Is *Wilderness* Stealing Our Heritage?
by
Del Albright, BlueRibbon Ambassador
Being a full time
land use/access advocate, I hear a lot of opinions about the
management of public lands, many of them spot on; some of them a
bit out there. But this one really made me step back and
think. Is the designation of Wilderness areas stealing our
heritage?
The original Wilderness Act of 1964 was
not bad legislation. In fact, most organized recreation groups
supported the idea of setting aside pristine, *untouched*
landscapes and leaving them non-accessible by motors and mountain
bikes. We need places untouched by man, unmarked by the
scars of development.
President Teddy
Roosevelt started the first official beginning of "preserving"
scenic wonders on a national level; but have we now gone too
far?
I have heard accounts of official agency personnel
setting fire to historical buildings and mining camps, just
because these treasures all of a sudden were behind some line
created on a map that said they were now in Wilderness areas and
needed to be removed so there would be no trace of man.
I have
personally seen the results of agency *rehabilitation* of mining
camps, historical buildings, and historic roads -- rehabilitation
being the removal thereof. I have interviewed youth work
crews hiking into new Wilderness areas, under orders from the park
agency personnel, with the job of *removing any trace of
man.* Doubly unfortunate is that these same areas harbored
hundreds of miles of roads and historic mining camps that were
thought to be of value just the year before a new Wilderness
designation.
I have lost track of the number of cabins and
homesteads I have personally visited that are no longer accessible
by vehicle -- and many of which were *obliterated.* In so
many cases, Wilderness designation has meant historical
destruction.
One park ranger type official
tried to tell me that in his area, buildings just fall down from
lack of maintenance and attention, once they are in Wilderness
areas. I understood that, but he didn't have an answer for
me when I asked him how the material (wood and artifacts) all
disappeared also, and how the area where the building stood now
has planted vegetation (rehabilitation?) and no sign of occupation
or use.
How about the fact that we're not supposed to use
motors or mechanized equipment to fight wildfires in some
Wilderness areas? In the 1964 Wilderness areas, this is not
a big deal. Here we're talking high country -- high
mountains, pristine places where there are no subdivisions nearby.
But new Wilderness can be in your back yard today. The old
guidelines of *no trace of mankind; pristine; untouched* are
meaningless in today's application of Wilderness. So when a
large conflagration starts tearing up the countryside (in
Wilderness), we're not supposed to drive fire engines into the
brush and timbered areas where the fire is burning. We're
not supposed to crank up chainsaws to fight the fire. We're
not supposed to fly helicopters into or around the Wilderness area
as that constitutes using motorized equipment.
Helicopters
routinely fly into a world famous Wilderness area, named after a
world famous environmentalist, to service man-made bathrooms
(contact me if you'd like to read the documentation on
this). It's OK to fly and land a copter into Wilderness to
service a bathroom, but we can't fight fire with one?
You
will find plenty of folks who will justify flying a helicopter
into one Wilderness area to service a bathroom, just as you will
find plenty of folks who would march in protest against flying
helicopters to fight fire in an Oregon Wilderness area. Does
this seem arbitrary and capricious to you?
In reality, even
the 1964 Wilderness Act left room for maneuvering and in the
opinion of some folks, manipulation. Existing and previous
uses can be accommodated in today's Wilderness areas, depending on
the slant of the current management. So yes, we can leave
old historic mining buildings in one Wilderness, and tear them
down in another.
At some point, we have to ask ourselves
the real purpose behind new Wilderness areas. Who is getting
something out of this? Because when they steal my heritage, take
down the homestead that maybe your family once lived in, try
to remove roads, trails and all traces of our historical presence,
it just begs the question of who is benefiting
Further, you
have to ask, who is the goose and who is the gander here? Do
we manage Wilderness based on convenience? Do we manage
Wilderness based on one ranger's bias? What
gives?
Allow me to add to add one last twist; our country
has millions of acres of Wilderness Study Areas (WSA) that are
under consideration for Wilderness designation. Some WSA's have
been around for over ten years. Some have already been converted
to Wilderness. Few have gone away. I urge you to keep
a careful eye on WSA's in your area. It matters not that a
WSA has roads. It matters not that your great grand parents might
have had a homestead there. I suggest you talk to your
elected representatives about WSA's in your area. They are
prime targets for future Wilderness designations.
I
believe that people like Teddy Roosevelt, most of our US Congress
folks, and many of our country's leaders were well-intentioned in
the creation of some of our parks, preserves and 1964 Wilderness
areas. But somewhere along the way, *special interest
groups* and a few people in powerful positions, have twisted the
usage constraints of our public lands into something ugly.
It is time to speak out against this
outrage. It is time to stand up for our heritage. It is
time to hold accountable those that promote their own agenda under
the guise of saving our heritage while tearing down the remnants of
our past. It's your time. Get connected with the process
and your elected officials, and be sure that Wilderness is where it
belongs. Don't sit by while someone steals your heritage or
endangers the safety of your home.
Del Albright, internationally published columnist,
BlueRibbon Coalition Ambassador and Environmental Affairs
Coordinator for CA4WDC, has authored volumes over the last 20 years
on land use, outdoor recreation, and access. Contact BRC at
800.258.3742 or www.sharetrails.org;
or visit Del's web site at www.delalbright.com/.
Del is partially sponsored by the Off Road Business Association
(www.orba.biz).