br />
wells in the Beaufort in 2012 and in the Chukchi in 2013.<br />
“Even if you think it’s okay to drill for oil and gas<br />
when the planet’s climate already is changing at a frightening<br />
pace,” said<br />
Lois Epstein, <strong>The</strong><br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>’s<br />
Arctic program director,<br />
“these projects<br />
raise two fundamental<br />
questions. First, what<br />
would the drilling do<br />
to the marine mammals,<br />
sea and bird life,<br />
and Native communities<br />
that depend on<br />
this fragile ecosystem?<br />
Second, when there<br />
is a major spill, what will the damage be? We just don’t<br />
have the answers.” Epstein also pointed to a need to<br />
update scientific surveys done a quarter century ago because<br />
“we need, at a minimum, a baseline understanding<br />
of the biology and ecology of the Arctic Ocean.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> health of marine mammals and other sea life is of<br />
paramount importance in the Inupiat village of Point Hope.<br />
“We are on a spit and have the Chukchi on the north, west,<br />
and south sides of us,” said Mae Hank. “During the summer<br />
we fish. Wintertime, the men hunt seals off the point<br />
on the west side. Spring they hunt whales and walrus.” <strong>The</strong><br />
grandmother of eight added, “Energy companies have no<br />
legitimate way to clean up a spill.”<br />
Since the 1968 discovery of oil in Prudhoe Bay on<br />
Alaska’s North Slope, energy companies, including BP,<br />
have worked in state waters near shore in the Beaufort Sea.<br />
Dr. Dana Wetzel has been studying the area for 11 years<br />
through grants from the Environmental Protection Agency,<br />
the state of Alaska, and the North Slope Borough, made<br />
up of eight Native villages. Wetzel, an ecotoxicologist from<br />
Florida’s Mote Marine Laboratory, has focused on oil accumulation<br />
in marine mammals and fish near Prudhoe Bay.<br />
Thus far, she has found “very little,” she said.<br />
But, Wetzel added, “I think anybody would say that<br />
there is a danger to a lot of different sea life” from oil exploration<br />
and production. “<strong>The</strong> question is: What strategies<br />
are in place to deal with a spill or, even before that,<br />
what regulations are<br />
in place to ensure<br />
“We have extremely limited Arctic response<br />
capabilities,” Admiral Robert J. Papp, Jr.,<br />
testified... “We do not have any infrastructure<br />
on the North Slope to hangar our aircraft,<br />
moor our boats or sustain our crews. I have<br />
only one operational icebreaker.”<br />
that a spill doesn’t<br />
happen?” In the<br />
event of an accident,<br />
Wetzel said, “I’m not<br />
sure how you’d clean<br />
oil off ice, for starters.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are just<br />
a lot of unknowns. It<br />
becomes very scary<br />
to even contemplate<br />
that sort of scenario.”<br />
Noise is another<br />
concern. Marine mammals and fish rely on sounds<br />
to find food and mates, to avoid predators, and to communicate.<br />
Dr. John A. Hildebrand studies marine bioacoustics<br />
at the University of California, San Diego’s<br />
Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Since 2006 he has<br />
been conducting studies for the Alaska Department of<br />
Fish and Game in the Chukchi Sea.<br />
16 1-800-THE-WILD
© Patrick J. Endres/AlaskaPhotoGraphics.com<br />
“It gets much noisier when seismic exploration is taking<br />
place,” said Hildebrand. Humans need ear protection<br />
for sound above 80 decibels (dB), and Hildebrand’s<br />
group detected sounds of 250 dB when the air guns<br />
used for seismic exploration were fired. “You can’t go<br />
out and put ear protection on whales.”<br />
Hildebrand’s group has confirmed, however, that<br />
the Chukchi’s seabed in the area targeted for exploration<br />
is both shallow and flat. “Because of that flat continental<br />
shelf, when you make sounds like the air guns it propagates<br />
a long way. That means that you could be 100 miles<br />
away and you’d still hear it.”<br />
Just how difficult would it be to drill in these waters?<br />
Drill rigs and wells would be subject to the Arctic<br />
Ocean’s ice, high winds, and strong currents. During the<br />
approximately 100 summer days of open water, when exploratory<br />
drilling would occur, ice floes and icebergs pose<br />
a danger. Moving ice four miles wide has been seen in<br />
the Beaufort. In the Chukchi, Hank has seen two-story ice<br />
ridges—formed when currents smash ice floes into each<br />
other. How an offshore platform and its pipelines would<br />
fare in an encounter with what scientists call “an extreme<br />
ice feature” is still not fully known.<br />
And if a spill occurred? <strong>The</strong> Beaufort lies north of the<br />
North Slope’s Prudhoe Bay, which has basic infrastructure<br />
and could serve as a rudimentary staging area. However,<br />
much of the Beaufort coastline does not. <strong>The</strong> Chukchi,<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
Chukchi Sea<br />
Point<br />
Hope<br />
Arctic Ocean<br />
Wainwright<br />
Barrow<br />
Beaufort Sea<br />
National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska<br />
Prudhoe Bay<br />
N O R T H S L O P E<br />
Colville River<br />
ALASKA<br />
Pacic<br />
Ocean<br />
Detail<br />
ALASKA<br />
Kaktovik<br />
Trans Alaska<br />
Pipeline<br />
Arctic National<br />
Wildlife Refuge<br />
© Joel Garlich-Miller/USFWS<br />
<strong>The</strong> entire U.S. population of polar bears, already facing grave<br />
challenges as the ice pack shrinks, is found along Alaska’s<br />
northern coast and would be in greater jeopardy if drilling<br />
occurs in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. Among other species<br />
that could be harmed is the walrus.<br />
off Alaska’s northwest coast, is remote, essentially undeveloped,<br />
and lacks basic infrastructure. (If oil is extracted<br />
from the Chukchi, it probably would run through a proposed<br />
280-mile pipeline crossing the National Petroleum<br />
Reserve-Alaska, which contains biologically sensitive wilderness,<br />
and hook up to the Trans Alaska Pipeline.)<br />
<strong>The</strong> U.S. Coast Guard would be responsible for<br />
cleanup in the Arctic Ocean, and its base nearest to the<br />
drilling sites is in Kodiak, more than 1,000 miles away.<br />
“We have extremely limited Arctic response capabilities,”<br />
Admiral Robert J. Papp, Jr., testified before a U.S. Senate<br />
subcommittee in August. “We do not have any infrastructure<br />
on the North Slope to hangar our aircraft, moor our<br />
boats or sustain our crews. I have only one operational<br />
icebreaker.”<br />
Brenda Pierce, program coordinator of the Energy<br />
Resources Program at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS),<br />
co-authored a report on oil spill preparedness if drilling<br />
were allowed in the Arctic Ocean. <strong>The</strong> survey of 400 scientific<br />
publications and science policy documents on the<br />
17
ON SHORE, THE ARCTIC REFUGE REMAINS AT RISK<br />
<strong>The</strong> Beaufort Sea lies perilously close to the biological<br />
heart of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—the coastal<br />
plain that is the calving ground of the 170,000-member<br />
caribou herd that migrates there each spring. This area also<br />
is vital to grizzlies, polar bears, wolves, muskoxen (an animal<br />
that dates back to the Ice Age), and millions of migratory<br />
songbirds and waterfowl that nest there.<br />
<strong>The</strong> oil industry has been lobbying for decades for the<br />
chance to drill the coastal plain, and the industry’s political<br />
allies have pushed hard in Congress for such authorization.<br />
Arctic found a lot of “really good studies” but also some<br />
“still-glaring holes,” she said in an interview.<br />
Shell spokesman Curtis Smith criticized the USGS<br />
report. “We think it falls far short of acknowledging the<br />
data and expertise that exists today,” he said, adding that<br />
Shell is ready to move forward safely in the Arctic. “In<br />
the unlikely event of an oil spill, what we saw in the Gulf<br />
(of Mexico) is not something we’d ever want to pursue: a<br />
number of small vessels chasing ribbons of oil. That’s why<br />
our oil spill response plan is predicated on being on site<br />
immediately.”<br />
Smith acknowledged that the Arctic is a “very harsh,<br />
remote” environment and that if Shell had a spill it<br />
couldn’t just call the Coast Guard. “You have to bring everything<br />
with you. That’s been our plan all along.” A fleet<br />
of 16 to 20 large oil-spill responders would circle the drill<br />
ship 24/7, Smith said.<br />
He pointed out that BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig was<br />
drilling at 5,000 feet under high pressure in the Gulf of<br />
Mexico. Shell would be drilling in 120 to 150 feet of water<br />
on the Arctic’s shallow OCS. “<strong>The</strong> wells we want to drill in<br />
Alaska are considered very straightforward,” Smith said.<br />
But Epstein, an engineer who has been appointed to<br />
a federal advisory committee on offshore drilling, pointed<br />
to a 2009 shallow-water blowout in Australia that gushed<br />
for ten weeks. Attempts to cap the well, at a depth of 240<br />
Working with many partners, <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong> has<br />
been able to turn aside every bill.<br />
We are supporting S. 33 and H.R. 139, which would add<br />
the coastal plain to the National <strong>Wilderness</strong> Preservation<br />
System—and thus bar drilling in this unique place. In August<br />
the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s new draft management<br />
plan for the refuge opened the door to considering a<br />
wilderness recommendation for the coastal plain. This is a<br />
positive step, but the decision to actually designate the land<br />
as wilderness rests with Congress.<br />
feet, failed, and millions of gallons of oil spewed into the<br />
ocean. Another red flag was the August 2011 offshore<br />
pipeline spill near Scotland in the North Sea. That was a<br />
Shell operation, and the company’s response was widely<br />
viewed as sub-par.<br />
Ultimately, Epstein contended, the decisions on<br />
whether to drill in the Beaufort and Chukchi may say something<br />
about society’s values. Are we more focused on the<br />
long term, or the short term? Is the oil worth the risk of<br />
potentially undermining the traditional ways of Native<br />
communities like Point Hope? Are we prepared to take on<br />
the challenges posed by climate change? <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong>, Hank, and others are determined to defend northern<br />
Alaska, but they face equally determined opponents.<br />
Marilyn Berlin Snell is a San Franciscobased<br />
journalist. Her work has appeared<br />
in Discover, <strong>The</strong> New Republic, and <strong>The</strong><br />
New York Times. In 2004, she teamed<br />
with ABC’s “Primetime” to produce<br />
a TV version of her investigation of<br />
a U.S.-based company’s payments<br />
to terrorists in the Philippines. <strong>The</strong><br />
program was nominated for an Emmy.<br />
© A.S. Hamrah<br />
18 1-800-THE-WILD<br />
© Lincoln Else
© Steven Kazlowski/AlaskaStock.com<br />
Native communities along Alaska’s northern coast depend on whales and other sea life.<br />
“Not worth the risk”<br />
Point Hope, population 674, lies on a gravel spit that<br />
juts several miles into the Chukchi Sea. One of the<br />
oldest continuously occupied Inupiat Eskimo areas in<br />
Alaska, its residents (Tikeraqmuit Inupiat Eskimos)<br />
depend on fishing and whaling for survival.<br />
Mayor George Kingik says that anything that<br />
threatens his constituents’ way of life is not worth the<br />
risk. “<strong>The</strong> whole community depends on our ocean,<br />
so that’s what we need to protect. I’m just going to tell<br />
you: We go against the drilling issue here.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Inupiat have learned over thousands of years<br />
how to hunt in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, but<br />
Kingik does not believe drilling companies under-<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
stand the challenges. “<strong>The</strong> Arctic is different than<br />
the Lower 48,” he said. “We have strong currents, it’s<br />
always pretty rough up here.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> village of Point Hope is part of the North<br />
Slope Borough, which covers the entire North Slope<br />
region of Alaska and has its own governing body.<br />
Though Point Hope remains unwaveringly opposed<br />
to drilling, Curtis Smith noted that Shell has successfully<br />
built “partnerships” with others, including the<br />
North Slope Borough. Some Natives have concluded<br />
that potential economic gains outweigh the risks to<br />
the natural world.<br />
—Marilyn Berlin Snell<br />
19
Why I Sold My Land<br />
to the American People<br />
Steve Currier wanted his family’s campground<br />
on Cape Cod to be there for future campers.<br />
by kathy shorr<br />
In 1953, when Steve Currier was seven, his father bought 57<br />
acres of land in Truro, Massachusetts, near the tip of Cape Cod.<br />
Land was plentiful and cheap then. <strong>The</strong> scrubby pitch pines<br />
were the size of small bushes, and the dirt road was so rutted<br />
you needed a dune buggy to make it out to the beach.<br />
20 1-800-THE-WILD<br />
© Cheryl Currier
Currier’s uncle spent the winter creating paths<br />
and tent sites, and in 1954 the family opened<br />
the North of Highland Camping Area. “We’d<br />
get 40 people packed in there on a hot day in<br />
July,” remembers Currier. “We had a little cabin,<br />
and the office was in a separate building.”<br />
Today, the pine trees have outgrown the<br />
telephone poles; the rutted buggy track is<br />
smooth asphalt; and an air-conditioned building<br />
holds both Currier’s house and office. But<br />
the campground is remarkably unchanged.<br />
Families still arrive each year to pitch tents,<br />
cook their meals on small charcoal grills, and<br />
walk a narrow dirt path four-tenths of a mile to<br />
the wide, sandy beach and rolling surf of the<br />
Atlantic Ocean.<br />
<strong>The</strong> campground sits inside the Cape Cod<br />
National Seashore, authorized by Congress<br />
eight years after the Curriers bought the land<br />
and now one of the National Park System’s<br />
most-visited parks. About four million people<br />
come to this narrow peninsula each year, but<br />
campgrounds are increasingly hard to find.<br />
Rising land values and real estate<br />
taxes have led many owners<br />
to sell for development; even in<br />
a real estate recession, a typical<br />
house lot in Truro runs $350,000.<br />
Steve Currier is not your typical<br />
landowner. Now 65, he still<br />
operates the campground his<br />
father started. “Seventy-five to<br />
80% of our campers are repeat<br />
customers,” says Currier. “One<br />
woman I played with when I<br />
was nine—she’s only missed two<br />
years in 56 years.”<br />
It was people like her that<br />
made Currier determined to<br />
keep the campground going—<br />
even though impending retirement<br />
and lack of interest from<br />
family members in taking over<br />
the business were pressuring him<br />
to sell. <strong>The</strong> line of potential buyers<br />
for such a choice location was long. “We’ve<br />
been really good neighbors with the national<br />
park for some time, and they were the first ones<br />
I called,” says Currier, who placed that call in<br />
2004. “I really did not want to see everything<br />
we’d done for 50 years end up in house lots.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Park Service was eager to deal. “<strong>The</strong><br />
long-term protection of this large parcel for a<br />
combination of camping and conservation purposes<br />
made this our highest priority acquisition,”<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
says CCNS Superintendent George Price. In<br />
