P3-Vol 2.No3 Dec 96 - International Journal of Wilderness

procedures—part of a rising wilderness
ethic—also indicated willingness
to accept restraint in the interest of
respect for the wilderness experience.
The knowledge and communications
revolution as it concerned wilderness
began, in one sense, with the
making of maps. Classic wilderness was
terra incognita: the blank space on the
map. For most of the 20th century there
were wild holes in the U.S. Geological
Survey’s effort to map the entire nation
on its famous “topo” maps. I recall planning
one trip that was literally off the
charts. It was exciting to figure out the
land for yourself; self-discovery is always
the sweetest. I sometimes told my
students to leave the maps at home and
ignore the guidebooks and just go out
and see what was around the bend. The
compensation for the occasional navigational
error was a heightened sense
of wildness, and after all, aren’t risk, uncertainty,
and self-reliance at the heart
of the wilderness experience?
Around 1980 the last of the topographic
maps were released. If you had
a big enough floor, you could lay out
the entire continent edge to edge. It
was in one sense a great human
achievement, but something of the old
wild continent and of pioneering died
with the filling in of those last blanks.
And now we have satellite imagery that,
as any reader of Tom Clancy novels
knows, can show a pack of cigarettes
from outer space. You can obtain photographs
of every inch of the planet,
updated every few hours. Alaskan wilderness
defender Roger Kaye has noted
that computers, combined with remote
sensing, allow prospective wilderness
visitors to order up and preview destinations,
routes, and campsites. On the
ground, travelers can use a pocket-sized
Geographical Positioning System to
determine their exact latitude and longitude,
pinpointing a location within
a few feet.
Still more invasive of the wilderness
experience, it seems to me, is two-way
communication technology. Cellular
phones work perfectly in many wilderness
areas today and are on the verge
of total planetary coverage. Computer
technology adds a new dimension.
Using the WWW, adventure travel
companies are actively marketing
cyberspace “chats” between the battery-powered
laptop computers of expeditions
in the field and living room
explorers of virtual reality. You don’t
have to go the wilderness anymore to
go to the wilderness. But does what
you find have anything to do with the
wild?
Wilderness requires restraint: The
upshot of all this is that the potential
of communications technology to impact
adversely on wilderness once again
requires the exercise of restraint. Motor
vehicles and airplanes have been
outlawed, and it may be time to extend
the protective net. Possibly language
should be added to The Wilderness
Act, banning two-way communi-
cation technology along with mechanized
transport. Alternatively we could
hope for voluntary cooperation—a
new form of wilderness ethic. Most
people understand that a cellular phone
is inappropriate in a cathedral; how
about John Muir’s cathedral of the wilderness?
Outdoor educators, land managers,
and wilderness guides can lead
the way here.
At Grand Canyon Dories, a wilderness-oriented
outfitting company specializing
in river trips, we tell out guests
that it’s different out here. Leave the
cellular phone and the laptop at home.
Conversely, if you want things to be
just as they are at home, stay at home.
For at least two weeks respect the wilderness
and let the river be your information
highway. Without this kind of
self-restraint we risk preserving wilderness
that is no longer wild. IJW
RODERICK NASH is Professor Emeritus of history
and environmental studies at the University of
California–Santa Barbara. His book Wilderness and
the American Mind (third revised edition, 1982) is
regarded as one of the foundations of the modern
understanding and preservation of wilderness. Dr.
Nash has also written The Rights of Nature: A History
of Environmental Ethics (1989), American Environmentalism
(1989), and American Environmentalism
(1990). He is a white-water river guide, with more
than 50 descents of the Colorado River through
the Grand Canyon, and a founding partner of Off
the Beaten Track, a film company featuring the
wilderness experience. He can be contacted at 4731
Calle Reina, Santa Barbara, CA 93110, and P.O.
Box 277, Crested Butte, CO 81224, USA.
The International Journal of Wilderness will have feature articles on a special country or region in each issue. Submissions
are welcome to the managing editor for all related feature articles on international wilderness, or manuscripts
for peer reviews on education, management, research, policy, and other topics. Future featured countries include:
Issue Need Submissions by Country
Volume Three, Issue One (10/96) Asia
March 1997
Volume Three, Issue Two (1/97) New Zealand
June 1997
Volume Three, Issue Three (4/97) Antarctica
September 1997
Volume Three, Issue Four (7/97) South America
December 1997
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF WILDERNESS/Volume 2, Number 3, December 1996 5