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    Historian William Cronon on the need to rethink conceptions of wilderness

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    Historian William Cronon on the need to rethink conceptions of wilderness

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    153 views12 pages

    William Cronon - Wilderness

    Uploaded by

    ncorcoran_tadd
    Historian William Cronon on the need to rethink conceptions of wilderness

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature William Cronon ‘THE TIME HAS COME TO RETHINK WILDERNESS. This will seem a heretical claim to many environmentalists, since the idea of wilderness has for decades been a fundamental tenet—indeed, a passion— of the environmental movement, especially in the United States. For many Americans wilderness stands as the last remaining place where civilization, that all too human disease, has not fully infected the earth. It is an island in the polluted sea of urban-industrial modernity, the one place we can turn for escape from our own too-muchness. Seen in this way, wilderness pre- sents itself as the best antidote to our human selves, a refuge we must some- how recover if we hope to save the planet. As Henry David Thoreau once famously declared, “In Wildness is the preservation of the World.”! But is it? The more one knows of its peculiar history, the more one real- izes that wilderness is not quite what it seems. Far from being the one place on earth that stands apart from humanity, it is quite profoundly a human creation—indeed, the creation of very particular human cultures at very par- ticular moments in human history. It is not a pristine sanctuary where the last remnant of an untouched, endangered, but still transcendent nature can for at least a little while longer be encountered without the contaminating + taint of civilization. Instead, it is a product of that civilization, and could hardly be contaminated by the very stuff of which it is made. Wilderness hides its unnaturalness behind a mask that is all the more beguiling because it seems so natural. As we gaze into the mirror it holds up for us, we too easily imagine that what we behold is Nature when in fact we see the reflec- 69 70 | UNCOMMON GROUND tion of our own unexamined longings and desires Fortis eaton, we mis take oases when we suppose hat wider canbe the slasion wo our ulture’s problematic relationship with dhe nonhuman world fr wer ess is ite no sal puto the problem. To ater the unnaturaless of 0 nacural «place wil no doubt seem sur or even perverse 1 many Feder, 20 ete hasten to 3d tht the ‘nonhuman world we encounter in wilderness it fa from being mee Out (Gea isenion[clebran with ethers wh love widemcn the besty and power ofthe things t conti. Fach of us who har spent sme there can oajueinages snd senations that sec all Ue more auctngy rel for faving engraved themselves so indelibly on our memories. Sach memories ‘may be unigeely our own but the ae also aie enough tobe insanly ‘eeogniable to oter. Remember this? The torent of mis shoot out form {he Be ofa reat waterfal n the depths of Sirs canyon the tiny deo lets cooling your face ae you Tite to the rar of the water and ie up food the ty through aaa tht vas ft oof reach: Remar {his to: looking out cro deer canyon ithe evening a, the only Sound lone ven cling in the dance, the rock walls droping sw int {chasm so dee thats bottom all bu vanishes as you suit iota the ser light ofthe seting sun, And tht the moment bee thera you si on a Sandstone ledge, your Boots damp withthe moring dew wie you take in the ch smell of the pines, andthe small red fx-or maybe for you i ‘asa taccoon ofa coyote ora deer—that suddenly ambles across your Pat, stopping for along moment to gaze in your ditetion with autious Indifference before contmuing on its way, Remember the felings of such ‘moment, and you wll know at well edo that you were sn he presence core bape Stier mente aah aay stare Yyourel: Wilderness made of tht 0. "And yets what bought each of ur to the places where sch memories became possible iene curs invention, Ga back 20 years in Amer ican and European history, and you do not fad early 0 any people ‘anderng around remote corners ofthe planet looking for what oay we ‘ould call the wilderness experince.” As late a he sightcnth century, ‘orate tment aged wcrdeddceictizntbe Eda angniyr Felerred 1 landsespes that generally carried adjeciver far diferent from the ‘nes they aract