fact, Park Service land managers had identified<br />
it as the highest priority for the Northeast.<br />
Unfortunately, park superintendents do not<br />
have money in their budgets to take advantage<br />
of such opportunities. Instead, the Park Service,<br />
U.S. Forest Service, and other federal agencies<br />
that manage the public’s property rely on the<br />
Land and Water Conservation Fund. Created<br />
by Congress in 1965, LWCF receives $900 million<br />
a year from the royalties that oil companies<br />
pay for the chance to drill in offshore waters.<br />
When Congress makes its annual appropriations,<br />
it decides which proposed land acquisitions<br />
will be funded.<br />
To make the case for the campground,<br />
Congressman William Delahunt (D-MA), who<br />
represented the Cape at that time, teamed up<br />
with the late Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA).<br />
“Part of what the National Seashore was about<br />
was creating public access for recreation,” says<br />
Delahunt, who now has a public policy consulting<br />
firm. “You’re on some of the most expen-<br />
© Jerry and Marcy Monkman © Cheryl Currier<br />
sive real estate, right by the ocean. But this is<br />
about continuing a tradition that goes back to<br />
the 1600s, a connection to people living on the<br />
land. Generations of people slept under the<br />
stars here 400 years ago. To cut some wood,<br />
make a fire, walk the beaches, you experience<br />
the full measure of human history. To lose that<br />
would be tragic.”<br />
Obtaining the appropriations usually takes<br />
time—a lot of time, in many cases. To ensure<br />
Sen. Ted Kennedy<br />
(seated) and U.S.<br />
Rep. Delahunt<br />
(to Kennedy’s<br />
left) championed<br />
the funding<br />
needed to save<br />
the campground<br />
from potential<br />
development. It<br />
has been a fixture<br />
on the Cape for<br />
more than half a<br />
century.<br />
21
In millions ($)<br />
20,000<br />
18,000<br />
16,000<br />
14,000<br />
12,000<br />
10,000<br />
8,000<br />
6,000<br />
4,000<br />
2,000<br />
459<br />
LWCF Funds and Offshore Energy Revenue FY00−FY10<br />
4,546<br />
0<br />
FY00 FY01<br />
LWCF Funds<br />
Offshore Energy Revenue<br />
563<br />
7,498<br />
573<br />
4,136<br />
FY02<br />
413<br />
5,934<br />
FY03<br />
272<br />
5,348<br />
FY04<br />
259<br />
6,325<br />
FY05<br />
144<br />
7,607<br />
FY06<br />
138<br />
7,019<br />
FY07<br />
155<br />
18,045<br />
FY08<br />
180<br />
5,819<br />
FY09<br />
Close to home<br />
While the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) focuses on additions to national parks,<br />
national wildlife refuges, and other lands owned by all Americans, a portion of it is made available<br />
as 50-50 matching grants to enable communities, counties, and states to acquire natural areas and<br />
build recreational facilities. More than 41,000 projects—including playgrounds, swimming pools,<br />
ball fields, parks, and trails—have resulted. This is the federal government’s primary investment<br />
tool for ensuring that kids and their families have close-to-home recreation opportunities.<br />
It is almost impossible to find a county that has not benefited. Projects include:<br />
Satellite Beach, Florida:<br />
LWCF funds helped acquire<br />
Hightower Beach Park,<br />
which features a halfmile<br />
of ocean beach, an<br />
ecologically important dune<br />
system, a nature trail, and<br />
habitat for nesting green<br />
and loggerhead turtles.<br />
LaGrange County, Indiana:<br />
Boy Scouts are among<br />
those who enjoy the trails<br />
that run through woodlands<br />
and wetlands at Pine Knob<br />
Park, which also has a 3-D<br />
archery course.<br />
Each year Congress decides how much of LWCF’s revenue to appropriate for these matching<br />
grants, and that total is then allocated to the states on the basis of population. Unfortunately,<br />
the appropriations declined from $92.5 million in 2005 to $40 million in 2011. “This is incredibly<br />
shortsighted,” says <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>’s Alan Rowsome. “With obesity and diabetes at record<br />
levels, for adults and children, we should be doing more, not less, to enable our citizens to get<br />
outside and exercise.”<br />
366<br />
5,254<br />
FY10<br />
In 2010, the Department of the Interior collected approximately $5.2 billion<br />
from offshore energy production, but only $306 million, or about seven<br />
percent of that revenue, was set aside to protect America’s land and water.<br />
that the campground wouldn’t be sold for development<br />
in the meantime, <strong>The</strong> Trust for Public<br />
Land (TPL), a nonprofit, provided some funds,<br />
legal guidance, and other assistance. “<strong>The</strong><br />
park’s original intent was to purchase the land<br />
outright, but ultimately Steve Currier opted to<br />
sell a conservation easement, allowing him to<br />
continue to operate the campground and to<br />
keep the property in the family,” says Darci<br />
Schofield, who managed the project for TPL.<br />
<strong>The</strong> terms allow Currier to sell the land someday<br />
and the new owner to make upgrades for<br />
campers, but the land cannot be developed.<br />
It took six years from the day that Kennedy<br />
and Delahunt went to work until Currier sat<br />
down to sign the papers, in March 2010. <strong>The</strong><br />
long grind was due to the usual protracted process<br />
on Capitol Hill and to resolution of management<br />
issues, including the change to the<br />
easement. “Steve Currier needed to be really<br />
patient to make this work,” says Schofield. “His<br />
Battle Ground, Washington:<br />
With LWCF help, Clark<br />
County was able to acquire<br />
64 acres of uplands and<br />
riparian wetlands at the<br />
confluence of Salmon and<br />
Morgan creeks for the<br />
Salmon Creek Greenspace.<br />
North Bass Island, Ottawa<br />
County, Ohio: On the last<br />
large, undeveloped island<br />
in Lake Erie LWCF is making<br />
it possible for the public to<br />
enjoy camping, picnicking,<br />
swimming, boating, hiking,<br />
hunting, and fishing across<br />
357 acres.<br />
22 1-800-THE-WILD
commitment to conservation was outstanding.”<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re’s a constant scramble to find the<br />
money—and find it fast enough—to protect<br />
places like Cape Cod National Seashore,” says<br />
Alan Rowsome, director of conservation funding<br />
for <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>. Congress has<br />
rarely allowed the full amount of the royalties<br />
flowing into the LWCF account to be invested<br />
as intended, instead diverting the money to<br />
other programs. In today’s economy, the situation<br />
is even worse. LWCF appropriations for<br />
Fiscal Year 2011 were just $301 million, a 37<br />
percent drop from the previous year. <strong>The</strong> level<br />
for FY12 was not known at press time but could<br />
well be lower still.<br />
“We’re betraying a legacy of the Teddy<br />
Roosevelts of this country, and their recognition<br />
of what the wilderness and the connection<br />
to the Earth mean in human terms,” says<br />
Delahunt. “It’s going to require a different type<br />
of Tea Party to understand the meaning of our<br />
Waiting, waiting, still waiting…<br />
Many places around the country have<br />
benefitted from purchases made possible by<br />
the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Below<br />
are four high-priority and threatened properties<br />
that have been waiting for LWCF funding, in<br />
some cases for several years.<br />
Simpsonwood property,<br />
Chattahoochee River<br />
National Recreation Area,<br />
Georgia: About three<br />
million people a year enjoy<br />
this national recreation<br />
area near Atlanta, which<br />
provides an important green<br />
corridor for recreation and<br />
protection of the river in a<br />
fast-growing metro area.<br />
<strong>The</strong> 226-acre conference<br />
center and retreat has<br />
2,100 feet of riverfront and,<br />
if bought by a developer,<br />
could be developed into<br />
250 home sites. A National<br />
Park Service purchase<br />
would protect local drinking<br />
water quality while opening<br />
the site to the public for<br />
walking, biking, horseback<br />
riding, and other uses.<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
Ramirez Canyon, Santa<br />
Monica Mountains National<br />
Recreation Area, California:<br />
Ramirez Canyon is a<br />
6.16-acre inholding in the<br />
Santa Monica Mountains<br />
NRA, just northwest of Los<br />
Angeles. A trail connecting<br />
it to other areas takes you<br />
through shady oak and<br />
sycamore woods, home to<br />
quail, mule deer, and gray<br />
foxes. Despite its lushness,<br />
the area features a delicate<br />
ecosystem that the state<br />
has recommended for<br />
protection. It’s also prime<br />
L.A. real estate, and a<br />
developer has drawn up a<br />
proposal for subdivision.<br />
heritage. People like Steve Currier, working with<br />
public entities—they are extraordinary people,<br />
and what they are doing is so American.”<br />
Rowsome and <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong> are<br />
leaders in the LWCF Coalition, which is fighting<br />
to pass a bill (S. 1265) that would permanently<br />
fund LWCF at its authorized level. He<br />
says that despite the budget battles, LWCF<br />
Crooked River Canyon,<br />
Crooked Wild and Scenic<br />
River Watershed, Oregon:<br />
White-water enthusiasts<br />
travel long distances for<br />
the chance to experience<br />
the rapids and incredible<br />
scenery of the Crooked<br />
River, which rushes through<br />
central Oregon’s high desert.<br />
Development around the<br />
101 acres for sale has limited<br />
public access to this stretch<br />
of river, and acquisition<br />
of this property would<br />
greatly enhance recreation<br />
opportunities.<br />
Continued on page 62<br />
Steve Currier, shown<br />
with his mother<br />
Evelyn, remained<br />
patient so that an<br />
agreement could be<br />
worked out with the<br />
National Park Service.<br />
Georgia’s Chattahoochee River offers first-rate recreation.<br />
© Flickr/Capt Kodak<br />
Wolf Island, Stony Point,<br />
Kremer Lake, and Fall Lake,<br />
Superior and Chippewa<br />
national forests, Minnesota:<br />
<strong>The</strong> 139 acres in these<br />
three properties are part<br />
of a 12,000-mile system<br />
of canoe trails that follow<br />
the paths that Native<br />
Americans and French<br />
Canadian fur traders took<br />
centuries ago. <strong>The</strong> purchase<br />
would protect access to<br />
some of the Northwoods’<br />
beautiful and secluded<br />
lakes throughout the year.<br />
23
Skiing In<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
Wonderlands<br />
By David Goodman<br />
“On skis, you slide silently into a world that is otherwise<br />
inaccessible, a fortunate traveler in a magical frozen landscape.<br />
You forget where you are, and who you are.”<br />
I<br />
learned to ski on family trips to a now-defunct resort in<br />
the Catskills of New York. I was motivated by the fun<br />
of riding the rope tow between my dad’s legs, and going<br />
downhill faster than my parents approved. Getting<br />
back to nature was not so important.<br />
By the time I was in college, I had grown disenchanted<br />
with the downhill ski scene, which I felt had become industrial,<br />
expensive, and boring. That’s when I discovered backcountry<br />
skiing. On skis, you slide silently into a world that is<br />
otherwise inaccessible, a fortunate traveler in a magical frozen<br />
landscape. You forget where you are, and who you are.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is wilderness—and then there is wilderness<br />
in winter. <strong>The</strong> mundane becomes spectacular, and the<br />
familiar looks new. I was reminded of this recently when<br />
I skied through the Pemigewasset <strong>Wilderness</strong> in New<br />
Hampshire. Not 15 minutes beyond the wilderness boundary,<br />
I was suddenly navigating by my wits. Trail blazes vanished,<br />
and even the trail seemed to melt away beneath the<br />
snowy mantle. I stayed oriented by gliding along a frozen<br />
river, a beautiful, meandering passage through the wilds.<br />
At the end of a long day, I emerged from the wilderness,<br />
tired, thrilled, and invigorated by the feeling of skiing utterly<br />
alone through “land retaining its primeval character<br />
and influence…affected primarily by the forces of nature,”<br />
as the <strong>Wilderness</strong> Act of 1964 declares.<br />
Skiers have unique advantages in wilderness. Snow tells<br />
24 1-800-THE-WILD
© Howie Garber<br />
a story: Following fresh tracks in winter has led me to<br />
encounter moose, deer, and fox. <strong>The</strong> leafless forest<br />
opens up vistas in winter that may be obscured in summer,<br />
while skiing on frozen lakes and rivers can offer<br />
easy passage through challenging terrain.<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> skiing poses special challenges and is<br />
generally for more advanced intermediate skiers. All of<br />
the tours described here require proficiency navigating<br />
with minimal or no trail makings, and skiing in ungroomed<br />
snow. <strong>The</strong>re are also special hazards: Skiers,<br />
especially those in the western U.S., must be trained<br />
in avalanche awareness and assessment and carry avalanche<br />
rescue equipment if they are venturing into<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
Mill B-South Fork, Twin Peaks<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> in Utah’s Uinta-<br />
Wasatch-Cache National Forest<br />
slide-prone<br />
terrain (which includes<br />
a number of the<br />
tours noted here).<br />
Following are some of the nation’s<br />
best wilderness areas for backcountry skiing.<br />
Each wilderness has unique character, ranging from<br />
its views and terrain to the quality of snow. But all<br />
share the common bond of being places, as the Act<br />
poetically states, “where the earth and its community<br />
of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is<br />
a visitor who does not remain.”<br />
25
Great wilderness areas for backcountry skiing<br />
PEMIGEWASSET<br />
WILDERNESS,<br />
NEW HAMPSHIRE –<br />
At 45,818 acres, this is the<br />
largest federal wilderness<br />
area in the Northeast. It is<br />
one of the few places in New<br />
England where multiday<br />
ski trips can be undertaken<br />
without crossing roads.<br />
Highlights include gaining<br />
access to high-mountain<br />
ponds that are rarely visited<br />
in winter, spectacular views of<br />
the massive White Mountains,<br />
and a sense of isolation that is<br />
unusual in this heavily traveled<br />
region. One of my favorite day<br />
trips follows the <strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
Trail as it runs alongside the<br />
gurgling Pemigewasset River.<br />
For experienced backcountry<br />
travelers, the 20-mile Pemi<br />
Traverse is an enduring – and<br />
beautiful – skiing journey.<br />
BOUNDARY WATERS<br />
CANOE AREA WILDERNESS,<br />
MINNESOTA – When the<br />
last paddlers drift away from<br />
northern Minnesota’s endless<br />
expanse of lakes known<br />
as the Boundary Waters,<br />
intrepid skiers glide in to take<br />
their place. Skiers can travel<br />
across the frozen lakes in<br />
this 810,000-acre wilderness,<br />
enjoying uninterrupted views<br />
to the horizon. Another<br />
option is the 28.8-kilometer<br />
Banadad Trail (banadad.<br />
org), three-fourths of which<br />
is within the wilderness area.<br />
<strong>The</strong> trail is groomed—which<br />
is unusual in wilderness—and<br />
it makes for fast and pleasant<br />
travel, especially when snow<br />
conditions are challenging.<br />
Several yurts and lodges lie on<br />
short spurs off the Banadad,<br />
so skiers can set out for<br />
several days carrying only day<br />
packs. <strong>The</strong> Banadad is part<br />
of Minnesota’s 200-kilometer<br />
Gunflint cross-country ski trail<br />
