The idea of wilderness is almost always associated with the America Northwest: Alaska, Washington, Colorado, and Wyoming. The image of snowcapped mountains, clear waters, and untouched woods comes to mind. It is beautiful, wild, and most importantly, free. For generations people have seen the wilderness as the last true place to be free. Some people seek to preserve the wilderness, some seek to tame it, others simply want to enjoy it through recreation. The common element in all these motivations is the freedom that comes from the wilderness. Plants, animals, and people are free to do as they please because the wilderness is the one corner of the world where society has not touched. The idea of wilderness has been romanticized for generations in America by movies, books, and stories. Tough cowboys taming the land and the people. Men escaping from the feminizing city life to reclaim their masculinity in the traditional ways of living. This has resulted in a white, able-bodied, male dominance over the wilderness. Anyone who does not fit that description would not find easy access to the wonders of the wilderness that this country loves so much.
The limited number of people able to go out into the wilderness and enjoy their time there makes preservation of the wilderness a difficult issue to support. Most people live in cities and towns. They have not been into the true wilderness and probably never will. When people lose touch with something for so long, some generations detachedfrom the woods, it is difficult to see the importance of preservation. If someone has lived in the city their whole life and decides they want to go camping they cannot just go down the road into the woods and camp. They must travel to a camp site, buy all the necessary supplies and permits, and then they face the challenge of never truly having been out in the woods. Many people do not know how to live without electricity, plumbing, and a bed- even for just a few days. Suddenly, the wilderness is no longer romantic. It is no longer desirable. When the wilderness loses its appeal, it loses its conservation efforts.
So how do we get city and town people to enjoy nature? If they are much of the population and we need their support to maintain conservation efforts, how do we get them to see the importance of the wilderness? Many creative minds have offered a solution by creating breathtakingly beautiful documentaries highlighting the necessity of the wilderness and preservation of nature. People can enjoy the wilderness without even having to step a foot out of their homes. While this is a good and useful tool, these people still are not connected with nature. An important part of conservation and education is connection. People, no matter how urbanized, need to feel a connection to nature. Feeling a connection with nature will encourage people to learn more, teach others, and feel a part of something. It is connectivity and passion that fuels truly successful movements. If conservation efforts hope to create a lasting effect,then people need to have more motives than just “it's the right thing to do” or “the wilderness is so beautiful”. They need to feel connected with nature and feel like nature has bettered their lives.
This kind of conservation movement change can only occur through accessibility. People in cities and towns need to be able to reach out and experience nature. People with disabilities need to be included in park and trail planning. City gardens, nature educational programs, public transport to further out parks, and trash pickup are great ways to bring nature to the cities. If most of the population in the cities and towns cannot afford to travel out into the true wilderness, they should at least have access to small pieces of it in their own neighborhoods. William Cronon wrote, “a person with a clear heart and open mind can experience the wilderness anywhere on earth. It is a quality of one’s own consciousness. The planet is a wild place and always will be” (43). The key to bringing wilderness conservation awareness to the people living in cities and towns is to plant the seed of wilderness in their minds. Through access and education these people can harbor a love of the wilderness not by romanticizing a grand escape or masculinity, but by believing their own piece of wilderness in the cities is important, and thus all wilderness is important.
There are billions of people in the world now and connecting all of them with nature is impossible. Just as it is impossible to say there is anywhere left on earth that is not affected by humans. Climate change is having dramatic effects all around the world. Every corner of the world is experiencing some sort of change from it. If you stick to the definition that the wilderness is completely untouched and untamed land, then the wilderness no longer exists in this world. However, that is not the definition of wilderness that is going to help preserve nature and the lands. Wilderness needs to be seen as a mindset. It needs to be something anyone, no matter where they live, can access. People are not going to fight for a corner of the world, they will never know when their neighborhoods are flooding, burning, or breaking down. The wilderness can only be preserved if everyone sees why it's worth preserving. Saving the last wild lands from human destruction becomes far more achievable when people around the world understand why they are important and can feel a connection to them.
People do not need to love nature or do drastic things tochange their lives for conservation. That is asking too much, but owning a plant, planting a garden, educating children, are all small steps that will lead to far bigger results. Planting that seed of wilderness in people’s hearts will affect their entire lives. It might make them think twice and consider who they vote for in. Voting in anenvironmentally conscious way is what will amount to the greatest overall change. Large corporations and people who have far more than their fair share are why we are in this climate crisis, however we let them do it. But we can still change things.As long as we have the freedom to vote, we will keep the freedom we all see in the wilderness. Work Cited: William Crononed., Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995, 69-90)