ay. Tobe 3 werent then war tobe “dered,” "0 fee" “doslat”"baren”—in short, 4" watt," the words nares ym ‘nym, Is conpotatons were anything but pontive andthe maton one ‘vor most likey ela s presence was “bewilderment” error “Many ofthe word's strongest asocatons then were ill, fori wead ‘over and over agua in the King James Version #0 eler to placer onthe ‘margins of cvinaion where es ll to ear o lose oneal ia moral con ‘on and despair. The wilderness was where Moses had wandered with his peopl oe fry yet sad where they had meri binder God wo ‘worhip golden iol. “For Pharoah wil ty ofthe Children of lel,” we The Trouble with Wilderness I 71 readin Exodus, “They are entangled ia the land, dhe wideres bath shut them nc" The wileress was where Chiat had strogged with the dev nd eodared his empeations: “And immediatly the Spit devth ht nt the wildemes. And he was therein the widemes for fry days tempted ‘of Satan; and was with the wild beats and the angele miniered uno hin." The “deicioe Praise” of John Milton's Eden war surrounded by tegp wilderness, whore hairy sider) Acces denied” to all who sought cnuy When Ades and ve were deve fon th gata thi odd they ‘ntred war wilderness hat only thei bor and pain could edcem, Wi ‘Scenes, in shor, war a place to which one care only agaist one's wil and stvaysin fran trebling, Whatever valu itmiph fave aon ely fom the possibility that ie might be “rechimed™ and tured toward human cedsplanted a 2 garden 54, ora city upon ail" Tn is raw state, ithad le or nothing oolfer ized men and women ‘Bur bythe end ofthe nineteenth century, al his ad change. The waste lands tha had once seemed wordless had for some people come to seem almost beyond price. That Thoreas in 1862 could dare wildness to be the Preervation ofthe word suggest the sex change that was oing on. Wile Tes fad once bora the anthesis of ll hat was orderly tnd good —it had Tht Cale Expo from he Gan of Ede, 127-2 (Gif of Wr Main Kt orb nd Rt Cleo of terion Ping 19-100, 721 UNCOMMON GROUND been the dhe one might om the far ide ofthe garden wall—and pow kw eeu enc olen al When Js a inthe irr Nevad 10, be mold dare “Noosa Mee Sha hve rer heard fread of tars bl fin fie aah oe inxreing ch emote: One y en, ance of he Ars ‘mp cane © be dented ssn wre wil bey way anaes thet growing mnber of sch tov and ethos ke eel ‘Nisa Falle was the fi to undergo thie anformstns ker eg followed by the Gull the Adlonacas Yosemite Yelm eed shar Younis wa deeded by he U.S governments these ecg: titi 86a he nations fe wad pu and Yeon eee Br tre natona parka 187° By the Br ded ofthe tency inthe sige mow famous spine in Anrican conservation hy tna Jae fad al he wheter the iy of Sn Franco sal be perm ee ‘arp by damming the Tale Rverin Hack Hasty ag wok Tig toads oNosee Nena Par The am ns ey it ba what today ses po es signin stato many Fel a {2 pve complinn Evens etwas ng ne Re ede became the bale cy of an emerging movers tener eee Fy year cai, such oppor old have beer Se a woul have quite the mer of “eciminge staan hn Spo human wo Nw te een a Ha ra ‘idepread nana econ by portayng chan eae ene pes bu as deneraon 2a vada Lev one doce fe ei Bll mcr haben tuned comply on chee ba eae Ma ack the dans etener “Thee spiny he woe ae ot cust hw fhe dei der ithe doracton ofc ee $0 much ofthe very bx Een ft amg to wae ea Tuolumne water and Tuolumne scenery going Yo wae Foe Me the growing mumber of Amercan who dre his evs, Sa a ad iccone Cotsowp empl ‘The sure of thi rer astonishing tansformaion were many, bo for the purposes of sis esa they canbe eed underrne heed Fen the mine andthe fonier Othe tw te bone te seal erase cultural construc bing on ofthe mos inportans iene {hat broad wnsalnc moveret we today bel ems has {ie Ssmorpecaty Ameria, thought hats Europe ets and pre. The wo converged vena sildemessin ee coe ens {ring it with mor valor ad cuanto he dy Indes te tho tha den nr ee * pentru pandchil of romantcn and po homer cok aig is why i so ace ta so mach emmronmentt dso eek Searng fom she wildenes tho nlicual movements heed eae The Tromble with Wilderness / 73 khooph widere may today cet be jn one evironmentl concern ong nny i tse te una fer afong let tes ch Concern that onthe fac sem ute remote fom &. That why kin nce nso perive and potty so nis “To gaia sich remarlalelflucnce, the concept of wilderness had 10 became land with seat the deepest core values of he cular at re. sed and dele i: had to become site, Tis possibiy ad been present in wires ven the dayr when ad