Re: Kenneth Brower: Leave Wilderness Alone

“There are many threats to the 50-year-old Wilderness Act. But the most dangerous, Kenneth Brower says, comes from those who are chipping away at the very idea of wilderness itself.”

“My old man [David Brower] was the fieriest environmental evangelist of his generation, and he brought that evangelism home, practicing his powers of persuasion on us—as if those needed honing. During hikes in the Sierra Nevada, at the dinner table, and on the road, he drummed the poetry and logic of the wilderness idea into us. And he talked wilderness politics. One lesson, repeated often, had to do with the asymmetric warfare between exploiters and preservationists. “They only have to win once,” he would say. “We have to win every time.” ”

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/Leave-Wilderness-Alone.html

.

Just got around to hiking Mt. Tallac in Desolation. Definitely the Half Dome hike of the Tahoe region, except it features dogs in addition to people. While the wilderness aspect of the hike suffers, I am glad that the opportunity exists for people touch it a little. Wilderness--or whatever you want call places without roads and modern conveniences save what you carry--needs advocates and I'd like to think a popular hike like that gives those who don't get out much a chance to see what and why we are protecting certain places. Perhaps they would lean on my Congressman, who has Yosemite in his district and is generally not a huge friend of federally managed wilderness lands, to oppose bills to roll back the Wilderness Act.