network, which offers many<br />
days and styles of skiing.<br />
ALPINE LAKES WILDERNESS,<br />
WASHINGTON – Just a<br />
45-minute drive from Seattle,<br />
this 392,000-acre wilderness<br />
beckons to skiers with its<br />
soaring crags, copious snowfall,<br />
and, of course, alpine lakes.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ski tour into Colchuck<br />
Lake, outside Leavenworth,<br />
is a classic. (It’s a three-hour<br />
drive to the trailhead from<br />
Seattle.) This beautiful lake,<br />
dwarfed by the towering rock<br />
flanks of Dragontail Peak, is<br />
also the gateway to the aptly<br />
named Enchantment Peaks.<br />
For more of a mountaineering<br />
experience, ski up the<br />
Colchuck Glacier to Colchuck<br />
Peak and enjoy 2,500 vertical<br />
feet of beautiful skiing. Lacing<br />
turns down through the rock<br />
spires “is reminiscent of skiing<br />
in Europe,” says local author<br />
Andy Dappen.<br />
© Barbara Young, courtesy of the Banadad Trail Association<br />
TWIN PEAKS WILDERNESS,<br />
UTAH – Shoehorned into the<br />
heart of Utah’s bustling ski<br />
country just above Salt Lake<br />
City is this serene 11,396-acre<br />
wilderness. It boasts the epic<br />
powder and stunning views<br />
that draw throngs to ski the<br />
Wasatch, sans the buzz of<br />
lifts, helicopters, and people.<br />
One of my favorite tours is<br />
just across the street from<br />
the Alta Ski Area, from where<br />
I’ve skied up over Cardiff<br />
Pass and Cardiac Ridge,<br />
dropping into Mill B South<br />
Fork, a broad river drainage<br />
flanked by stunning views<br />
of Dromedary and Sundial<br />
Peaks and Mt. Superior. I<br />
love the sensation of skiing<br />
away from the crowds and<br />
vanishing into the solitude of<br />
the wilderness.<br />
JOHN MUIR WILDERNESS,<br />
CALIFORNIA – <strong>The</strong> serrated<br />
skyline of the Sierra Crest<br />
is the backdrop for skiers in<br />
this 651,992-acre wilderness.<br />
Named for the wilderness<br />
advocate and founder of the<br />
Sierra Club, this dramatic<br />
landscape ranges from 4,000foot<br />
alpine meadows to peaks<br />
over 13,000 feet. <strong>The</strong> easiest<br />
entry is from Highway 395<br />
near Tom’s Place, where you<br />
can ski on a road groomed<br />
by Rock Creek Lodge<br />
(rockcreeklodge.com) to<br />
Mosquito Flat. From there, it<br />
is about a mile to Mack Lake,<br />
which is inside the wilderness.<br />
“You are treated to an<br />
amazing view of Little Lakes<br />
Valley with Bear Creek Spire<br />
crowning the Sierra Crest<br />
here,” raves Marcus Libkind, a<br />
long-time Sierra skier.<br />
A solitary skier takes<br />
in the silence of New<br />
Hampshire’s Pemigewasset<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong>, while two<br />
skiers sample the Banadad<br />
Trail in the Boundary<br />
Waters Canoe Area<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> in Minnesota.<br />
26 1-800-THE-WILD<br />
© Brian Mohr/EmberPhoto
©<br />
© Bradly J. Boner<br />
Skiers and others who enjoy winter recreation love the Jedediah<br />
Smith <strong>Wilderness</strong> on the south slope of the Tetons in Wyoming near<br />
Yellowstone National Park. Wildlife found in this wilderness area<br />
includes moose and wolverines.<br />
JEDEDIAH SMITH<br />
WILDERNESS, WYOMING –<br />
This 123,451-acre wilderness<br />
is home to some of the<br />
best and most accessible<br />
backcountry skiing in North<br />
America. Teton Pass (where<br />
you can park) is a mecca for<br />
backcountry skiers and riders,<br />
and “<strong>The</strong> Jed” is home to<br />
much of the coveted ski<br />
terrain. With its legendary<br />
champagne powder (totaling<br />
500 inches per year),<br />
spectacular views of the<br />
Tetons, broad open slopes,<br />
and easy access, <strong>The</strong> Jed is<br />
unrivaled. A classic tour is the<br />
descent from the summit of<br />
Mount Glory into Cold Creek,<br />
which lies in the wilderness.<br />
© Sue Minter<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
THREE SISTERS<br />
WILDERNESS, OREGON<br />
– <strong>The</strong> snowcapped Three<br />
Sisters (all exceeding 10,000<br />
feet) crown the eastern side of<br />
this 286,708-acre wilderness<br />
and are among the most<br />
prominent volcanoes in the<br />
Cascades. <strong>The</strong> tour on South<br />
Sister, which boasts nearly<br />
5,000 vertical feet of skiing, is<br />
a local favorite. It is easiest to<br />
reach in late spring and offers<br />
skiing into the summer.<br />
SAWTOOTH WILDERNESS,<br />
IDAHO – Hundreds of<br />
jagged peaks—42 over<br />
10,000 feet—form the<br />
skyline of this aptly named<br />
wilderness. Its 217,088 acres<br />
feature numerous alpine<br />
lakes and remarkable vistas.<br />
A yurt just outside the<br />
wilderness (sawtoothguides.<br />
com) provides a base for<br />
multiday ski tours around<br />
Williams Peak.<br />
David Goodman of Waterbury Center, Vermont, is a contributing<br />
writer for Mother Jones and the author of eight books, including<br />
three national bestsellers covering topics ranging from politics to<br />
skiing. His most recent is Best Backcountry Skiing in the Northeast:<br />
50 Classic Ski Tours in New England and New York.<br />
© Flickr/Olastuen<br />
MAROON BELLS-SNOWMASS<br />
WILDERNESS, COLORADO<br />
– Skiing in this 181,535-acre<br />
wilderness just outside Aspen<br />
“transports one back to a time<br />
when people were just visitors,”<br />
says Reid Haughey, president<br />
of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> Land Trust.<br />
Numerous ski huts managed<br />
by the 10th Mountain Division<br />
Hut Association (huts.org) lie<br />
just outside the wilderness, and<br />
provide the chance to spend<br />
many days in the surrounding<br />
peaks by skiing from hut to hut.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lindley Hut is perched at<br />
10,480 feet and lies closest to<br />
the wilderness.<br />
27
Bob Marshall<br />
(above) was<br />
one of <strong>The</strong><br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong>’s<br />
founders, and<br />
the Montana<br />
wilderness area<br />
named for him is<br />
one of the most<br />
celebrated.<br />
This unequaled go-getter on the side of nature’s<br />
wild places also became a ghostly guide<br />
to a young writer struggling to find reconciliation<br />
with his home ground, in my case the scenic<br />
but harsh ranch country along Montana’s<br />
Rocky Mountain Front. Throughout my teenage<br />
years, the Bob Marshall <strong>Wilderness</strong> Area<br />
was practically a neighbor, although an upscale<br />
one, to the buffalo-grass benchlands where my<br />
family worked on sheep ranches. Just over the<br />
craggy horizon lay “<strong>The</strong> Bob,” the million-acre<br />
heart of the northern Rockies. But out of reach<br />
to the likes of us, fading remnants of the lariat<br />
proletariat; hired hands do not go on hikes nor<br />
pricey pack trips.<br />
Writing gave me my escape from that<br />
life and territory, and I only accidentally came<br />
across Bob Marshall the man when the Forest<br />
Service commissioned me to write the history<br />
<strong>The</strong> Bob<br />
and I,<br />
Under the<br />
Big Sky<br />
By Ivan Doig<br />
He was a child of privilege who<br />
played Lewis and Clark with his<br />
brother in Central Park. A neophyte<br />
forester who showed up in the West<br />
barely knowing how to use an axe. A<br />
U.S. Forest Service bureaucrat who<br />
fathered wilderness areas as we know<br />
them, and for good measure, pitched<br />
in as a key creator of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong>. A one-of-a-kind explorer of<br />
his surroundings who could count like<br />
the devil and write like an angel. A<br />
marathon high-country hiker whose<br />
heart played out when he was 38. He<br />
was, lucky for us, Bob Marshall.<br />
of its Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment<br />
Station. One of early forestry’s old<br />
woodsmen recalled him as the big-eared college<br />
kid, a summer hire new to Washington’s<br />
Cascade mountains and forests, who went at<br />
the task of thinning vine maple saplings by belting<br />
them as if trying to hit a home run, when all<br />
it took was a steady hand on each slender trunk<br />
and a quick clip with the axe. We can bet the<br />
eastern greenhorn learned in a hurry.<br />
Sightings of this sort continued as I went<br />
my way as a roving young magazine writer<br />
committed to the West and its story. In an obscure<br />
archival photo album in Missoula, I came<br />
across Marshall grinning in jodhpurs during<br />
his late 1920’s research station stint in Big Sky<br />
country. At the Bancroft Library in Berkeley, I<br />
delved into his field notebooks full of boggling<br />
counting mania: cusswords heard at a lumber<br />
28 1-800-THE-WILD
© Jeff L. Fox<br />
camp, miles hiked per day, number of pancakes<br />
consumed by visiting Forest Service bigwigs,<br />
on and on. His was the kind of inspired quirkiness<br />
dear to a writer’s heart, so perhaps it was a<br />
natural evolution for this curious historic figure<br />
who died the year I was born, 1939, to become<br />
something of an off-stage fellow compulsive in<br />
my own environmentally tilted journalistic life.<br />
...his irrefutable answer whenever<br />
asked how many wilderness areas<br />
this nation really needs: “How many<br />
Brahms symphonies do we need?”<br />
<strong>The</strong>n came the summer of 1977, when I returned<br />
to Montana with a book in mind. I had<br />
long stayed away, daunted by the loss of loved<br />
ones to that hard life under the shadow of the<br />
Rockies, but determined now to tell our family<br />
story. First, though, by whatever impulse that<br />
had been waiting 20 years, I pointed myself and<br />
my unflinching wife Carol into the Bob, the waiting<br />
wilderness area.<br />
Those memorable days on the trail, we knew<br />
even then, were unrepeatable; we were graced<br />
to have one such experience in a lifetime. Knifeedge<br />
ridge hiking took our breath in more ways<br />
than one, with views of the snowy ranks of the<br />
interior Rockies while a gorge with Yosemite-like<br />
domes waited below. <strong>The</strong> Montana sky as big as<br />
advertised. Fishing —and better yet, catching!—<br />
at a creek-side campsite. For 40 miles, about a<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
day’s walk for Bob Marshall, we cloud-walked<br />
back and forth across the Continental Divide. In<br />
five days we encountered not another living soul,<br />
except nature’s own.<br />
Out of this and much else that adventurous<br />
summer came This House of Sky: Landscapes of<br />
a Western Mind, a finalist for the National Book<br />
Award and still high among the most popular of<br />
my books. But as it turned out, I was not through<br />
with Bob Marshall and his namesake country, nor<br />
he and it with me. Subsequently my fictional Two<br />
Medicine trilogy focused on a Forest Service family<br />
in that inspirational neck of the woods, and<br />
perhaps inevitably, in a later novel, Mountain<br />
Time, as my modern characters hike into the Bob,<br />
who do you think shows up in the pages as a lasting<br />
presence, tireless as a shadow, on the trail?<br />
I shall always believe that not the least of<br />
Bob Marshall’s legacy was his irrefutable answer<br />
whenever asked how many wilderness areas this<br />
nation really needs: “How many Brahms symphonies<br />
do we need?” And now, in a climatestressed<br />
world, how many Bob Marshalls, in<br />
imagination and actuality,<br />
do we need? As<br />
many as fate and luck<br />
can ever give us.<br />
Ivan Doig is the author<br />
of 13 books, including<br />
his Two Medicine trilogy<br />
of English Creek, Dancing<br />
at the Rascal Fair, and<br />
Ride With Me, Mariah<br />
Montana.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Bob<br />
Marshall<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
runs along 60<br />
miles of the<br />
Continental<br />
Divide with<br />
elevations<br />
ranging from<br />
4,000 to 9,000<br />
feet. <strong>The</strong>re are<br />
more than 1,000<br />
miles of trails.<br />
© Carol M. Doig<br />
29
Q&A<br />
Does Nature<br />
Affect Your<br />
Behavior?<br />
Does it matter if we are exposed to the natural<br />
world? Do trees, flowers, and the sight of wildlife<br />
affect our behavior? More and more scientists are<br />
trying to answer such questions. One of the hubs<br />
of this research is in Urbana-Champaign, at the<br />
University of Illinois, home to the Landscape and<br />
Human Health Laboratory.<br />
To learn more about the latest findings,<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> magazine spoke with Dr. Frances E.<br />
(Ming) Kuo, an associate professor who helped<br />
start the lab in 1993 and now serves as director.<br />
As a child, she began to wonder how the built<br />
world affected behavior, and she pursued this interest<br />
during graduate work at the Universities of<br />
California (Berkeley) and Michigan.<br />
© UI News Bureau: L. Brian Stauffer photo<br />
Q: E. O. Wilson coined the term “biophilia” to capture the<br />
theory that because humans evolved in nature we have a<br />
natural affinity for it. Is that borne out by your research?<br />
A: Yes, but our work goes beyond that. Our studies document<br />
that not only is there an affinity for the natural world,<br />
but being in its midst improves our physical and mental<br />
health. Because of the benefits, some researchers have<br />
taken to calling exposure to nature “Vitamin G,” referring<br />
to “green.”<br />
Q: What are these benefits?<br />
A: Consistent with earlier studies involving animals in captivity,<br />
scientists have documented less stress, more selfcontrol,<br />
more cooperation with others, greater mutual<br />
trust, quicker recovery from illness, and other benefits.<br />
Q: Is there really hard evidence of this impact, or is this based<br />
primarily on people telling researchers that a walk through a<br />
neighborhood park made them feel better?<br />
A: In this field’s early days there was quite a bit of reliance<br />
on self-reporting, but since then there have been<br />
many, many studies based on objective evidence. Blood<br />
pressure and heart rates were among the first things to<br />
be measured, and subsequently we tracked immune<br />
functioning, blood glucose levels in diabetics, and other<br />
physiological data. If you look at the body of evidence,<br />
you will find considerable scientific rigor.<br />
Q: What are some practical applications of your findings?<br />
A: Developers of public housing projects have taken a<br />
big interest. Historically, high-rise projects had trees and<br />
grass, but with hundreds of kids using that green space,<br />
the grass tended to get trampled and turned into mud,<br />
and then developers often paved over those areas rather<br />
than pay to continually re-sod. Our work has reminded<br />
housing authorities of the importance of these spaces; if<br />
you make them livable spaces, then residents use them,<br />
and that has important impacts on strength of community.<br />
30 1-800-THE-WILD
Getting people out in these spaces also introduces informal<br />
surveillance, which works to deter crime.<br />
Q: Can these principles make a difference in prisons?<br />
A: Yes, there’s some really cool work with prisons. It turns<br />
out that inmates with views of fields or forests have substantially<br />
fewer sick calls than those inmates looking at<br />
mostly barren prison yards. We’re also seeing a surge in<br />
gardening programs as a form of therapy for prisoners.<br />
Q: Can you say which natural objects have the most impact?<br />
A: As far as we can tell, it matches up pretty well with<br />
people’s intuitive sense of what constitutes nature. <strong>The</strong><br />
little research we have comparing<br />
the effects of different<br />
natural features—trees,<br />
grass, etc.—suggests that<br />
trees have an outsized impact.<br />
We know less about<br />
flowers, but signs are that<br />
they are high on the list, too.<br />