been lc fsa ‘Snger and moral empenion. If Satan was there, then vo was Chit who had found angela wel wid best during His oar in he dsr In the wideroes the boundaries between man and nonhuman, been ae ral and speratral had ways seemed less cerain than clewhee This tras why the exly Chesnais and mystics had often elated Chi ‘esr resent 5 they sought to experience for themselves the vin and ‘pial esting He had endure. One might met devi and rn the sk of Teng nc ach le, bt oe mph abo et Col, or soe ‘hat possibilty was wort alos any pre. iy che ight cenary this sone af the wires a landicpe where dhe superar ly ant benenth the suas was expresed inthe serine ofthe ble, a'ord whose modern unage hasbeen 0 watered down by commercial hype and tour adversaing ts ean only din ‘cho of former power In the theories of Edmund Burke, Inman an, Witam Cipla others sable drapes were thos ae pacs fn earth where ont amore chance than cewhere to glimpre the ce of (Goi Romances bad s cet notion of whee one could be mos sure of ving this experience. Athough God might, of coure, choos to show inatf anywhere, He would most often be found in those vas powefl landseaper where" one could ot help fring ingnfisne and Being ‘enindel of one's own mori. Where were thee sublime paces? The {Sghcenth-cenury etl ofthe Iocatons el very fama, for we sll Ser and vl landscapes a it taught w to do, God wat on the mownsnop, in the cham, inthe water inthe thndercoud, inthe rainbow, inthe Snsct One has only wo think ofthe sites thae Ameria chon forte frst atonal purkaYellowstne, Yoremte, Grand Canyon, Ranier, Zion—0 ‘ies sway of han oe or moro oe ap Lew Sublime lndsapes simply i not appear worthy of such proseions ot nthe 14D for istance, would he few swamp be honored, in Ever lads National Park, and to his day there i no natna park nthe grass fonds “Among the bes proofs that oe had entered sublime landscape wat the ‘emotion evoked. For he ely oman writers and ais who fst began {Gecebate the sublime wa fa rom beings plesrable experince The ‘lasedesepion hat of Willa Wordsworth he recounted cling ‘he Alpe and crowing the Simplon Pas ins suobiographiel poem TBe 74) UNCOMMON GROUND Prelude. There surrounded by crags and waterfalls the post fet himself Iiterly1o be fa the presence othe divine and experience an emotion remarkably dose error The inmenere bh wonderin nr ete dyed, ‘The stationary blasts of waterfalls, ie ‘elie tow sets ‘Wis ag vids blend oom “hewmen thar Bese Tec ht mated per ah ht raaag gs pkey ew ide [Ae sroce wl sban the ip ‘hn ly prone of sng sea, ‘Teufel Godengo he Henenn “alts eyed te ‘oat wekngs foe mand Be ae Ofticsim ou Moca spn one et Sharer of gen apace Thevypo an sym Fert Offi tala nd nd iow nd * “This wa no casual srl inthe mountains, no simple sojourn inthe gentle Inpf nonhuman naar What Wordeworth derived wes mething than 1 Feligous experince, shin vo shat ofthe OM Testament props ay they onvesed with thee wrathfal God. The symbols he detected inthis wider reslandscap were more superatral than ptr, ad they inspired more fc and dismay than joy ox plaare. No mere tal was meant linger long in such a place, 50: wat with conierbl ell that Wordeweorth nd his companion made ther way Back down from the peaks to the shlering valleys Lest you suspect that this vew ofthe sublime ma init to timid Ero pests who lacked the American know-how for feng st home inthe wi ‘ee ni Hey Dail Tharca sci Nowe Kin, in Maine. Although Thora is regarded by many today’ a8 one othe great “American celebrators of wldeoes, hr emotions about Ratan west no lege ambivalent then Wordsworth's bout the Alps. fe-was vas, Thane, and sucha» man ever inhi, Some pr of te toler, een sme vil pr, oem evap rough oe ag of Nir ashe acands He is more lone th you can sme Vay ‘Tian; inan Nar as got en adams sgh lon, ad pals bm of some af his die acl. She des se om im athe ls, She sems to say surly, why Came ye hee fore you ine? Ths [round ines prepared fr you. Lit ova as ame ne vale Ee never made tho forty Fy tenor by brthing the ks foray neha {xaos pay no fondle te ee bf only The Tromble with Wilderness / 75 ive thee hence where Ta ind Why sek oe wre ae ot ald the and hen compan bese You Gdn bts per “Thies surely not the way modem backpacker or nature lover would describe Maine's most famous mountain, but that is because Thora’ ‘description owes a much o Wordsworth and other romantic conempors. Jer arto the rocks and cloud of Katahdin ie His word tok the py el ‘mounsi on hich he stood and transmuted