modern wilderness
ideas
Changing American concept of wilderness--the focus now is on ideas
where have you visited the wilderness?
What is wilderness? For the purposes of this book we need to be careful about what exactly do we mean by wilderness.
what would disqualify an area as wilderness?
Consider a spectrum between wilderness and civilization:
history of our ideas about wilderness:
We have now gotten to the idea that wilderness should be preserved. Why?
why might we value wilderness today? there are several possibilities
today wilderness means uncultivated and undeveloped land (land without humans)
but is also used for anywhere that people get lost and confused
33,000 people live in the 368 square miles of Dartmoor National Park in England and over 90% of the land in the park is used for farming. Yet the high moor is described as the last true wildernesses left in England today.
the wilderness in which Moses and his followers wandered for 40 years
change from wilderness as something to be conquered to wilderness as something to be preserved?
Changing American concept of wilderness--the focus now is on ideas
where have you visited the wilderness?
- undeveloped land in Colorado
- designated wilderness
- Congaree National Forest
- Jocassee
- camping in Alaska, forest
trail
- campground with cabins in
the woods owned by an organization
- class field to Barrier Island (protected area on an island near Seabrook)
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- undeveloped area with no houses
- Assateague island off Virginia, with no inhabitants, wild horses
- anyplace you go you are no more than 20 miles from a paved road, in the SE 7 miles
- Baxter State Park in Maine--Mt. Khatadin
- Ghobi desert--there were native people there
- Philmont scout ranch, New
Mexico--free roaming cattle are a part of a working ranch but not fences
What is wilderness? For the purposes of this book we need to be careful about what exactly do we mean by wilderness.
- an unsettled area where
there aren't towns
- an uninhabited area
- a forest
- somewhere where your surroundings are not designed by humans
- where nature hasn't been disturbed by human beings---
- a place with no roads (not
even logging roads)--definition of wilderness used by the federal
government
- wilderness is a place where you don't see evidence of human beings
- if trails are built is it no longer a wilderness?
what would disqualify an area as wilderness?
- electricity
- accessibility to a hospital
- campgrounds with restroom facilities?
- roads?
- cell phone service
- the trees were logged 75 years ago?
- you see other people
- you see no traces that people have ever been there
- an airplane overhead?
Consider a spectrum between wilderness and civilization:
- city--in many ways we are
in a human-created world
- suburb
- farms--nature under human
control
- park designed by landscape architect
- natural land
managed for human use (including harvesting timber), such as the
Clemson Experimental Forest
- wild land intended for human visits (eg. trails)
- wilderness where you don't see any evidence of humans
- wilderness areas where
human beings aren't allowed
history of our ideas about wilderness:
- first draw a line between domesticated and wild plants and animals
- humans began to want to be masters or owners of nature
- wilderness was unknown, disordered, dangerous
- nature was no longer something we were a part of but an object for exploitation--wilderness as something to be conquered
- we have a very different
idea today
- how this change?
- wilderness as to be admired
(19th century idea) and preserved
We have now gotten to the idea that wilderness should be preserved. Why?
why might we value wilderness today? there are several possibilities
- to encourage curiousity and
the study of science
- we need forests to provide us with oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide, other ecological benefits
- to give people a different experience--why is that an important experience?
- beauty--to feel immersed in beauty, to make it more real and tangible
- to make us better human beings
- to appreciate nature
- to bond with it
- to build character and self-reliance
- to bring people closer to God
- provides a sense of adventure
- relaxing
- a place to escape from the
dangers and pressures of civilization
- it is disappearing
- we couldn't restore it if
it disappeared
- special to America--part of
American identity
- want to be able to go places where we don't see evidence of human beings
- preserve natural resources
for future use--timber, hunting, fishing, water supply
- to preserve natural areas
for future research
- preserve wilderness from a moral standpoint
- wilderness has a right to exist not for human use but for its own sake
- experiencing wilderness
makes us better human beings or brings us closer to God
- preserve wilderness as a
tourist attraction (including hunting)
- preserve wilderness for
practical use (logging, grazing, preserving water supply)
today wilderness means uncultivated and undeveloped land (land without humans)
but is also used for anywhere that people get lost and confused
33,000 people live in the 368 square miles of Dartmoor National Park in England and over 90% of the land in the park is used for farming. Yet the high moor is described as the last true wildernesses left in England today.
Nature
is valued in Europe, but the nature is valued is farmland
they have laws against turning farmland into suburban developments
natural land for people to visit is very carefully managed
they have laws against turning farmland into suburban developments
natural land for people to visit is very carefully managed
the root
meaning of the word wilderness is uncontrolled--in contrast to a farm
which is controlled nature
- by its history, the word wilderness means the place of wild beasts
- southern European languages don't even have words for wilderness
- the word was not significantly used in English until it was used in translating the Bible
the wilderness in which Moses and his followers wandered for 40 years
change from wilderness as something to be conquered to wilderness as something to be preserved?