Out of the Office, Into the Wilderness

“In wilderness time mixes with eternity, and that is one of the reasons we value it so highly.” -Holmes Rolston III

Wilderness was once viewed as a terrible place, full of danger and evil creatures. Today, people are paying extravagant amounts of money to throw themselves into the heart of it. In a new brand of vacation experience, known as eco-tourism. There are many reasons that eco-tourism has been a project for modern environmentalists for years, the first of which is to generate a love, understanding and appreciation for nature. Also, it can be a source of revenue for both environmental causes and small town economies that host the ecotourists. This type of tourism is beneficial in many ways, but not all aspects of it are positive. The impact of taking large groups of people into areas that haven’t seen people can be detrimental. Not only do these natural tourist attractions need to have a place for people to stay and eat, they mean more pollution and litter as well. When a place like South Africa or Costa Rica starts taking on droves of tourists they need to construct more shelters and amenities. This can cause forests, farms and natural sights to be destroyed for the sake of hotels. The small economic bump caused by the tourism is a hard justification for all that is being destroyed. Also, when nature receives an influx of human activity that its never had before means that there will also be a great amount of litter and pollution. Though people are coming to wilderness because they love it, as Roderick Nash said “we may be loving wilderness to death.”

This is the website for The International Ecotourism Society:

http://www.ecotourism.org/

Dedication of Grey Towers

John F Kennedy and Gifford Pinchot dedicate Grey Towers to the Pinchot Institute on September 24, 1963.

Grey Towers

I am a born and raised Pennsylvanian, and I grew up in the woods only an hour away from the Grey Towers. This is the magnificent home in which Gifford Pinchot was raised and spent most of his adult life. It was built by his parents James and Mary Pinchot, but it was James that first noticed the declining state of the U.S. forests. He taught his oldest son Gifford to love the forest as well. This exposure to the wilderness is what, some say, led Pinchot to his later role as chief of the U.S. Forest Service. The property is 102 acres, all donated to the U.S. Forest Service both as a historic site and a preserved forest. I remember visiting the Grey Towers when I was in elementary school on a field trip and  I visited Grey Towers this past summer for their annual Forestry Festival. The house and grounds amazes me now, just as they had when I first saw them. The house itself is grand and kept in great condition by the Grey Towers Heritage Association. The house is used for natural resource and conservation education, community awareness and participation, and preservation of the surrounding forest (according to their mission statement.) It is easy to see when standing on the property why the person living there would dedicate their life to the forest. Standing in Pinchot’s study you have a view of the whole country side and it can help anyone see why this is a place worth saving. I have always seen the landscape of northeast Pennsylvania as an inspiration for environmental action, and as you tour the grounds once walked by Gifford Pinchot, you know he felt similarly about it.

These are some pictures that I took while there:

Resource

This is where I found my info for the previous post “Muir Poetry”

http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/default.aspx

Muir Poetry

    This week’s discussion of the founding of the National Parks System was very interesting and the person that I found my interest most drawn to was John Muir. He was given the title of ‘father of the national parks,” due to the amount of work he put in setting up the national park system. He also founded the Sierra Club and spent a lot of time in the Sierra Nevada, in California. But what I really love about John Muir is his poetry because I think it showed his awe for the environment and the passion behind what he did for nature in America. My personal favorite of his poems is “Walk With Nature.” In this poem he writes about the way that we should teach children about the environment. I like this poem the best because his approach to educating younger children about nature is very similar to the way that I think it should be done. The way that he describes children walking with nature and learning from the woods and meadows is what makes this poem so great. It shows the spirit and motive behind his founding of the parks. As Sean mentioned in his fifth lecture, the gates entering Yellowstone say “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.” This was the reason that the National Parks were created, to teach and the provide natural enjoyment to people. That’s why I like John Muir’s poetry, because, to me, it captures the meaning and essence of the National Parks.

 

WALK WITH NATURE
By: John Muir
Let children walk with nature,
let them see the beautiful blendings.
communions of death and life,
their joyous inseparable unity,
as taught in woods and meadows,
plains and mountains and streams.
And they will learn that death is stingless.
And as beautiful as life.

A Walk on Yellowstone’s Wild Side

A Walk on Yellowstone’s Wild Side

This is a recent article from the Audubon Society’s magazine all about the wolves in Yellowstone. It also talks a  little bit about the other wildlife in the park as well as the tourism and education programs that go on there. I found it very interesting and rather appropriate for this class.

Wild?

I have enjoyed trying to figure out what my opinion of the difference between nature and wilderness is, it really made me think. Often I hear people use wilderness and nature as if they are the same word, me included. But a word that really confuses me is wild. It seems to have so many meanings lately, and everything thinks of something different. So I asked a few people around me to tell me what they think of when I say the word wild. My sister simply said “wolves”. I asked if she thought of anything else…”your hair”. Then I asked my grandfather, an avid fan of any movie starring Clint Eastwood or John Wayne, he replied “wild west.” My mother said she thought of “I think of African cats…and the woods…and Steve Martin.” (A classic Steve Martin comedy bit was about him being a “wild and crazy guy!”) I then asked my father and he said “wolves.”

The definition of ‘Wild’ according to my family

These are the types of things that a lot of people think of when they hear the word wild. Animals that are the definition of wild, wolves, running across tundra, hunting, dangerous and fierce. I understand that answer it makes sense. The wild west? Another answer I get, I might even say that, I mean ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ is an awesome movie, I like it too! These answers I expected, it was the response from my friends that surprised me.

My friend Chris thought of the song ‘Wild Ones,’ by Flo Rida. (link to song) Ok, nothing to do with nature or the wilderness. My friend Sarah sent me a picture of a wild dance party. And my acquaintance Mary said she thought of leopard print…dresses, shoes, etc. So it seems that, with the exception of my grandfather, my family all thought of things that are in the wild, animals, forests, etc. While they people my age could only think of pop culture refences. I find the contrast interesting, because it shows the difference in the age groups, although I am the age of the pop culture lovers and I think of birds. Flying free and totally wild, without any restraint.