into anon ofthe line: 2 Symbol of Gods presence on earth, The power and the gory of that con ‘mereruck that only prophet might gaze oni for long. tn elec romantics [ke Thoreau joined Moses nd the children of Insel in Exo when “they looked toward the wiles, and bebold, the glory of the Lord appeared inthe dowd." Butevenssitcame to embody the awesome power ofthe sblime, wilder: nes wa aio being tamed not us by thove who were bung setlements Ins midst bu abo by those who most lebrated ie inhuman beauty. By the second hl ofthe antenth century, the ese awe that Wordsworth {nd Thoreau egarde as the appropriately pious stance wo adopt inthe pres ce oftheir mounaicop God was giving way to.4 mach more comfort le almost sentimental demeanor. As mote abd more fours sought out {he mldemes 36a space to beloked tad enjoyed fore rea besty, ‘he sublime in eet became domercted. The wilderness wa sl scr, bot the eligi serments evoked were mor hove of lesa parish shure than hore of rand cathedral ora harsh desert retest. The weet svho bes caearer hi Tate romantic senre of domessined slime i Undoubtedly John Mui, whore desrpconr of Yosemite andthe Seca [Nevada reflect none of the ancy or terror one finds in carl wet. Here e is formance, sketching on North Dome in Yosemite Vale Nopain here, no il mp hours no fe fhe pst no er fhe are ‘Ths bleed moaning sre so comply filed wh Gas ety, 90 py eon hope oexpenen hs rou to be Drinking dr champtane water pure plane, oi behing he niga, snd evry movement fies ‘ore whlch ody sxe el enn bea xpd wei eth ‘amphi or snshin, ening no y the eyes son, bu ely through ‘one's fc ie ran ex making» pusonae cova peur pom oc ephinabe “The emotions Muir describes in Yosemite could hardy be more diferent from Thorea's on Katahdin or Wordsworth’ on the Simplon Pas. Yet all three men ate putcipating inthe same cultural wadition and contributing to the rime myth: the mountain ax cathedral. The thee may die in the vray they chose to express thee pet}—Wordsworth favoring an a¥e-filed bewilderment, Thoreau stem loneliness, Muir a welome cstasy-but they agree completely about the church in which they prefer to woeship 7% | UNCOMMON GROUND Muir’ closing words on North Dome diverge fom his older contemport= fer only in mood, oem their imate content: ached tke ay on his Youn dome, gaze ad sch snd bac, fe: ‘ine seding down nt dmb aliaon without defi hope fee ear Isrech yer wh the ongng, avenge a ie che doe of hope im pronrate before he vas day of Gas power, ad eae to oe ‘iden ad venncain wth dol to leu my lone din Muits “divine manuscrpe™ and Wordsworth’ "Characters of the gret “Apocalypse” were in fact pages from the same holy book. The subline wi By fecing to the outer margins of sete land nd socksy—so the sory ‘ran—anindvideal oul sap the confining srr of ined ie. The ‘mood among writers who ealebrtedfomteeindvgualiom was simost alays sow they lamented ot jst» lose way of ie ba the pacing ofthe heroic men who had embodied tht ile, Thus Owen Wiser inthe ineouction wo his cassie 198 novel The Virginian could writ of vane ished woed” in which "the horseman, the cow-punche, the ls omanic figure upon our soil zode only “inshore yesterday” and would ever come agin” For Wiser, the cowboy wat aman whe gave his word and kept Wall Stet would hae found hm behind che mes) who didnot tak lewaly 10 women Newport would have hove hi old-fashioned) ‘who worked and payed hard and hone eogonered hours i ot unm fim.“ Theodore Roose wrote with much the same’ nostlge fervor about the “ne, manly qualities” ofthe “wid rogheider ofthe plan * No one could be more heroically masculine, hough Roose, or more a home inthe western widemess There he pate is dy, hve he dt i ie-wor, see, when be mes eth, he faces ashe faced many ther ev with ui, ocala fenitae Brave: bapa, hardy and adventurous be the gn pes tf our cee preps the nay fo ein om elo ne ie Be mst hinsel Srppee Hrd and angers hough ca tha ot {eid eracton th sogl des 01 ele pt" “This nosaga for 3 passing rome way fife inevitably impli ambiva- lence, it not downright hostility, toward modernity an all that ropre= sented I one saw the wild lands ofthe ronier a rer, ever nd more ‘Tatura ehan other, more moder plates, then ene nas als inclined to see the cies and factories of wrbanindussialevzason as confining fle, {and srificial. Owen Wiser looked atthe pos frontier “ration” hat ha followed “the horseman ofthe pins," and ids like what he saw" shapelss state, a condition of men and manners at vnlovely