Q: What about wildlife?<br />
A: We have less documentation<br />
of this, but it does seem<br />
that anything that makes the<br />
view more absorbing matters.<br />
I think it would be very<br />
interesting to look at the<br />
effects of bird-watching on<br />
older adults.<br />
Q: Do indoor plants<br />
play a similar role?<br />
A: We’re not finding that<br />
they do. In fact, we more<br />
consistently see benefits<br />
from a scenic wall calendar<br />
or a window view of nature<br />
than from an indoor plant.<br />
Q: If an office worker isn’t getting much benefit from her<br />
plant, maybe she needs to get outside. True?<br />
A: Yes, there’s a great deal of evidence to suggest that<br />
getting outside during the day and absorbing some of<br />
the natural world improves our mood and health. As of<br />
now, we don’t have a lot of specifics.<br />
Q: <strong>The</strong>re is considerable discussion these days about youngsters<br />
failing to get outside much, spending long hours in front<br />
of the computer screen and the TV. Do you have any findings<br />
about how that might affect them?<br />
A: We have work involving children with ADHD (Attention<br />
Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) that shows that their<br />
symptoms are worse when they play indoors versus in<br />
greener, outdoor spaces. And there’s work on children in<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
the general population linking their access to nature with<br />
better concentration and fewer ADHD-like symptoms. I<br />
also believe that unstructured time outdoors is important<br />
in developing children’s capacity to explore, learn risk<br />
management, and become independent.<br />
Q: Are researchers discovering differences based on age,<br />
gender, or other demographic factors?<br />
A: At first we were baffled because boys were not showing<br />
the same effects as girls. But eventually we realized<br />
that the differences might stem from how much time boys<br />
spend in and around their homes. Once we took that<br />
into account, the difference disappeared. So generally<br />
no, we’re not seeing much<br />
demographic variance; it<br />
looks like everyone benefits<br />
from access to nature.<br />
Q: I know you do a lot of<br />
work with the United States<br />
Conference of Mayors and<br />
the City of Chicago. Are<br />
urban residents at a serious<br />
disadvantage because nature<br />
is marginalized in cities?<br />
A: Actually, one of the really<br />
important findings in<br />
this field is that “nature”<br />
doesn’t necessarily mean<br />
“not urban.” <strong>The</strong> evidence<br />
on nature and human<br />
health is not an argument<br />
for sprawl—not at all. It’s<br />
an argument for creating a<br />
whole hierarchical system<br />
of green spaces in our cities.<br />
This certainly includes<br />
national and state parks<br />
and forest preserves, but it<br />
also includes green urban<br />
environments: tree-lined<br />
streets, window boxes, vest pocket parks, green roofs,<br />
planters, small squares. What research tells us is that we<br />
should weave nature into the urban fabric, and that this<br />
will almost certainly lead to a healthier, better-functioning<br />
citizenry.<br />
Q: As your knowledge of this field has grown, have you<br />
changed your lifestyle at all?<br />
A: Yes, I do pay more attention to how I live my life. I have<br />
a walk home that makes it possible to use my iPhone,<br />
but now I try not to do that so that I can focus more on<br />
the experience of the tree-lined streets. Like most faculty<br />
members, I am trying to juggle a lot of things, and at first<br />
I felt guilty about not using any available moment to catch<br />
up on work, but I’m making that transition. It’s not easy.<br />
31
wilderness at risk<br />
Running through southwestern Oregon from the Cascades to the Pacific, the Wild<br />
and Scenic Rogue River offers outstanding rafting and wildlife viewing opportunities.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong> wants the Rogue protected from inappropriate logging in an<br />
area we believe should be added to the <strong>Wilderness</strong> System.<br />
© Justin Bailie<br />
32 1-800-THE-WILD
It is now open season on open spaces. <strong>The</strong> leading edge of this attack is the <strong>Wilderness</strong> and Roadless<br />
Area Release Act (H.R. 1581, S. 1087), which would open up more than 60 million acres of wild national<br />
forest and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands to activities such as oil drilling, dirt bike use, logging,<br />
and mining. On the following pages are eight of the landscapes in jeopardy.<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
33
One hour northeast<br />
of Las Vegas sits<br />
Gold Butte, with its<br />
prehistoric dwellings,<br />
timeless solitude,<br />
wildlife such as desert<br />
bighorn sheep and<br />
golden eagles. And<br />
spectacular geological<br />
features (including<br />
the“Screaming Beast,”<br />
above). Gold Butte<br />
needs to be protected<br />
from damaging offroad<br />
vehicle traffic.<br />
© Isabel Synnatschke<br />
34 1-800-THE-WILD
www.wilderness.org<br />
Aravaipa Canyon in southeastern Arizona<br />
features multicolored cliffs, multiple side<br />
canyons, and the beautiful, free-flowing<br />
and perennial Aravaipa Creek—a rarity<br />
in the desert. <strong>The</strong> canyon is a popular<br />
recreation destination and one of the<br />
state’s most ecologically intact areas,<br />
serving as valuable riparian habitat for<br />
peregrine falcons and a wide variety<br />
of songbirds. <strong>The</strong> primary threat to<br />
the unprotected canyonlands is poorly<br />
regulated off-road vehicle use, particularly<br />
in the uplands surrounding the canyon<br />
and the creek at canyon ends.<br />
© Howard Paley<br />
35
Tucked away in western North Carolina’s Nantahala National<br />
Forest is the Snowbird Mountain <strong>Wilderness</strong> Study Area. We<br />
believe Congress should add this special place to the National<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> Preservation System to protect it from logging.<br />
© George Evans<br />
36 1-800-THE-WILD
© Darren Huski<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is a fast-moving mining initiative underway at south-central New Mexico’s<br />
Otero Mesa, home to more than a thousand native species (including a prize<br />
pronghorn herd), thousands of ancient archeological sites, and more than half a<br />
million acres of wilderness-quality lands. Mining would also jeopardize the Salt<br />
Basin aquifer, the state’s largest, untapped freshwater resource.<br />
37
In the eastern Sierra’s<br />
Inyo National Forest<br />
lies Symmes Creek,<br />
featuring great views<br />
of 14,375-foot Mount<br />
Williamson, California’s<br />
second-highest peak.<br />
This area deserves to be<br />
added to the National<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> Preservation<br />
System so that it will<br />
never be compromised<br />
by motorized vehicles.<br />
© Ed Callaert<br />
38 1-800-THE-WILD
© Tom Till<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
Eastern Utah’s famed<br />
Desolation Canyon, one<br />
of the wildest stretches<br />
along the Green River,<br />
was named by explorer<br />
John Wesley Powell. It<br />
is a rafter’s playground,<br />
archeological treasure<br />
trove, and Old West icon<br />
that merits designation<br />
as a wilderness area so<br />
that it will be safe from<br />
gas drilling and off-road<br />
vehicle traffic.<br />
39
Caribou are among the species that would suffer if oil and<br />
gas drilling were allowed in the wildlife-rich portions of<br />
the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. This special place<br />
also is vital to greater white-fronted geese, tundra swans,<br />
Pacific black brant, and many other migratory birds. © Patrick J. Endres/AlaskaPhotoGraphics.com<br />
40 1-800-THE-WILD
© Sean Babbington<br />
Building<br />
an Army<br />
of Young<br />
Conservation<br />
Leaders<br />
“I love the work I do,” says Tom Uniack, who directs conservation<br />
campaigns for the Washington <strong>Wilderness</strong> Coalition<br />
in Seattle. “It’s a powerful thing to know that you protected<br />
something for your grandkids’ grandkids.”<br />
Uniack is a “graduate” of the mentoring and training<br />
programs that <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong> created in 1999.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re were millions and millions of acres of wilderness crying<br />
out for protection, but way too few trained organizers to<br />
build the public support needed to protect that land,” explains<br />
Michael Carroll, associate director of the <strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong>’s <strong>Wilderness</strong> Support Center (WSC). “So we found<br />
some enthusiastic donors and started training a new generation<br />
of leaders to work in communities across the country.”<br />
Those efforts have paid off. Today, thanks in large part to<br />
these programs, nearly every western state has a homegrown<br />
organization focused on wilderness, as do a number of East<br />
Coast and midwestern states. In the past decade, those organizations<br />
have played an important role in permanently protecting<br />
more than eight million acres of American wilderness.<br />
Not that these victories are won overnight. As another graduate,<br />
Carol Lena Miller of the Virginia <strong>Wilderness</strong> Committee,<br />
puts it: “Through long conversations and lots of patient effort we<br />
can help convince people about the benefits of wilderness, and<br />
clear up lots of misperceptions that are out there.”<br />
Meet a few more heroes who are leading the charge:<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
BY HANNAH NORDHAUS<br />
An alumnus of our training program, the Sierra Club’s<br />
Ben Greuel is helping protect the Olympic Peninsula.<br />
AMBER KELLEY,<br />
SAN JUAN CITIzENS ALLIANCE<br />
Amber Kelley, 31, grew up on a farm outside of Cortez in<br />
southwestern Colorado. After earning a sociology degree in<br />
2007, she found herself pulled home to the desert and mountains<br />
of her youth, and the San Juan Citizens Alliance hired her<br />
to help fight for protection of the lower Dolores River corridor.<br />
Being a native makes Kelley more effective. Because her<br />
father still farms there, she knows many of the agricultural users<br />
who might normally be sitting distrustfully across the table<br />
from environmental advocates. “Having gone to the oneroom<br />
schoolhouse with their kids helps” allay some of that<br />
suspicion, she explains—though she has still had to gain their<br />
trust because of her new role. “Now we’re working together<br />
to ensure that the agricultural community can thrive and native<br />
fish can be sustained.”<br />
Kelley has trained at WSC, and one staff member, Jeff<br />
Widen, continues to serve as her mentor. That support has<br />
helped her deal with the unique challenges of campaigning for<br />
lands protection in such a small community, which can be isolating.<br />
“Amber’s a quick learner,” says Widen. “I’ve been in her<br />
position a number of times, and I see her putting those lessons<br />
to work. She’s a strategic thinker who likes to find solutions.”<br />
41
Amber Kelley (left) and Sergio Avila (in jacket)<br />
received training from our <strong>Wilderness</strong> Support Center.<br />
© Brian Kelley<br />
SERGIO AVILA, SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE<br />
Sergio Avila grew up in Zacatecas, Mexico, a<br />
stark landscape of mesquite, cacti and rattlesnakes,<br />
and studied wildlife conservation in<br />
graduate school, specializing in large predators.<br />
Eventually, his work brought him to Tucson,<br />
where he now manages the Sky Island Alliance’s<br />
Northern Mexico Conservation Program.<br />
Before Avila joined the grassroots environmental<br />
group, Sky Island Alliance operated almost exclusively<br />
on the Arizona and New Mexico side of the Mexican border.<br />
But the increasingly rare jaguars and ocelots Avila studies did<br />
not, and in 2006 he started a program in Mexico, collaborating<br />
with researchers, ranchers, and government agencies<br />
to identify and protect wildlife corridors and habitat on both<br />
sides of the border. In March 2011, the Mexican government<br />
officially protected a 10,000-acre, biologically diverse private<br />
ranch where Avila has been monitoring wildlife since 2007.<br />
He considers his work to be a bridge between the conservation<br />
communities in the U.S. and Mexico. “Going to<br />
work in another country isn’t just translating your brochures,”<br />
he says, “but also knowing how to understand the people and<br />
their values.”<br />
“Sergio has a natural gift for talking with people that is a<br />
fantastic advantage in our work,” says Mike Quigley, who represents<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong> in Arizona and worked with<br />
him on a Tumacacori Highlands campaign.<br />
JEFF HUNTER,<br />
SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN FOREST COALITION<br />
It took 19 years of a day job, eight years of night school,<br />
and a six-month backpacking trip to do it, but eventually<br />
Jeff Hunter decided he needed to make his passion—land<br />
© Jessica Lamberton<br />
conservation—his job. Though he had volunteered for forest<br />
protection organizations, it was only when Hunter took<br />
a leave of absence from his job at Verizon Communications<br />
and hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine that<br />
he knew it was time to make a change. “I realized I wanted to<br />
align my values with my career,” he says.<br />
After completing an environmental studies degree in<br />
2002, he took a job in Chattanooga with the American Hiking<br />
<strong>Society</strong> and then, in 2008, with the Southern Appalachian<br />
Forest Coalition, where he is working to protect and expand<br />
a number of wilderness areas in Tennessee. As the organization’s<br />
lone full-time staffer in the Volunteer State, Hunter has<br />
built a broad coalition of businesses, nonprofits, faith organizations,<br />
and influential individuals to support wilderness protection.<br />
He wins converts with hikes. “If you can get someone<br />
out to fall in love with a place, to jump into a pool at the base<br />
of a local waterfall, to hike a snowy trail in the mountains in<br />
wintertime—that creates a connection,” he explains.<br />
“Jeff is a rock star,” raves the WSC’s Matt Keller, who has<br />
helped him develop strategy. “From his previous work Jeff<br />
brought tremendous people skills and lobbying experience,<br />
and that’s reflected in the progress made so far on the bill<br />
introduced by the state’s Republican senators. In most cases,<br />
our career changers have been great success stories.”<br />
42 1-800-THE-WILD
© Caara Fritz<br />
BEN GREUEL, SIERRA CLUB<br />
Ben Greuel grew up on a farm along the Wisconsin<br />
River. <strong>The</strong> TV reception was terrible, so he spent his<br />
time fishing, swimming, hunting, and hiking, and, in<br />
summertime, driving around the West and camping<br />
out of the back of his family’s blue Ford F250.<br />
No surprise, then, that when he finished college,<br />
he immediately went into the business of preserving<br />
wild places. He is now based in the Pacific Northwest<br />
with the Sierra Club, working to protect wildlands and watersheds<br />
on the Olympic Peninsula. “I do everything from<br />
educating our members to reaching out to everyone from<br />
economic development councils to local fishing guides to<br />
recreation groups to local elected officials to local Tribes to<br />
timber companies, putting a lot of miles on the old truck”—<br />
now, a slightly newer 1997 Ford Ranger—“and meeting a lot<br />
of interesting folks.”<br />
Greuel, 28, considers his interaction with other wilderness<br />
advocates through WSC’s mentoring program to have<br />
been invaluable. “One of the things I learned is that when<br />
