With more visitors and more pressure on wild places, we need to make sure we show an appreciation for silence to all those who want to get outside and play on our shared public lands.
In the last issue of this magazine, I talked about climbing Mount Bierstadt with my family and how surprised I was to be excited about the crowds up there with us. I used to hate crowds in wilderness—but I was happy to see so many people, especially young, motivated people who will be shaping the thoughts and policies of this country soon, out here. As far as I am concerned, the more advocates we have for wilderness and wild places, the more people who love mountains and want them to remain protected, the better. I think we need that in these days when our current national government and local governments in many places in the West feel as if they can simply mine the land for private profit no matter what we want.
A lot of readers got upset with the idea that I liked crowds in wilderness, however, so I want to take some time to refine exactly what I mean. Yes, the more people who love and fight for wild places, the better. This particular issue of Elevation Outdoors is dedicated to advocacy, conservation and activism because, the way we see it, wild places, and a healthy outdoor community that includes people, cultures and wildlife require a constant fight in the face of well funded ignorance. This fight never ends.
I also understand that for wilderness to be wilderness it relies on one powerful word that Howard Zahniser insisted be in the all-important Wilderness Act of 1964. It has to remain untrammeled. If wild places become overrun, they lose something essential to their souls. They lose the very reason why we go to them. We live in a world where most of what we do is determined by market forces and human institutions around us. In wild places, we find self-determination, silence, space to be as we want to be—no matter how society sees us as far as race, gender, class, political polarity… we can just be that inner core of ourselves out in the wild. If we lose that, we lose an essential part of being human individuals. Solitude is one of our most powerful freedoms. And we lose that when wilderness gets loved to death.
More people in wild places is inevitable, however. More people should have the right to wild freedoms. The challenge we face as people who care about wild places is to find a way to preserve what gives these places power as well as ensure they remain sacred in the political sphere. That may require management that limits visitors, even if we don’t want it. It definitely requires teaching wilderness ethics, ensuring that all these new visitors treat these places with respect—no matter if that means staying on the trail, picking up trash or not hiking with music blasting. I believe we can open wild places to more people without losing them.