ai that ‘moment inthe yeas when winter gone and spring not come, andthe face ‘of Nature ugly" I the eyes of writers who shared Wise diate or 78) UNCOMMON GROUND ‘modernity vation contaminted its inhabitant and sbeorbed them nto the faeen, callie, contemptible ie of the row. For al of roles Sand danger, and dese the fact that mus pass away, the frontier ad beens beer place If cision wart be redeemed, i would be by men Tks the Virginian who could retin thee ronier vires vena they ade ‘he wantin to pose-ronie ie “The mythic ener individual was lost always matulne in gender: heres inde wilderness, an could be rel an the rugged inva he vas mean be before civilization sapped his energy and threatened his Imasculiaiy. Wine’ comempruousrematks about WallStreet and New ‘ore suggre what he and many others of his generton beicwed~tha the ‘Somfors and reductions of evel ie were expel insidious for men, ‘who all to eay became emarcalsted by the femininzing tendencies of [elation More often thn aoe, men who fet this way came, tke Wiser Sod Roose, from elite cas backgrounds. The curious resule was dat + froner nostalgia Became an import vehicle for expressing a pecalialy ‘bourgeois form of antimoderism. The very men whe mos: beneted from) urban industrial capitalism were among those who believed they must ‘ape it deitating eft Ifthe fromter wae pasing, then men who ad the meine vo do 20 should preere fr there some remnan of wld Tandscpe so tht they might enjoy the regeneration and renewal that came from seeping wndar the tar poripsing in blood sporty aod lng off the lind. The fronsier might be pone, but he Kroner expesence could ll bead if only wilderness mere preserved “Thus the decades following the Civil War saw more and more of the nation’s weathies citizen seeking out wilderness for themulver. The ete ‘passion for wil Tand took many forma: enormous eater inthe Aron {Scks and eleenhere(dsingensouly called "camps" derpite thei many ser ‘ane and menses), cae ranches for would-be ough oder om the Gest Plains, ded big yume hunting trip inthe Rockies. and larious rear totes wherever riread pushed thet way iota subline andcapes, Wilder tes suddenly emerged 2 the landscape of choice for eite tours, who ‘brought with ther strikingly aan kes of the countryside through which ‘hey teveled. For them, wildland was not ast or productive bor and nots permanent homer the, war place of rereation. One went othe ‘wilderness nots 3 producer bur asa consumer, hiring guides abd ther Tackcountry residents who could serve as rmaatc surrogates forthe rough ‘ers and unter of the frontier if one wat wing overlook their ae ‘Sasa employee and servants ofthe Fick In jor hs way, wlderes came to embody the national rome myth, seanding for the wid redorn of Armercs's pat apd seeming to represent = highly aresive natura akernative to the ugly arBiality of modern cs zation. The ony, ofcourse, war tha inthe process went cme rele very czaton is devotes ought to ccpe.Eversince the ine The Trouble with Wilderness | 79 seen ear, celebrating wilderness hasbeen an asivty mainly fr well- to-do cy folks Country people general Know far too much abou werk- ing the lind orepard worked nd trea. In conta elte urban Shad wey primes roe eatin ter set onto the Americas ano cresed wideres nthe own mage nti wer oer iene ay wel The oven rode masa parks and widemnes areas flowed had onthe hel of the Sa Idan fain which the prior human iabhan of thee ares wee rounded Up and moved onto reservations. The myth ofthe widens 3 “ign” ‘inhabited land ad sways been especialy cruel when seen fom the per ‘pene of the Indians who had once called that nd home, Now they were fered to move chewhere, wih the rer that fours could safely enoy the lion hat they wer seeing ter nation in spine, origial ste inthe new mering of God's own creston.® Aron the thing hat mont marked the new national pikes reflecting» post frontier conscousert ‘tas the relative absence of human vance within thee boundaries The {tual frontier ad ofen een place of cali, in which invaders and invaded fought for contol of lind and sours. Once net side within the fied andcretlly policed boundaries ofthe moder buresrat state the ‘deren Tom i sarge nage and bere ale pact tore of revere han of revulsion or fare Meanwhile, original inhabits were ket out by din of fore: her exer sues of he and redefined a naproneate oe ‘en ileal To this day, for isace, the Blacher concn ob sve {fpoaching” onthe lands of Glacer National Park tha orginal belonged