you’re doing outreach to local communities for wilderness<br />
campaigns, it doesn’t just flow one way,” he says. “You need<br />
to build quality long-term relationships with these folks where<br />
you take into account their needs and concerns.” Those lessons<br />
have paid off: the Wild Olympics campaign has built a<br />
diverse coalition that has begun to break down barriers to<br />
the dream of protecting the Olympic’s watersheds.<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
© Tyler Roemer<br />
GENA GOODMAN-CAMPBELL,<br />
OREGON NATURAL DESERT ASSOCIATION<br />
Gena Goodman-Campbell envisioned a career resolving<br />
international conflicts and earned a college degree in that<br />
field. But when her first post-college job threw her into a<br />
local wilderness campaign, she discovered that such work<br />
wasn’t all that different from resolving international disputes—it<br />
involved lots of listening and collaboration with<br />
many different players.<br />
In 2007 she joined the Oregon Natural Desert Association,<br />
heading up a campaign to designate the Oregon Badlands<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> near Bend. Thanks in part to the enlistment of<br />
Jeff Hunter (left) and Gena<br />
Goodman-Campbell (below)<br />
are providing leadership<br />
in Tennessee and Oregon,<br />
respectively.<br />
more than 200 local business<br />
supporters, the area<br />
was added to the National<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> Preservation<br />
System in 2009. Goodman-<br />
Campbell received the<br />
thrilling news while on a<br />
WSC mentoring retreat,<br />
creating connections that<br />
have been essential to<br />
keeping her grounded and<br />
energized in her work.<br />
<strong>The</strong> effort to train<br />
environmental leaders<br />
is evolving, says<br />
Jeremy Garncarz, the<br />
WSC director. “We have<br />
created two new initiatives,”<br />
he explains. “<strong>The</strong><br />
first is the Wild Forever<br />
Future Fellows program,<br />
which provides one-year fellowships to train young leaders<br />
in <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong> field offices.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> other initiative involves training sessions in selected<br />
regions. For example, about 25 conservation staff members<br />
from Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho gathered to share ideas on<br />
how to protect the Great Basin. <strong>The</strong>y were joined by Carroll<br />
and his colleague Melissa Giacchino. Next: the Colorado<br />
Plateau and the Northern Rockies. “<strong>The</strong> energy at these sessions<br />
is just amazing,” says Carroll. “Despite the challenges<br />
facing environmental campaigns, you can’t help but come<br />
away from these things optimistic about the future.”<br />
Hannah Nordhaus lives in Boulder, Colorado.<br />
She is author of <strong>The</strong> Beekeeper’s Lament: How<br />
One Man and Half a Billion Honey Bees Help Feed<br />
America, which follows an eloquent and embattled<br />
industrial beekeeper who is struggling mightily<br />
to keep his bees alive. To learn more about the<br />
book, visit www.hannahnordhaus.com.<br />
43
Too<br />
Wild<br />
To<br />
Drill<br />
By Dave Showalter<br />
© Dave Showalter<br />
44 1-800-THE-WILD
Noble Basin, about 40 miles south of Grand Teton National<br />
Park, is much more than a beautiful piece of the Old West. It<br />
is a major thoroughfare for elk, pronghorn, grizzlies, and other<br />
wildlife moving through the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.<br />
But that could change. Houston-based PXP wants<br />
to develop a 136-well gas field in the heart of<br />
the basin, at the foot of the Wyoming Range.<br />
PXP would extract the gas via hydraulic fracturing<br />
(fracking) in an area that is part of a vulnerable<br />
aquifer and is in the headwaters of the Hoback<br />
River —a wild and scenic river. Emissions would<br />
degrade the air over Grand Teton and adjacent<br />
national forests.<br />
“Environmental logger” Dave Willoughby, 66,<br />
has spent much of his life in the Wyoming Range. I<br />
met him at Daniel Junction north of Pinedale, and<br />
we headed west, climbing along roads past sandhill<br />
cranes summering in wet meadows and ranches<br />
overlooking the Wind Rivers to the east. We<br />
made our way to the two-track on Forest Service<br />
land, and I listened as Willoughby’s memories<br />
flowed: his granddaughter’s first elk, wife Linda’s<br />
trophy moose, deer and elk taken by sons Chad<br />
and Derek.<br />
We headed down into the basin through<br />
fields of gold balsamroot wildflowers lined with<br />
aspen. Our entire route is slated to become a twolane<br />
highway with an estimated 183 semi-trailers<br />
rumbling through every day.<br />
We came to Davie’s Hill—Dave couldn’t recall<br />
who named it for him—and scanned the rolling<br />
sage and aspen below. We saw creeks, seeps,<br />
and streams where colorful Snake River cutthroat<br />
trout spawn before migrating 30 miles to meet<br />
the Snake River just south of Grand Teton. PXP’s<br />
vision for that landscape includes a pilot wildcat<br />
rig (“Eagle One”), which would drill three test<br />
holes before construction of the 17-pad, 136-well<br />
gas field, with compressor stations, a pipeline, 29<br />
miles of new or upgraded road, and toxic waste<br />
storage. Willoughby broke the silence, saying,<br />
“This is where my wife and I will go when we die.”<br />
While most Wyoming residents accept the<br />
reality of oil and gas development in their state,<br />
they cherish their natural legacy, and a growing<br />
number are concerned about the impacts of drilling.<br />
“By 2006 the massive and destructive Jonah<br />
and Pinedale Anticline fields were there for all to<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
see,” recalls <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>’s Stephanie<br />
Kessler, who is based in Lander. “<strong>The</strong>re has been<br />
significant air and water pollution, as well as declines<br />
in wildlife populations.”<br />
Determined to prevent<br />
similar destruction<br />
in the Wyoming Range,<br />
a broad spectrum of individuals<br />
and organizations<br />
created Citizens<br />
for the Wyoming Range<br />
(CFWR). It includes ranchers,<br />
chambers of commerce,<br />
sportsmen, and<br />
even oil and gas workers.<br />
Before long the state’s<br />
two Republican senators<br />
introduced the Wyoming<br />
Range Legacy Act, and<br />
Congress passed it in<br />
© Dave Showalter<br />
2009. <strong>The</strong> bill prevented<br />
drilling on 1.2 million<br />
acres of Bridger-Teton National Forest.<br />
But that law did not tamper with valid existing<br />
lease rights, so PXP still had the opportunity to<br />
pursue development in the Noble Basin. In early<br />
2011, after the Forest Service issued a draft environmental<br />
analysis for the project that allowed<br />
the drilling, more than 60,000 citizens, organizations,<br />
politicians, and government agencies submitted<br />
comments on the proposal—95 percent<br />
of them raising concerns. <strong>The</strong> Wyoming Game<br />
and Fish Department faulted the agency for using<br />
“outdated and/or obscure research. <strong>The</strong> authors<br />
should better justify their statements with proven<br />
science…”<br />
Kim Floyd, executive secretary of the<br />
Wyoming AFL-CIO, criticized the Forest Service<br />
for failing to properly account for the potential income<br />
from hunting, fishing, and other recreation,<br />
which totaled more than $2.5 billion in 2009 “and<br />
is a renewable resource.”<br />
With legacy on my mind, I called Carl Bennett<br />
of Rock Springs, who likes to call himself “a son<br />
<strong>The</strong> Wyoming<br />
Range is<br />
important to<br />
many species,<br />
including<br />
grizzlies, elk,<br />
moose, mule<br />
deer, pronghorn,<br />
and lynx.<br />
45
Drilling in the Wyoming<br />
Range would further<br />
jeopardize the sandhill<br />
crane. Long-time<br />
champions of the area,<br />
such as Dave Willoughby<br />
(above) are fighting<br />
to protect it from<br />
industrialization.<br />
© Dave Showalter<br />
VISIT WyOMINGRANGE.ORG TO<br />
STAy CURRENT WITH CHANGING EVENTS<br />
AND LEARN HOW yOU CAN HELP.<br />
© Dave Showalter<br />
of Wyoming.” When Carl was about eight<br />
years old, his dad took him to a ridge-top<br />
view of Noble Basin and told him, “You<br />
know, son, I can’t give you a lot, but I can<br />
give you this.” Carl and his family spend<br />
their weekends and vacations in “the<br />
Wyomings.” In early 2011 he traveled<br />
to Washington, D.C., with fellow CFWR<br />
members and <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong> staff to<br />
urge members of Congress to save “the<br />
place I love.”<br />
In July I toured the Upper Hoback River Basin<br />
with outfitter and retired Marine Dan Smitherman,<br />
a CFWR spokesman. <strong>The</strong> conservation group<br />
American Rivers lists the Hoback as one of the nation’s<br />
most endangered rivers because of the drilling<br />
plan. “Everything that Wyoming is known for<br />
either breeds, migrates, fawns, calves, or travels<br />
through this area,” he says, naming moose, elk,<br />
mule deer, pronghorn, black and grizzly bears,<br />
gray wolves, and Canada lynx. Dan Bailey, a triathlete<br />
who lives in a 1920’s homestead along the<br />
Hoback River, cites water, air, and noise pollution<br />
among his many concerns, adding, “It’s a joke to<br />
think that an accident won’t occur.”<br />
Meanwhile, the Forest Service is poring<br />
through those 60,000 comments. In August<br />
Jacqueline Buchanan, supervisor of the Bridger-<br />
Teton National Forest, told me, “Circumstances<br />
have changed. We now have grizzly bears down<br />
there, an endangered species.” She acknowledged<br />
that there have been many changes on the<br />
range over five years and said that they must be<br />
addressed.<br />
PXP declined an interview request, referring<br />
me to its Web site, which says, “PXP believes<br />
strongly in the need to balance new energy development<br />
with protection of sensitive areas, wildlife<br />
populations and natural resources. As part of<br />
this commitment PXP believes in the value of collaborating<br />
with stakeholders of divergent views to<br />
achieve compromise and balance.”<br />
Does the industry need more places to drill?<br />
According to the March 2011 Interior Department<br />
Oil and Gas Lease Utilization report, 50 percent of<br />
existing leases (53.7 percent in Wyoming) are not<br />
currently being utilized by the oil and gas industry.<br />
<strong>The</strong> coalition proposes that the leases be<br />
bought or donated. <strong>The</strong> Wyoming Range Legacy<br />
Act provides for this process, and if these leases<br />
are retired, the land would never be leased again.<br />
Unfortunately, PXP has no obligation to do this.<br />
“We think a buy-out is a win for both the company<br />
and the public,” says Kessler. “If that’s not possible,<br />
then we must do everything possible to ensure<br />
that PXP is held to the ‘gold standard’ of conservation.<br />
We owe at least that to future generations.”<br />
Dave Showalter of Arvada, Colorado,<br />
is the author and photographer of<br />
Prairie Thunder: <strong>The</strong> Nature of Colorado’s<br />
Great Plains. His photographs and articles<br />
have appeared in Outside, Outdoor<br />
Photographer, National Geographic Books,<br />
and elsewhere.<br />
46 1-800-THE-WILD<br />
© Dave Showalter
Member Profile<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> Investors<br />
with a Long-Term View<br />
S<br />
hortly after joining our Governing Council in 1996,<br />
Bert Cohn hiked through the canyons and arches of<br />
southern Utah. “I just fell in love with the place and<br />
the idea of protecting wilderness,” he recalls.<br />
That adventure helped persuade Cohn and his<br />
wife Barbara to become the leading underwriters of our<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> Support Center in Durango, Colorado. Created<br />
in 1999, the center works with grassroots groups around<br />
the country to build public campaigns designed to convince<br />
Congress to establish wilderness and other conservation<br />
areas.<br />
Cohn retired in late 2010 from the investment management<br />
firm First Manhattan Company, where he had been a<br />
managing director, and he takes a hardheaded approach<br />
to his philanthropy. “He likes to talk about the return on investment,”<br />
explains Melyssa Watson, former director of the<br />
center and now our assistant vice president for Southwest<br />
Regional Conservation. “When we calculated it, we came<br />
up with just one dollar for each acre we were protecting.”<br />
Already leading supporters of the center, the Cohns<br />
took another giant philanthropic step forward in 2011 by<br />
creating a large lead trust that will help fund the center<br />
for 15 years. <strong>The</strong> lead trust provides current support while<br />
ensuring an inheritance for their grandchildren. “Everyone<br />
has different circumstances, but this vehicle made the<br />
most sense for us, and I urge others to consider it,” Bert<br />
Cohn says.<br />
He traces his appreciation for nature to his childhood<br />
in South Orange, New Jersey, when his father would take<br />
him to Essex County’s bucolic South Mountain Reservation.<br />
A graduate of Harvard and New York University’s School<br />
of Business, Cohn was an Army staff sergeant in the<br />
Philippines during World War II.<br />
It was grammar school classmate Ted Stanley, one<br />
of the giants of conservation philanthropy, who laid the<br />
groundwork for Cohn’s emergence as a major force in the<br />
field. Stanley, who died in 2009, persuaded Cohn to join<br />
him on our Governing Council.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> moment I walked in <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>’s<br />
door, Bert was talking to me about the future of the organization,”<br />
recalls our president, William H. Meadows. “He<br />
and Barbara have been pacesetters and catalysts who have<br />
made us a significantly better organization. <strong>The</strong>ir generosity<br />
has made an enormous difference in the <strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
Support Center, our intern program, and many other initiatives.”<br />
Since the center was born, more than eight million<br />
acres have been protected.<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
Barbara and Bert Cohn’s generosity has helped protect untold<br />
acres of America’s wilderness.<br />
“I consider it a privilege to be able to help,” Bert Cohn<br />
says. “We have great respect for the staff’s economic, scientific,<br />
communications, and advocacy skills. It’s a rare<br />
combination.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> couple’s generosity has also advanced environmental<br />
education and the history and philosophy of science.<br />
Other major beneficiaries include the Harvard<br />
University Center for the Environment, Tel Aviv University,<br />
and Sarah Lawrence College.<br />
Barbara, who earned a master’s degree in anthropology<br />
from Sarah Lawrence, served as a college trustee for<br />
many years and is now an honorary trustee. Her interest in<br />
Native American culture and their respect for nature stimulated<br />
her own interest in the natural world. She is an active<br />
member of Rachel’s Network, named after Silent Spring<br />
author Rachel Carson. It promotes women as impassioned<br />
leaders and agents of change dedicated to the stewardship<br />
of the Earth.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> most important legacy we can leave future generations<br />
is cleaner air and water and more wilderness areas<br />
so they can experience the incredible natural beauty of our<br />
country,” says Barbara. “It is an honor to be able to support<br />
this goal in every way possible.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Cohns’ three children and Bert’s brother <strong>The</strong>odore<br />
