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Wild
Colorado
featuring articles on the Wilderness
Act
Conservation Update
Myths & Facts about
Wilderness
Volunteers further wilderness
efforts
Colorado Wilderness Bills of
1999
Happy Anniversary,
Baby. The Wilderness act turns 35. Is
it grown up yet? |
from Vera Smith,
public land policy
director,
the Colorado Mountain Club
“Just the facts,
Ma’am”
This past September, the Wilderness Act of 1964
celebrated its thirty-fifth anniversary. Politicians, environmentalists, and
even industrialists put away their battle-axes briefly to reflect nostalgically
on the legacy of one of most important pieces of environmental legislation ever
signed into law. Then, the moment was over, and the rancorous haranguing over
wilderness resumed with its usual fury, emotion, and factual
deficiency.
The word “wilderness” makes people
bristle. They hear the rhetoric: the government is closing off the land;
wilderness is the death of small town life; wilderness is just another way for
the government to tell us what to do; we don’t need wilderness to have
wildness. They rally to the battle cry of “Don’t let the government
take away our rights!” What they don’t hear are the facts.
The fact is that wilderness designation provides
explicitly for multiple use and does not ever prevent entry. The fact is
that counties with designated wilderness are generally in better economic
health than those without. The fact is anyone can recreate in wilderness;
they just can’t do it on a motorized machine or on a bicycle. The fact is
that wildlife often need larger chunks of unfragmented land than are generally
available. The fact is that ninety-four percent of the lands in the southern
Rockies are less than two miles from a designated road. The fact is that over
eighty percent of the population of this country say that they want more
wilderness. The fact is that about ninety percent of the designated wilderness
in the southern Rockies protects “rock and ice” areas of low
biological richness, while virtually all the lower elevation mountainous areas
of great biological importance remain without permanent protection.
In this issue of Wild
Colorado, we try to give you a sense of the
wilderness debate in Colorado and provide some facts regarding Colorado
wilderness. Our feature article discusses the history of the Wilderness Act and
the Colorado Wilderness Bill of 1999. Supplementary articles lay out the myths
and facts about wilderness and describe the CMC’s volunteer wilderness
mapping weekends. Our goal is not to tell you how to think, but provide you with
facts instead of rhetoric, from which you can draw your own
conclusions.
The other night I listened to a debate over a
wilderness proposal. Some user groups cried foul, complaining that the lands
were systematically being closed off to them. They complained that wilderness
precluded them from letting their dogs run free. They complained that it might
restrict access to climbing. They complained that it might infringe upon their
right to recreate on the land whenever and however they want. As I sat and
listened to the melee, I wondered what the authors of the Wilderness Act would
think about these ill-informed opinions of wilderness, or this willingness to
forego the chance to protect lands permanently as wilderness (a privilege that
few countries grant to their citizens) in order to satisfy self-interests in
the short term. At a minimum, I am sure that they would counsel us to consider
deeply the ramifications of our decisions and to make decisions based on fact
not rhetoric. |
T&T departments:
Club news
Colorado Classics
Education
End of the Trail
Something to Smile
About
Yesteryear |
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