to hem apd hat were ceded by treaty only withthe proviso tat they be permed wo hut there." “The emoval of Indians 10 crete an “unihabite wideres”—oninhab- ined as never belt nthe man history of the plse—reminds jst how inven art ow constructed, the American werner really. Torti {omy opening argument ther i nothing natural about the concep of wi ‘emai ene ereston ofthe ese that holds dean, + product ‘ofthe very binary i seks wo deny Indeed, one of ie mox striking proofs ofthe cultural invention of wilderness ss thoroughgoing rau of the ‘ior fom which sprang. In virwaly ll of tx manifestation, wider ‘ey repesets 3 ight from istry. Senate orignal arden, ria place [Shot ume im nh bumar beng ad beter lots world of history could propel bein: Sena the frontier a soage worl tthe dawn of cvzaon, whose ransformaton represents the very [epnning ofthe naonal histor epi. Sen a the eld landcape of rom ‘et heroin, itis he place of youth nd childhood, ito which men eeape by abandoning ther pasts and eoering «world of resom wBere the com Stains of cnzation fade into memory. Scena the sacred subline, eis the Home of 3 God who transcends Minory by standing the One who ‘emains utouched snd unchanged by tims sow. No mater what the 9 / UNCOMMON GROUND angle fom which we regard ic, wikderes offers us she illusion that we can ‘eae the cates and troubles ofthe world in which our pat has enmared This expe from history i one razon why the language we ws tlk oat wilderes rote permeated with pita and religious wales hat Sefer human eas fr roe than the rates worl! of phy ial acue ‘Wilerness fills she old romaatie project of secuarigng Judeo-Christian ‘alter soa: o make anew ethedel notin some pety human building bat in God's own creation, Nature isl. Many eavronmentaiss who tet teaitional nis ofthe Godhead and who regard themselves agnostics br even atheists nonetheless express feelings tantamount eo religious ave shen in the presence of wildernese—a fact hat tenis to the rcs ofthe oman project. Thote who have no dificaly sexing God ar the expresion ‘four human dreams and dees nonetces have rouble reogsaing tat Es pculr age Netere cn offer precy the tame soto iro. “Tho it that wlderes serves the unexamined foundation on which so many ofthe guatlgions values of noder eavionmentals ret, The ‘aque of modernity thats one of enironmentlisn’s most porn con tebuions othe mora and plital discourse of our time more often than noe appeals explicitly or implicitly, co wildemess asthe standard against thick to measure the Fang four human word, Wilderness the natura, _ Safle asi fn annaeral cviiation that bas low sol ee 3 Plas of freedom in which we can recover the tra selves we have lost othe Eorspting influences of our ariel Hives. Mos of al i isthe ulmate Tnndseape of authensciy. Combining the sacred grandeur of the sublime sth the primitive simplicy of she font, isthe place where we en sce the world srt realy, and ao know ourcves at we reilly aor Ought tobe Bathe rouble with wilderness that it quel expresses an reproduces the very values its devotes sek to ret. The fight frm Htory ha ‘ery neuly the core of wilderness represents the fase hope of sm escape From esponusity, the ison that we ean sornchow wipe clan the ste four past and return tothe bua rah tht supposedly ented before we AC ga f eave our marks onthe world. The dees of an unwovked natural Lbndsapets very mech the fantasy of people who have never themselves ad to work the land vo make 2 ving—urbun folk for whom food comes fom = supermaret ora restaurant instead of» fel, and for whom the wooden Hhouse in which they ive ad wor apparenly bare no meaningSlconnce ‘Sono the fore in which tres grow and die- Only people whos elation to the land ws already alienated could holdup wilderness a «model lor human ie in nature, forthe romantic ideology’ of wilderess leaves pre ‘itty nowhere for human beings scaly to make thi living ros the end “This, then, isthe ental paradox wilderes embodies a dali vison in which the human is enzely outside the natural I we allow ourseler Tele chat store, wo be ue, mt alo be wld then oue Very presence in The Trouble with Wilderness (1 nature represents its fal. The place where we aes she place where nature not Ith i 0~i by deition mldenes leaves no place for harman Ings, sve perhaps at contemplative rojourners enjoying ther lure revel i Goll's natural ethedalhen ato by definition i en offer no ‘olution to the exvzonmentl and other probleme tht confont ws, To the ‘rent that Ne