have made support of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong> truly a family<br />
affair. In September we honored the Cohns at a dinner in<br />
New York. “In view of everything they have done to save<br />
wilderness,” says Meadows, “they are probably entitled to<br />
one of these events every month.”<br />
© Mark Silva<br />
47
Trips to the<br />
parks brought<br />
Americans<br />
close—<br />
sometimes<br />
too close—<br />
to wildlife.<br />
Such travel<br />
has helped<br />
build a public<br />
commitment to<br />
protecting the<br />
great outdoors.<br />
Everyone<br />
in the Car!<br />
How those summer national park trips shaped our views<br />
BY SUSAN S. RUGH<br />
Recently my son and his family sent photos of<br />
their vacation in the Southwest, where they<br />
visited Arches National Park in Utah. Our six-yearold<br />
granddaughter scrambled up the red rock to<br />
get a better view of the Windows, and her threeyear-old<br />
brother proudly wore his Junior Ranger<br />
badge on his T-shirt. <strong>The</strong>ir parents were passing<br />
along their own enthusiasm for the stunning landscape<br />
of the West, a passion acquired on their<br />
childhood visits to the parks.<br />
<strong>The</strong> pictures reminded me of our family vacation<br />
to Yellowstone in 1962, the year of the onebillionth<br />
visit to the national parks. As a member<br />
of the baby boom generation, I was part of a new<br />
summer vacation tradition—the family road trip. It<br />
was invented after World War II when the Greatest<br />
Generation stashed the boomers in the back seat<br />
of the station wagon and set out to see America.<br />
New interstate highways, the end of war-time<br />
gas rationing, and paid vacation benefits made it<br />
easier for families to take to the open road, guided<br />
by free maps from big oil companies. So did<br />
fast-food restaurants and “kids-stay-free” motels.<br />
Many of us visited Disneyland, Washington, D.C.,<br />
the shore, or the mountains. <strong>The</strong> destinations<br />
with the most lasting impact may have been the<br />
national parks.<br />
<strong>The</strong> annual number of visits to the parks exploded<br />
from 21.7 million in 1946 to 61.6 million<br />
in 1956. <strong>The</strong>n, under the National Park Service’s<br />
© National Park Service Historic Photograph Collection © MommyBlogExpert.com<br />
48 1-800-THE-WILD
© Eric Mohl<br />
ten-year Mission 66 program, more than $1 billion<br />
was spent to upgrade facilities to better meet<br />
tourists’ needs. By 1966, annual visitation topped<br />
133 million. <strong>The</strong> numbers also reflected the camping<br />
craze and the urge to escape the pressures of<br />
civilization. Camping was almost as inexpensive<br />
as staying at home.<br />
“One of the best things about the parks was<br />
how much you could learn both from your own exploring<br />
and from the park rangers,” recalls Michelle<br />
Haefele, a <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong> economist. “One of<br />
Your 635-million-acre portfolio<br />
National parks are known<br />
and loved by virtually all<br />
Americans. But they are not<br />
the only wonderful places<br />
that belong to each of us.<br />
We jointly hold deeds to<br />
635 million acres, and these<br />
other treasures also have<br />
helped make memories<br />
and raise our awareness of<br />
the values of nature.<br />
National parks represent<br />
about 12 percent<br />
of the public lands. As a<br />
citizen, you also own the<br />
national forests, national<br />
wildlife refuges, and<br />
western lands overseen by<br />
the U.S. Bureau of Land<br />
Management. (<strong>The</strong> most<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
pristine ten percent of<br />
the BLM lands make up<br />
the National Landscape<br />
Conservation System.)<br />
Nearly 110 million<br />
acres of this legacy are<br />
guaranteed permanent protection<br />
because Congress<br />
put them into the National<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> Preservation<br />
System. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong> is dedicated to<br />
increasing that figure.<br />
World-class recreation—kayaking,<br />
camping,<br />
fishing, birding, hiking—is<br />
what usually comes to mind<br />
when we think about these<br />
lands. In addition, these<br />
places send clean water to<br />
my most vivid memories was going on a ranger-led<br />
tour of the Ancestral Puebloan ruins at Mesa Verde<br />
in western Colorado. I was fascinated and even began<br />
thinking that I’d like to be a park ranger when<br />
I grew up.” She majored in natural resources and<br />
went on to get a Ph.D. Nowadays Haefele enjoys<br />
taking her niece and nephew to Rocky Mountain<br />
National Park to hear the elk bugle.<br />
Haefele was not the only one entranced by<br />
the educational activities and museums that the<br />
Park Service established. Thousands of tourists<br />
downstream communities,<br />
filter the air, provide habitat<br />
for fish and wildlife, and<br />
generate local jobs by luring<br />
visitors, small business<br />
owners, and retirees. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
even help combat climate<br />
change by absorbing and<br />
storing carbon.<br />
<strong>The</strong>odore Roosevelt<br />
had it right: “<strong>The</strong> nation<br />
behaves well if it treats the<br />
natural resources as assets<br />
which it must turn over to<br />
the next generation increased,<br />
and not impaired,<br />
in value.”<br />
Airstreams like<br />
this one cruising<br />
through Utah<br />
carried millions<br />
of Americans<br />
to national<br />
parks and<br />
other popular<br />
destinations.<br />
© BLM<br />
Canyons of the Ancients<br />
National Monument is just<br />
one example of other special<br />
destinations.<br />
49
A Junior Ranger<br />
swearing-in<br />
ceremony at the<br />
Grand Canyon<br />
flocked to nighttime campfire programs, learning<br />
about history, plants, geology, and wildlife.<br />
Crowds gathered on designated viewing platforms<br />
at spectacular park features to listen to<br />
rangers talk about natural wonders.<br />
Meantime, park officials refused to cordon<br />
off rushing waterfalls and precipices, adamantly<br />
maintaining that if they protected visitors from all<br />
hazards, the parks no longer would give visitors<br />
the sense that they<br />
were in the wilderness.<br />
Children were<br />
thought to be natural<br />
campers, curious explorers<br />
who needed<br />
to take only a few<br />
precautions for their<br />
own safety.<br />
Fishing, boating,<br />
and hiking drew<br />
children away from<br />
the campsite to a<br />
more immediate experience<br />
with nature.<br />
© NPS photo by Michael Quinn<br />
Yosemite National<br />
<strong>The</strong>se Lands Are Your Lands—except….<br />
<strong>The</strong> national parks may belong<br />
to all Americans, but<br />
that wasn’t always the reality.<br />
Despite National Park<br />
Service policies forbidding<br />
segregation, the campgrounds<br />
and toilet facilities<br />
at Virginia’s Shenandoah<br />
National Park, for example,<br />
were racially segregated<br />
until the late 1950s. As one<br />
African American tourist<br />
wrote to the Interior<br />
Secretary in 1950 after a<br />
trip to Carlsbad Caverns in<br />
New Mexico, “Lip service<br />
to democracy is not<br />
enough…”<br />
Of course, travel to the<br />
parks could be difficult,<br />
too. As recently as 1956,<br />
black families could find<br />
© Frank Bauman, photographer, LOOK Magazine Collection, Library of Congress<br />
Park began a forerunner to its current Junior<br />
Ranger program in 1930, and its nature program<br />
offered a weekly schedule of classes covering topics<br />
from reptiles and insects to birds and Indians,<br />
culminating in a Friday nature hike.<br />
Among those who took their family to<br />
Yosemite were Lloyd and Kay Harline of Orem,<br />
Utah, who have visited that California icon annually<br />
for the last 40 years. Parents of eight, grandparents<br />
of 32, and great-grandparents of 12 children,<br />
the Harlines regard the four-day family outing as<br />
the highlight of every summer. As their children<br />
grew up, Kay and Lloyd loved watching them<br />
hike, float downriver on rafts, and roast marshmallows<br />
over the campfire. <strong>The</strong> Harlines taught their<br />
children “an appreciation of the beautiful land we<br />
live in.” As they explored Yosemite, “We never let<br />
them do anything to harm the land.” Four generations<br />
of Harlines have learned an appreciation<br />
for America’s wilderness thanks to these trips.<br />
When interviewed for the Ken Burns PBS<br />
series on the history of the national parks, historian<br />
William Cronon, a longtime member of <strong>The</strong><br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>’s Governing Council, mused,<br />
overnight accommodations<br />
at only three places in New<br />
Hampshire, according to<br />
<strong>The</strong> Negro Motorist Green<br />
Book. Jews, as well, could<br />
run into problems on such<br />
trips, encountering signs<br />
reading “Gentiles Only”<br />
or “Clientele Carefully<br />
Selected.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> passage of the Civil<br />
Rights Act in 1964 provided<br />
strong legal grounds<br />
for enforcement of racial<br />
equality throughout the<br />
National Park System.<br />
General societal progress<br />
also helped. Even so,<br />
people of color make up<br />
only a tiny percentage of<br />
national park visitors.<br />
Audrey and Frank<br />
Peterman, an African<br />
American couple, discovered<br />
this during a vacation<br />
tour of the parks in 1995.<br />
<strong>The</strong> experience prompted<br />
them to create Earthwise<br />
Continued on page 62<br />
Productions, a consulting<br />
company that promotes<br />
integration of the national<br />
parks and forests. <strong>The</strong>y also<br />
wrote a book on the subject:<br />
Legacy on the Land.<br />
“I feel that we are on the<br />
verge of a huge change,”<br />
said Frank Peterman,<br />
former Southeast regional<br />
director for <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong>. “Recently there’s<br />
been a lot of media coverage,<br />
with NPR, Outside<br />
magazine, MSNBC, and<br />
others reporting on the<br />
situation and how to rectify<br />
it. Most important of all,<br />
the Park Service is seeking<br />
to cultivate a relationship<br />
with the broader public.<br />
Audrey was just appointed<br />
to a subcommittee of the<br />
National Parks Advisory<br />
Board that will help establish<br />
these relationships, and<br />
she came back from the<br />
first meeting ecstatic.”<br />
50 1-800-THE-WILD
Wildsong<br />
Edited by John Daniel<br />
Desire<br />
Once, walking in the woods,<br />
I met a hunter.<br />
He spoke. I stopped.<br />
Perhaps I shouldn’t have.<br />
But he didn’t touch me.<br />
He only<br />
said I moved fast, asked<br />
if I wanted to lead his dogs.<br />
This is not to say<br />
he let me get away.<br />
Ever since, I have dreamed<br />
of running among hounds.<br />
As we slip through the leaves,<br />
the leathery touch of laurel,<br />
the dogs narrow<br />
in the nose and shoulders, grow<br />
into wolves. I go wild too,<br />
and disappear into the trees.<br />
I become why<br />
dogs howl at the forest’s edge,<br />
and you wake at night,<br />
and you say, It’s nothing.<br />
Rose McLarney<br />
Marshall, North Carolina<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
Leaf, Bird, Tree<br />
Leaf—quilled pen<br />
writing<br />
spirals in air<br />
Its weighted stem<br />
making of papery skin<br />
a wing<br />
Those other wings<br />
blown upward<br />
from every limb—bird<br />
flock rises<br />
still clustered as if<br />
memory of the tree<br />
shaped<br />
its lifts and turns<br />
in the brightening sky<br />
<strong>The</strong>y whirl and vanish<br />
together<br />
down the windfilled clouds<br />
leaving the tree<br />
bare<br />
of leaf and bird<br />
in its own<br />
slow spiraling<br />
between earth and sky<br />
Robin Chapman<br />
Madison, Wisconsin<br />
Nest Site<br />
—Mount St. Helens, Willow Flycatcher<br />
Below her steaming dome,<br />
a nest of dead stems<br />
cups two hatchlings, blind wobblers<br />
among bits of shell. Even the way<br />
their willow sways above trickles<br />
of snowmelt cannot make them<br />
less unlikely, scruffy lumplings<br />
slated to unlock their wings and sew<br />
this air of ours, this gray land<br />
we call blast zone. If there is an aim<br />
to their snaps and sallies, their kind<br />
of fletched breath, look for it<br />
in skin-shut eyes flushed with life,<br />
in the way a child keeps from sleep<br />
as long as she can, cupping a flashlight<br />
for the bloody glow of her hand.<br />
Derek Sheffield<br />
Leavenworth, Washington<br />
Song For <strong>The</strong> Unseen<br />
We, enamored of all things grand,<br />
of mountains, towers, gods whose mouths<br />
once sang rock and water awake,<br />
of time uncountable, colossal ships<br />
ploughing through gigantic oceans,<br />
we ought to regard the new green leaf,<br />
fashioned in spring of one small tree,<br />
fashioned of land teeming with beings<br />
whose microscopic eating feeds the tree<br />
which feeds the air through its own breathing,<br />
and by that breath not just the small survive.<br />
Christine Colasurdo<br />
Portland, Oregon<br />
51
On Safari in<br />
the Bodie Hills<br />
A GREAT PLACE TO VISIT by david page<br />
© Bob Wick/BLM<br />
52 1-800-THE-WILD
www.wilderness.org<br />
53
Bodie Hills: A Great Place to Visit<br />
We<br />
bounced into Bodie the way most of the<br />
lumber and firewood once did, up from the<br />
shores of Mono Lake on the old Cottonwood<br />
Canyon wagon road. It was mid-July, but up here where<br />
the Sierra Nevada meets the Great Basin, summer had only<br />
just taken hold. Beckett, 3, slept in his car seat in the back,<br />
slumped over a pillow against the door. Jasper, 6, looked out<br />
at the hills. <strong>The</strong> dog, his head out the front window, gulped<br />
air spiked with sweet phlox, bitterbrush, and sage, and<br />
surveyed the landscape for jackrabbits.<br />
<strong>The</strong> infamous Wild West town site—since 1962 preserved<br />
in a state of “arrested decay”—was at its fitfor-the-big-screen<br />
best, with cumulous clouds over<br />
the western ridges and great sidelong shafts of lateafternoon<br />
sun on antique timbers and spring-green<br />
hills. Even at five minutes to closing, the parking lot<br />
overflowed with dusty RV’s and rental cars. But less<br />
than a mile down-canyon, along the trickle of Bodie<br />
Creek, what was once the main (and notoriously<br />
bandit-infested) stage road to Aurora turned rutted<br />
and wild—and empty.<br />
At the edge of a meadow thick with wild daisies,<br />
before the Nevada state line, we turned onto<br />
a lonely, two-track Jeep trail. I locked the hubs and<br />
shifted into 4-wheel-drive. [For guidance on a destination<br />
that does not require 4WD, see the information<br />
box on page 57.]<br />
Up we climbed into the heart of the Bodie<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> Study Area (WSA), one of three such<br />
designated areas surrounding the state historic park<br />
that together make up nearly half of the Bureau<br />
of Land Management’s 200,000-acre Bodie Hills<br />
54 1-800-THE-WILD
Complex. Because of the primeval nature of the<br />
landscape, the exceptional biodiversity, the critical<br />
water sources and habitat for a variety of species<br />
(including threatened ones like the greater sagegrouse<br />
and the Lahontan cutthroat trout), the possibilities<br />
for solitude, the outstanding geological,<br />
cultural, and scenic value of these areas, they were<br />
inventoried by the BLM back in 1979 as having potential<br />
for wilderness designation.<br />
Since then, the BLM has had to toe a delicate<br />
line while waiting for Congress to decide whether to<br />
protect these areas or release them so they can be<br />