celebrate wilderness asthe mesrere with which we judge ration, we repreuce the dualism that sex humanity and mare st ‘ponte poles, We thereby leave ourselves lite hope of discovering what Sn chil, sustainable, honorable human place in nate might aecaly Took ike "Worse: othe extent that we lv ia an urban-indostial vation but a the toe tine pretend to oarcves hat our el home i inthe wilderness to jus tha extent we gine ourselves permission o evade responsiblity for tnlves we actualy lad. We inka civilization while olding some part bf ourselves—what we imagine tobe the most precious pital! fom is ntanglements We work our nine-to-five jobs in inition, we et Food, we dive is cars (0t least wo reach the wlderes) me bona fem the inricate an ll oo invisible networks wih which ohles wall he while pretending that these things are not an esenal par of who we ae By imapning dat ou tae home i inthe wilderness, we forgive ourselves {he homes we actualy nhabi In is ight fom history ne sien song of ‘scape ins reproduction af he dangerous aio hat am henge ‘uid of naterein al of thee way, wilderness poss» srows tea So ‘esponsbl environmentalism tthe end ofthe twerith cent. ‘By now [hope itis clea that my ei n thi ey not drs at wild matte per se, of even 2 efor to se side lire tract of wll and, bc eather a the specie hubs of thinking thi flow Irom ths complex tral constuction called wilderness. Ie nthe things we Ibe a ‘erness that are the problem for nonhuman nature and large teat of the natural world do deserve protecon but eather what we oursles mean then we use that label. Leat one doube how porstive thee habit of thought scully ae in contemporaty environmentalism, le me kt sme ofthe places where willernss serves a the ideological underpinning for vironmental concerns that might otherwise seem quite see from ie Defender of bioloaldiversy, for instance, sltiough sometimes appeal ing o more utltran concerns often poin fo “untouched” ecosystems 38 the best and richest repositories of the undcoverd species we must et tainly ty to protec. Although a St Bashan appaerly move “scenic™ once than wilderness bislogial diversity infact invokes many ofthe tame sacred values whichis why ergansatons like the Nate Cones ‘ancy have been s0 quick to employ far an aero the seemingly Fzzier and more prolemats concept of wideress. There #3 paradox here ofcourse. To the extent that bilogcl dverty indeed, even wider= net tel i likely 10 survive in the futre only by the mow iglant snd self-conscious management ofthe ecosystems that suai the ology of £2) UNCOMMON GROUND vider is pti indirect conic wit th very hing encourges “The mont striking instances ofthis have eevlve around “endangered species” whith serve at wunerbl symbols of biological diversity while at ‘Resume time standings surrogates for wlderner fet. The terms ofthe Endangeed Species Actin the United Seater have often meant that those hoping to defend pristine miles have had a rely ona single endangered + specie ike he sported lt gain eal sanding for thi ase—thereby taking the fll power of sacred land inher ins snlenuminous organism ‘those habit dhe becomes the object of intense debate about appropriate Imanagemene and use” The eave with which ant-eavionmentl forces like the weseuse movement have stacked auch sngle-spates preservation ‘Slot suggests the alert ofrateis ike thes, Perhaps partly becate our own cones over sich places and organics bane become 10 meay, the convergence of wikdemes ales with concerns aout bslogia divergy and endangered species has beled proce» deep faciaton for remote ecoystems, where ei ener 2 afine shat naare tmigh somehow be “le alone” to flowh by it own pine devices. The ‘asic example is the opel ain fore, which sine the 1970s has Become ‘he most pomerfl modern com of unfallen sated anda veritable Garden of den for many American and Europeans. And yx peoecting the rain {retin the eyer of Fre World enirmeain al u es mesn pr ‘ecing i from the people who lve there. Those who seek wo preserve Such “eldest rom the sts of naive peoples un the risk of reproducing the sae tagedy-—beingforceably removed Irom an ancient home—that bell Armercan Indian. hid Word couraisface massive environment problems aed deep socal confit, but thes ate not likely tobe solved by [altura myth dr encourages ws vo “preserve” peopeless landscapes that fave not exited in such places for milena. At is worst a8 enviroamenta ‘se are beginning 1 relze, exporting American notions of wilderness in this way can