developed. On the one hand, the agency is required<br />
to honor historical activities such as mining (with valid<br />
claims) and off-road vehicle use (on existing roads<br />
and trails). On the other hand, by law, it must manage<br />
the areas “in a manner so as not to impair [their]<br />
suitability for preservation for wilderness.”<br />
We pitched our camp with some friends at an<br />
old fire ring at the edge of Dry Lake, at about 8,000<br />
feet, on a high plateau. A band of pronghorn frolicked<br />
beside the cows on the stubble-grass playa.<br />
To the east rose the Beauty Peak cinder cone; to<br />
the west the twin summits of Bodie Mountain and<br />
Potato Peak, dark colonies of willow and quaking aspen<br />
clustered in their folds.<br />
With the day’s last light fading over the snowdappled<br />
Sweetwater Range, the boys watched<br />
their first satellite run across the sky. A barn owl<br />
hovered for a minute or two over our little campfire<br />
as if to study marshmallow roasting techniques.<br />
Later, when the boys were zipped into their bags,<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
© John Dittli<br />
the coyotes—dozens of them, it seemed—began a<br />
round of yipping and shrieking out in the darkness,<br />
all around us. <strong>The</strong> next morning, along the edges of<br />
the basalt flows, we came upon ancient petroglyphs<br />
and chippings of obsidian. We found bleached cow<br />
bones, pincushion phlox, pennyroyal, waist-high<br />
thickets of red columbines, and Basque sheepherder<br />
inscriptions dating back to 1913.<br />
“You can see them sitting here,” said our friend<br />
John Dittli, a photographer, noting how radically the<br />
outside world had changed in a century. This place,<br />
by contrast, was still essentially the same as when<br />
the first people came though 10,000 years ago.<br />
In the afternoon we made our way back through<br />
Bodie. Our vehicles climbed up along the flanks of<br />
Potato Peak to the headwaters of Rough Creek—<br />
one of two streams in the Bodie Hills determined by<br />
the BLM to be eligible for federal Wild and Scenic<br />
River status. We splashed in the cool, clear water,<br />
walked barefoot in the grass, strolled through fields<br />
of wild iris and onion to drink from the springs. <strong>The</strong>n,<br />
before heading down Aurora Canyon, back to civilization<br />
and pizza at the Virginia Creek Settlement,<br />
we stopped to explore the abandoned Paramount<br />
mercury mine.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Paramount site, its 50-year-old mine works<br />
and tailings piles now in the early stages of reclamation<br />
by wild aspen groves, “is rated as having a<br />
high potential for occurrence of gold, silver and mercury,”<br />
according to a recent BLM report, and is of<br />
great interest to Electrum, a gold mining company<br />
that already has begun exploration. “Developing<br />
Pronghorn,<br />
barn owls,<br />
and golden<br />
eagles are<br />
among the<br />
wildlife<br />
found in the<br />
biologically<br />
diverse<br />
Bodie Hills.<br />
© John Dittli<br />
55
Bodie Hills: A Great Place to Visit<br />
a gold mine here,” says <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>’s<br />
Sally Miller, “would cut out the ecological heart of<br />
the Bodie Hills. Mining would pollute the water,<br />
harm wildlife, and forever scar the landscape.”<br />
To secure permanent protection for this special<br />
place, <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong> and other organizations<br />
formed the Bodie Hills Conservation<br />
Partnership (bodiehills.org). “We are developing a<br />
plan with other stakeholders to protect the area’s<br />
outstanding natural and cultural values, enhance<br />
recreational opportunities, and help boost the local<br />
economy,” Miller explains.<br />
With Congress now considering legislation<br />
(H.R. 1581) to drop protection of all remaining WSAs<br />
across the country, including in the Bodie Hills, the<br />
future of this unique landscape is far from certain.<br />
David Page is the author of the<br />
Lowell Thomas Award-winning<br />
Explorer’s Guide to Yosemite &<br />
the Southern Sierra Nevada, now<br />
in its 2nd edition. He has written<br />
for the Los Angeles Times<br />
Magazine, <strong>The</strong> New York Times,<br />
Men’s Journal, and numerous<br />
other publications. He lives in<br />
Mammoth Lakes, California.<br />
Youngsters still can get a taste of wide-open spaces and<br />
big skies at Bodie Hills.<br />
56 1-800-THE-WILD<br />
© Burke Griggs
Bodie Hills Visitor Information<br />
Bodie State Historic Park is 20 miles southeast<br />
of Bridgeport and 33 miles northeast of Lee<br />
Vining, an easy day trip from Mono Lake and<br />
the east entrance to Yosemite National Park.<br />
You can take CA 270 (paved until the last three<br />
miles) in from US 395 or the rougher Cottonwood<br />
Canyon Road up from CA 167. A 4WD<br />
vehicle is necessary to navigate the Bodie<br />
Creek Road beyond Bodie State Park and the<br />
Jeep track up onto the Dry Lakes Plateau.<br />
For those with a high-clearance 2WD vehicle,<br />
there is a great loop to drive once the snow<br />
has melted (usually by mid-July). This loop offers<br />
an excellent introduction to the Bodie Hills<br />
and hosts outstanding Great Basin wildflower<br />
displays mid-summer. Go to the main park entrance,<br />
via CA 270, travel north on Geiger Grade<br />
Road and onto the high plateau of the Bodie<br />
Hills to take in the stunning views. <strong>The</strong>n drive<br />
past the unmarked turnoff to the old Paramount<br />
mine site, turn left at a four-way road junction<br />
onto Road 168, and proceed seven miles down<br />
scenic Aurora Canyon to the historic town of<br />
Bridgeport. To complete the loop, travel seven<br />
miles south on US 395 to the Bodie turnoff.<br />
For any excursions into the Bodie Hills, bring<br />
adequate food, water, and other supplies.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Tom Harrison 1:63,360 Bodie Hills Map is a<br />
good resource for navigating the back roads beyond<br />
the park. <strong>The</strong> Humboldt-Toiyabe National<br />
Forest Map covers the broader region with<br />
slightly less detail. <strong>The</strong>se, as well as a variety of<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
books and brochures<br />
on the natural and<br />
cultural history of the<br />
region, are available<br />
at the Forest Service<br />
office in Bridgeport.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lee Vining Chamber<br />
of Commerce has<br />
a well-stocked bookstore<br />
with maps and<br />
books on the region’s<br />
history. Both Bridgeport<br />
and Lee Vining<br />
offer a range of mo-<br />
395<br />
Mammoth<br />
Lakes<br />
tels and restaurants, as well as service stations<br />
and small grocery stores for supplies. <strong>The</strong> Virginia<br />
Creek Settlement (760-932-7780), one<br />
mile north of the main Bodie Road on US 395,<br />
serves thick burgers and an excellent selection<br />
of pizzas. Go to www.bridgeportcalifornia.com<br />
or www.leevining.com or call 760-647-6595 for<br />
more information.<br />
Bodie State Historic Park (760-647-6445) is<br />
open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in summer; 9 a.m.<br />
to 3 p.m. in winter (or as posted), when the park<br />
and the hills are accessible only by skis, snowshoes,<br />
or snowmobiles (using existing roadways).<br />
Entrance fees and hours do not apply to<br />
those merely passing through the park to reach<br />
the Bodie Hills. <strong>The</strong>re is no camping at the<br />
park, but there are limited dispersed campsites<br />
on BLM land along certain roads in the Bodie<br />
Hills. Check with rangers at Bodie for details<br />
and current conditions.<br />
395<br />
CALIFORNIA<br />
Bridgeport<br />
YOSEMITE<br />
NATIONAL<br />
PARK<br />
182<br />
Lee<br />
Vining<br />
NEVADA<br />
Bodie<br />
Hills<br />
270<br />
Bodie State<br />
Historic Park<br />
167<br />
Mono<br />
Lake<br />
120<br />
Lake<br />
Crowley<br />
Detail<br />
Area<br />
CA.<br />
© John Dittli<br />
57
my wilderness<br />
By Tashia Tucker<br />
If<br />
you were asked why you support <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong>, what makes you care about the work we<br />
do, or why it’s important, chances are you’d answer<br />
each question roughly the same. You would<br />
hearken back to a place you love or a vivid memory from<br />
the great outdoors. You might catch yourself daydreaming<br />
about an especially delicious s’more, skipping rocks in the<br />
lake with your family, a nap in the hammock, or a spectacular<br />
hike through a wildflower meadow.<br />
That’s why <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong><br />
and Frontier Airlines jumped at the opportunity<br />
to team up on the my wilderness<br />
campaign. While <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong> works tirelessly to protect<br />
America’s great wildlife and wild places,<br />
Frontier takes people to these places,<br />
© Kai Hagen<br />
enabling them to understand what’s at stake and then get<br />
involved.<br />
Since April 2011, we’ve featured moms and dads,<br />
photographers, writers, celebrities, activists, and recreationists<br />
who have shared their wilderness experiences on<br />
our Web site, reminding us why wilderness is worth fighting<br />
for.<br />
Take Lynn Donaldson, Montana tumbleweed photographer<br />
and wilderness mom. She supports<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong> because<br />
she wants her young children to have the<br />
memorable experiences in wilderness that<br />
have shaped her.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n there’s Frederick County<br />
Commissioner Kai Hagen of Maryland.<br />
He has been committed to wilderness<br />
58 1-800-THE-WILD
© Lynn Donaldson<br />
my wilderness has featured the stories of Lynn Donaldson and her family, the Hagens (on bench), and Dudley Edmondson.<br />
protection ever since his first escape from the inner<br />
city to the country.<br />
Dudley Edmonson is so invested in the power<br />
of wilderness that he leads boys on backpacking<br />
trips through Washington’s North Cascades so<br />
that they can become tomorrow’s “wilderness<br />
sentinels.”<br />
my wilderness celebrates everyday heroes—<br />
each and every one of our supporters—for their<br />
dedication to saving America’s last great places.<br />
And we ask you to have some fun with us. You<br />
can enter contests to win wilderness trips, watch<br />
videos featuring wild places, get outdoors tips,<br />
and learn more about the places you enjoy.<br />
Frontier Airlines has added to the fun with<br />
a Spokesanimal of the Month. Here’s a message<br />
from Sarge the Bald Eagle: “I’m proud to be the<br />
national symbol of the United States. And there’s<br />
no place I’d rather strut my stuff than on the tail<br />
of a Frontier Airlines flight. It’s true that I don’t<br />
need a plane to fly, but Frontier always takes me<br />
to greater heights. That’s why you’ll often see me<br />
perched planeside.”<br />
We want to see more of your best my wilderness<br />
places, stories, poems, and campfire recipes.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re’s a place for everyone in my wilderness, no<br />
matter your favorite outdoor activity or place. <strong>The</strong><br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>, Frontier Airlines, and all our<br />
supporters are always dreaming up fresh ideas<br />
and stories, and we hope you’ll join us in the fun<br />
at my.wilderness.org.<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
© Kai Hagen<br />
© Carrol Henderson<br />
Airline with a Mission<br />
Frontier Airlines operates more than 500 daily flights from<br />
hubs in Denver, Milwaukee, and Kansas City, serving over 80<br />
destinations in the United States, Mexico, and Costa Rica. <strong>The</strong><br />
low-fare airline flies to Alaska and many other places where<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong> is especially active.<br />
Frontier is dedicated to a culture that ensures the<br />
commitment of its 5,500 employees to the environment. ”This<br />
is one of the ways we are delivering on our promise to be a<br />
better and different airline,” says Bryan Bedford, chairman,<br />
president, and CEO.<br />
Frontier ranks third among the 20 largest U.S. airlines<br />
in energy efficiency, according to a recent analysis by Brighter<br />
Planet, but Frontier is aiming higher. To get there, the airline<br />
is converting to a more fuel-efficient fleet. Frontier has placed<br />
orders for 40 Bombardier C-Series aircraft (which emit 20<br />
percent fewer greenhouse gases than any plane currently in<br />
production) and 80 Airbus A320neo jets (which use 15 percent<br />
less fuel than the current A320). By using the A320neo jets,<br />
Frontier will cut fuel use by nearly 370,000 gallons—the annual<br />
consumption of 1,000 mid-size cars—and will reduce CO 2<br />
emissions by 3,600 tons a year. <strong>The</strong> company also is engaged<br />
in other initiatives to significantly reduce fuel consumption<br />
and the resulting damage to the environment.<br />
For more, visit<br />
FrontierAirlines.com.<br />
59
Paying Tribute To Environmental Heroes<br />
Teamwork. That’s how wilderness is saved. But teams need leaders, and <strong>The</strong><br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong> believes in honoring those citizens who have gone above and<br />
beyond in their efforts to protect America’s wildlands and wildlife. Over the past<br />
year, we have presented the following awards:<br />
© Mark Silva<br />
Former Secretary of the<br />
Interior Bruce Babbitt<br />
received our Ansel Adams<br />
Award, presented to a<br />
current or former federal<br />
official who has shown<br />
exceptional commitment<br />
to conservation and the<br />
fostering of an American land<br />
ethic. “Bruce is a visionary<br />
who, as Arizona’s governor<br />
and later as interior secretary,<br />
compiled a sterling record,”<br />
said William H. Meadows,<br />
president of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong>. “He capped his<br />
government service with<br />
the establishment of the<br />
26-million-acre National<br />
Landscape Conservation<br />
System.”<br />
A decade of work to help<br />
make this system successful<br />
is a major reason why<br />
Hansjörg Wyss received<br />
the Robert Marshall Award,<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>’s<br />
highest honor for a private<br />
citizen. “Hansjörg and the<br />
Wyss Foundation have<br />
worked tirelessly to protect<br />
America’s natural heritage,<br />
particularly in the Rockies,”<br />
Meadows said. “Though<br />
he is largely unknown to<br />
the American people, his<br />
© Mark Silva<br />
© Robin Sell, BLM<br />
Bruce Babbitt Hansjörg Wyss Roy Smith Lauren Oakes<br />
generosity is going to make<br />
a difference for generations<br />
to come.” Wyss has been a<br />
member of our Governing<br />
Council since 1993.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Olaus and Margaret<br />
Murie Award honors frontline<br />
state or federal land<br />
management employees, or<br />
any “young environmentalists,”<br />
especially those who<br />
are innovative and have<br />
taken risks to promote the<br />
principles of natural resource<br />
conservation. <strong>The</strong> 2011<br />
recipient was Roy Smith,<br />
the key water staffer with<br />
the U.S. Bureau of Land<br />
Management (BLM) in<br />
Colorado. “Water is undoubtedly<br />
the most contentious<br />
environmental issue<br />
in this state,” said Suzanne<br />
Jones, who directs our work<br />
in Colorado, “and ensuring<br />
the flow of water to wilderness<br />
is critically important.<br />
Roy has been extraordinarily<br />
effective in making this<br />
happen for the Dominguez<br />
Canyon <strong>Wilderness</strong> and BLM<br />
lands across the state—and<br />
amazingly, does so in a<br />
manner that brings people<br />
together.”<br />
Steve Scauzillo of the San<br />
Gabriel Valley Newspapers<br />
received the Aldo Leopold<br />
Award for Distinguished<br />
Editorial Writing. Meadows<br />
praised him as “a steadfast<br />
voice asking why a road<br />
must be built through a<br />
state park and what we will<br />
lose when a grove of 200<br />
oaks and sycamores—more<br />
than a century old—are cut<br />
down. He has dared the<br />
public to dream of a national<br />
recreation area that includes<br />
the San Gabriel River in<br />
L.A.’s urban backyard.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Gloria Barron<br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong><br />
Scholarship was awarded to<br />
Lauren E. Oakes for<br />
her proposed research on<br />
climate change’s impact<br />
on yellow cedar in Alaska’s<br />
coastal rain forest. A native<br />
of Stamford, Connecticut,<br />
who graduated from Brown<br />
University, Oakes is a Ph.D.<br />
student at Stanford. “This<br />
scholarship aims to find the<br />
Aldo Leopolds and Rachel<br />
Carsons of the future,”<br />
says Tom Barron, an author<br />
and long-time member of<br />
our Governing Council. He<br />
established the fellowship<br />
Elise Kahl, Melissa Rickert,<br />
Meagan Leatherbury<br />
Steve Scauzillo<br />
to honor his mother, who<br />
was a dedicated educator<br />
and tireless advocate for<br />
wilderness.<br />
Three University of<br />
Wisconsin-Stevens Point<br />
graduate students received<br />
Gaylord Nelson Earth Day<br />
Fellowships in 2011. Elise<br />
Kahl of Perrysburg, Ohio;<br />
Meagan Leatherbury of<br />
Avondale Estates, Georgia;<br />
and Melissa Rickert of<br />
Rhinelander, Wisconsin,<br />
were recognized for making<br />
significant contributions to<br />
promoting conservation<br />
ethics and environmental<br />
education, and for exhibiting<br />
future leadership potential<br />
in the field of environmental<br />
education. We initiated<br />
these fellowships in 1990 to<br />
honor Earth Day’s founder,<br />
former U.S. Senator from<br />
Wisconsin Gaylord Nelson,<br />
long-time counselor of <strong>The</strong><br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>, who<br />
died in 2005.<br />
60 1-800-THE-WILD<br />
© Steve Menzel/UWSP
Conservation Enthusiast<br />
CROSSWORD PuzzLE By ALEx STARKEy<br />
Conservation Enthusiast Crossword By Alex Starkey<br />
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13<br />
14 15 16<br />
17<br />
1<br />
18 19<br />
20 21 22<br />
23 24 25 26 27 28<br />
29 30 31 32 33<br />
34 35 36 37 38 39 40<br />
41 42 43 44<br />
45 46 47<br />
48 49 50 51 52 53<br />
54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61<br />
62 63 64 65<br />
66 67 68 69 70<br />
71 72 73<br />
74 75 76<br />
5. Last owner of the land which became<br />
Arlington National Cemetary, Robert __<br />
6. Animal one may see at Denali National<br />
7. "Use Common ____", Grand Canyon<br />
warning<br />
8. New England's only national park<br />
9. Home of the Colossus<br />
10. Super market convenience<br />
11. ____ and Run<br />
12. Period of time<br />
13. Military draft organization (abbr)<br />
21. Plead<br />
25. Start over<br />
26. Like the ponies at Chincoteague Nation<br />
Wildlife Refuge<br />
© John McCarthy<br />
ACROSS<br />
Across 1. Land ___ & Environmental Law<br />
47. Superman enemy<br />
48. Often speaks out Down<br />
27. Operated a car<br />
28. Forest Glen _____, home of the Nation<br />
1. 4. Land ___ ___ and & Environmental Haws 52. Need to 52. pay Need to pay 1. Application Park Seminary 31. Tic-___-Toe Historic District<br />
Law<br />
54. Use one’s eyes<br />
2. Only National Park south of 33. ___ the Season<br />
8. National Park in Utah and 54. Use one's eyes 30. Connecticut's ___ Whitney Forest, a 20<br />
4. ___ and Haws<br />
55. Goes up<br />
the Equator, American ___ 34. Foundation<br />
8. National home Park of in the Utah Three and Gossips 58. Common 55. carbon Goes emitters up 3. Expression of shock acre forest 35. Entertain to protect water quality<br />
home of the Three Gossips 62. Willie Nelson song, __ the 4. Independence ___. National 36. Gumption<br />
14. Sink Sink Gradually<br />
Forest 58. Common carbon Park emitters Service historic site 31. Tic-___-Toe 38. Wind Cave National Park’s<br />
15. Nature’s soothing ingredient 63. Wise advice from Edward 5. Last owner of the land which famous Bed of ____<br />
16. 15. Seats Nature's soothing ingredient Abbey (part 62. 3) Willie Nelson song, became __ Arlington the National 33. ___ the 39. Season Large, beautiful tree<br />
17. I ____ Rock<br />
66. “_____ of the good life” Cemetary, Robert _____<br />
42. ___ Speedwagon<br />
16. Seats Forest<br />
34. Foundation<br />
18. Ponce de ____ Springs State 69. Item used at Rocky Mountain 6. Animal one may see at 43. Also<br />
Park 17. I ____ Rock National Park 63. Wise advice from Denali Edward National Park 35. Entertain 44. Plant<br />
19. Life lines<br />
70. ___ to Billie Joe<br />
7. “Use Common ____”, Grand 49. ____ Lake National Park,<br />
20. 18. Wise Ponce advice de from ____ Edward Springs State 71. Park President in office Abbey when (part 3) Canyon warning 36. Gumption body of water filled only by<br />
Abbey (part 1)<br />
22. 19. Pesticide Life lines banned in the US<br />
Badlands and <strong>The</strong>odore<br />
8. New England’s only national precipitation<br />
Roosevelt were 66. designated "_____ of as the good park life" 38. Wind Cave 50. Ones National who take Park's sight famous Bed of _<br />
in 1972- an action linked to the national parks<br />
9. Home of the Colossus 53. Prefix for environmental<br />
20. Wise advice from Edward 69. Item used at Rocky Mountain 39. Large, beautiful tree<br />
comeback of the bald eagle 72. Ardent<br />
10. Super market convenience terms<br />
23. Simplicity Abbey (part 1) 73. Sleep stage (abbr) National Park 11. ____ and Run 42. ___ Speedwagon<br />
56. Short piece of writing on a<br />
24. Creepy<br />
74. Instructors<br />
12. Period of time<br />
single subject<br />
26. 22. US Pesticide Govt health banned watch dogin<br />
the 75. US Cravings in 70. ___ to Billie Joe 13. Military draft organization 43. Also 57. Get the answer<br />
29. Acquire<br />
76. Places where ambulences (abbr)<br />
32. ______ 1972- Sierra an Land action Trustlinked<br />
may to the go (abbr) 71. President in office 21. Plead when<br />
59. Previously<br />
44. Plant 60. Biker<br />
34. Could comeback be for plastic of the bags bald or eagle<br />
bear trapping<br />
37. 23. Swimming Simplicity pool divisions<br />
Badlands and <strong>The</strong>odore<br />
25. Start over 49. ____ Lake 61. Place National for plant buds Park, body of water<br />
26. Like the ponies at<br />
62. Analogy words<br />
Roosevelt were Chincoteague designated National as Wildlife filled only 64. Chinese by precipitation<br />
dish Chow ____<br />
40. Saugus ____Works, national<br />
historic 24. Creepy site in Massachusetts<br />
Refuge<br />
national parks27.<br />
Operated a car<br />
65. Teaching PHDs<br />
50. Ones 66. who Play take part sight<br />
41. Wise advice from Edward<br />
Abbey 26. US (part Govt 2) health watch dog 72. Ardent<br />
28. Forest Glen _____, home 67. 19th letter in the Greek<br />
of the National Park Seminary 53. Prefix alphabet for environmental terms<br />
45. 29. Certain Acquire<br />
46. “_____ old for this!”<br />
47. 32. Superman ______ enemy Sierra Land Trust<br />
73. Sleep stage (abbr) Historic District 56. Short 68. piece Exhibit, of writing “<strong>The</strong> ___ of on Zion a single subje<br />
30. Connecticut’s ___ Whitney National Park”<br />
74. Instructors Forest, a 20,000-acre forest 57. to Get the answer<br />
48. Often speaks out<br />
34. Could be for plastic bags or 75. Cravings<br />
protect water quality<br />
59. Answers on page 62<br />
Previously<br />
bear trapping 76. Places where ambulences 60. Biker<br />
37. www.wilderness.org<br />
Swimming pool divisions may go (abbr)<br />
61. Place for plant buds 61<br />
40. DOWN 62. Analogy words
Continued from page 50<br />
“We remember when our parents took<br />
us for the first time . . . and then we<br />
as parents pass them on to our own<br />
children.” Cronon sees family visits to<br />
parks as “a kind of intimate transmission<br />
from generation to generation to<br />
generation of the love of place, the<br />
love of nation that the national parks<br />
are meant to stand for.”<br />
In 2010 Yosemite welcomed more<br />
than four million people; Yellowstone<br />
more than 3.6 million. With the economy<br />
struggling to recover, the parks<br />
are an increasingly popular destination<br />
for families. Of course, family<br />
vacations have changed; families<br />
are smaller, trips are shorter, airplane<br />
Continued from page 23<br />
remains of interest to many members<br />
on both sides of aisle. “It’s one<br />
of very few programs that has success<br />
stories in every congressional<br />
district, where constituents can say,<br />
‘Having these open spaces and recreation<br />
contributes to the life I want<br />
for my kids.’”<br />
Take Action<br />
To Save <strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
travel has increased, and electronic<br />
gadgets have replaced billboards as<br />
entertainment. What remains constant<br />
is the passing on of a love of our nation’s<br />
land to future generations on a<br />
visit together to the national parks.<br />
Susan S. Rugh, a professor of history at<br />
Brigham Young University, is the author of<br />
Are We <strong>The</strong>re Yet? <strong>The</strong><br />
Golden Age of American<br />
Family Vacations. She<br />
is now writing a book<br />
about the history of<br />
motels in America.<br />
Kathy Shorr’s work has appeared in a number<br />
of publications, among them <strong>The</strong> Boston<br />
Globe, National Geographic Green Guide, and<br />
<strong>The</strong> Trust for Public<br />
Land’s Land & People.<br />
She lives in Wellfleet,<br />
Massachusetts, just<br />
a few miles from the<br />
North of Highland<br />
Camping Area.<br />
as a member of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>, you’ve already established<br />
your commitment to wilderness protection. Now, we hope you’ll<br />
take the added step of becoming an online advocate for wilderness.<br />
it’s simple, and free. Just subscribe to Wildalert, and we’ll send you<br />
regular notices about easy actions you can take to protect wildlife and<br />
wilderness. Learn more at: www.wilderness.org/wildalert.<br />
GOVERNING COuNCIL<br />
Edward A. Ames, Riverdale, Ny<br />
James R. Baca, Albuquerque, NM<br />
Thomas A. Barron, Boulder, CO<br />
Richard Blum, San Francisco, CA<br />
David Bonderman, Fort Worth, Tx*<br />
Crandall Bowles, Charlotte, NC<br />
William M. Bumpers, Cabin John, MD<br />
Majora Carter, Bronx, Ny<br />
Bethine Church, Boise, ID<br />
Bertram J. Cohn, New york, Ny<br />
William J. Cronon, Ph.D., Madison, WI, Vice Chair*<br />
Brenda S. Davis, Ph.D., Bozeman, MT*<br />
Christopher J. Elliman, New york, Ny<br />
Joseph H. Ellis, Cornwall, CT<br />
David J. Field, Gladwyne, PA<br />
George T. Frampton, New york, Ny<br />
Jerry F. Franklin, Ph.D., Issaquah, WA<br />
Caroline M. Getty, Corona Del Mar, CA<br />
Reginald “Flip” Hagood, Washington, DC<br />
Marcia Kunstel, Jackson, Wy, Secretary*<br />
Kevin Luzak, New york, Ny, Treasurer*<br />
Michael A. Mantell, Sacramento, CA<br />
Dave Matthews, Charlottesville, VA<br />
Molly Mcusic, Chevy Chase, MD, Vice Chair*<br />
Heather Kendall Miller, Anchorage, AK<br />
Scott A. Nathan, Boston, MA<br />
Jaime Pinkham, St. Paul, MN<br />
Rebecca L. Rom, Edina, MN<br />
<strong>The</strong>odore Roosevelt IV, New york, Ny<br />
Patrick L. Smith, Arlee, MT<br />
Cathy Douglas Stone, Boston, MA<br />
Sara Vera, Seattle, WA<br />
Douglas Walker, Seattle, WA, Chair*<br />
Christina Wong, Tempe, Az<br />
Hansjörg Wyss, West Chester, PA*<br />
* member of Executive Committee<br />
HONORARy COuNCIL<br />
Frances G. Beinecke, Bronx, Ny<br />
Robert O. Blake, Washington, DC<br />
Gilman Ordway, Wilson, Wy<br />
Charles Wilkinson, Boulder, CO<br />
SENIOR STAFF<br />
William H. Meadows, President<br />
Frederick L. Silbernagel III, Senior VP<br />
(Finance & Administration)<br />
Amy Vedder, Senior VP (Conservation)<br />
Paula Wolferseder yabar, Senior VP<br />
(Membership & Development)<br />
Sara Barth, Vice President, Regional Conservation<br />
Melanie Beller, Vice President, Public Policy<br />
Ashford Chancelor, Vice President, Finance<br />
Lynn Croneberger, Vice President, Development<br />
Lisa L. Loehr, Vice President, Operations<br />
Ann J. Morgan, Vice President, Public Lands<br />
Spencer Phillips, Vice President, Research<br />
Jane Taylor, Vice President,<br />
Communications & Marketing<br />
U S E H E M S A R C H E S<br />
S A G A L O E C H A I R S<br />
A M A L E O N A O R T A S<br />
G O D B L E S S D D T<br />
E A S E E E R I E F D A<br />
G E T E A S T E R N<br />
B A N L A N E S I R O N<br />
A M E R I C A L E T S S A V E<br />
S U R E I M T O O L E X<br />
I S V O C A L O W E<br />
S E E R I S E S C A R S<br />
I A M S O M E O F I T<br />
A T A S T E S L E D O D E<br />
C A R T E R A V I D R E M<br />
T U T O R S Y E N S E R S<br />
62 1-800-THE-WILD<br />
© Jeff L. Fox<br />
© Kent Miles<br />
© Robert Finch
A Tribute to David Getches<br />
David Getches, one of the nation’s<br />
foremost authorities on water rights and<br />
Native American law, died July 5, 2011,<br />
of pancreatic cancer. He was 68. “It hurts<br />
to lose a hero and a friend,” said Jaime<br />
Pinkham, a Nez Perce leader who served<br />
alongside Getches on our Governing<br />
Council for 11 years. “His battle with cancer<br />
was lost so quickly that it seemed to lack the<br />
justice and fairness that characterized his<br />
five decades of public service.”<br />
A professor at the University of<br />
Colorado Law School for 32 years and<br />
eventually its dean, Getches at one point<br />
headed the state’s Department of Natural<br />
Resources. “We depended on him for legal<br />
advice on all things water and wilderness,<br />
for help with recalcitrant politicians, for his<br />
ingenious solutions to policy challenges<br />
large and small, or sometimes just a kind<br />
THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY<br />
www.wilderness.org<br />
and encouraging word,” said Suzanne<br />
Jones, who directs <strong>The</strong> <strong>Wilderness</strong><br />
<strong>Society</strong>’s programs in Colorado. “He was<br />
like a towering ponderosa pine to us—one<br />
that we thought would always be there,<br />
deep-rooted, well-equipped with humor<br />
and intelligence to withstand drought and<br />
wildfire, providing shelter and inspiration<br />
to so many, a mighty forest anchor .”<br />
Getches was the founding executive<br />
director of the Native American Rights<br />
Fund, a national, nonprofit American<br />
Indian-interest law firm in Boulder. “He<br />
had a passion for both the natural world<br />
and for Native people,” Pinkham recalled.<br />
“Those lucky enough to get to know<br />
David,” said <strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong> President<br />
William H. Meadows, who spoke at<br />
Getches’ memorial service, “were as<br />
struck by his personal qualities as by his<br />
2012 CALENDAR<br />
© Photo: Marc Muench/Muench Photography, Inc. Calendar: BrownTrout Publishers Inc.<br />
scholarship. He had an unbelievable work<br />
ethic, rock-solid integrity, a belief in service<br />
to others, an easy smile, and genuine<br />
humility. He made the most of his years,<br />
and all of us who learned from him will<br />
help his legacy endure.”<br />
ENJOY 2012<br />
WITH THE<br />
WILDERNESS<br />
SOCIETY<br />
CALENDAR<br />
14” x 12” wall calendar with<br />
large daily planning boxes,<br />
only $14.99 (including<br />
shipping & handling)<br />
Great holiday gift idea!<br />
To order, go to<br />
www.calendars.com<br />
and search for<br />
WILDERNESS SOCIETY.<br />
Or mail your order, with<br />
check payable to <strong>The</strong><br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>, to:<br />
Calendar Order, <strong>The</strong><br />
<strong>Wilderness</strong> <strong>Society</strong>,<br />
1615 M St., NW,<br />
Washington, DC 20036<br />
© Bill Weber/Amy Vedder<br />
63