become an thinking and el defesing fap of clr impe- ala” % Pethape dhe most suggestive example of he way that wileres hinking| «a underpin other environmental concers ha emerged in the recent debate Shout "global change.” In 1989 the jouralt Bil McKibben publed 3 ‘ook sited The End of Nature n which he argued that the prospect of _lbal climate change ares of unintentional human maniplation of the mosphere meane thar nature a¢ me once knew it no Tonge exist ‘Wheres cain generstons inhabited «natura woeld that resin more cor less unaffected by heir actions, our own generation i uniquely diferent. ‘Wend our children will henceforth vein Borpere completly ered by our own activity, plane in mhich the human and the natural can no Inger be ditinguithed, Beeaste the one has overwhelmed the oer In ‘McKibben’ view, mato has did, and we ae eesponible for ling i The plant” he declares," wel dfeen now. The Trouble with Wilderness ( 8 But such a perspective ponible only if we accep the wilderness premise ‘hat nature, to be nasral, must ao be pristine” remote from humanity sd untouched by our common pas. Infact, everything we know about ‘vitonmentl history suggests ha pople have Been manipulating the nat “ral world on various ses for as long as we havea record ofthe psig ‘Moreover, we hive unassailable eidene that many of the environmental ‘changes we now fae ao occured quite apr rm hun intrenton fone ime or another athe ears part The point is noe tha our current problems are rival or hat ur devastating tects on the earth's ey sens loud be accepted as inevitable ce natural" Ie rather tho we seem Unkly to male much progses in saving these probleme i we hol wp vo ‘ourselves s the mor of ature a wildermess we ounces cannot nha "Todo so is merely wo take wo alga xtc the paradon that was bul igo wilderness fom the beginning? i mature dies Batause we enter then the only way to save nture to kl ourcves The absurdity of hk propo Son flows from the sndrlying dua i expescs. Not only doer dscribe greater power to humanty than we infact posess—physeal and Uologis! mature wil surely survive some orm or another lng fer we ‘urslves have gone the way of al leh bat n the end offers Ke more than ase deesting counel of despair The tutology giver vr 0 wy ‘util wd astute is the only hing worth saving, andi our mere presence ‘estoy it thn the sole solution to our ow unnaturanes. he only to protect satel widens Irom profane humanity, would sem tobe a ‘de. In is nots proponion tat seems likly to produce very positive or practi resus ‘And yet radical environments and dep ecologists all wo feguenly come cose accepting this premise 3 st principle. When they expres, for instance, the popular notion that our environmental problems began ‘with the invention of apriultur, they push the uman fl fam natal ‘race so far back int the past hat all of cle istry becomes 3 ele of ‘ological declension, Each First! founder Dave Foreman sapere the ‘mila parable suctnctly when he write, ‘Before apore wae mide othe Mile Eas han wt in the wi slp We bad no cone wires” enue eerytang a whe ‘at sod we wera er of But th igaton dace spin ad Permanent vllaes we bet peo be nara weld Becca he ‘Sidermes the ccted and the zs ceed By pew am ve ‘sig In thie view the farm becomes the rat and mort important bate inthe long war agains wid natre and all coe follows i es wake Prom such = staring place, is hard not to reach tbe concaton that he oly way human Licings ean hope olive naturally on earth it follow the hunter gatherers bc icoawldemets Eden and abandon virtually everthing that via 8% / UNCOMMON GROUND sion ha given us. tmy indeed wen out that cvization wll en in eolog- tal eallpse or miler distr, whereupon one migh expect t find any Inuman survivor returning wo way of ie loser to that elbrted by Fore man and his followers, For most of us, though, such debsce wold be ase for repret gn that humanity ad aldo fll ie wa promise {nd ald to honoris own higher valuer—inclding those ofthe deep cc ops. in offering wildcones 2 the ulkimate hunter. gatheer aera to cis avon, Foreman reprdces an extreme br sl exiy recognizable version ofthe myth of eomtier primivam. Whon he wees of is fellow Earth Fisters that "we belive we must ears 1 being animal loryingin our ‘seat, hormones ery and blood” and tha "we struggle gaint the mod rn compalsion to become dul, passions: android" hee allowing the ooureps of Owen Water. Although hit arguments gine primacy to

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