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Jan 1, 2025
Tom van de Water
tvandewater@ccsdk12.org
315-261-1723
Observations on Wilderness Protection
We’re fortunate to have Adirondack Wilderness nearby. But what does Wilderness with a capital “W” mean?
The Forest Preserve in New York State is defined as “forever wild” in the State Constitution. This means the forests owned by the state within the Adirondack Park (and Catskill Park) cannot be cut or destroyed by anyone, public or private, without a lengthy legal process involving multiple years of voting by the people of the state. This was a radical idea for the 19th century that inspired Adirondack preservationist Bob Marshall to push for “forever wild” lands at the national level in the 1930s, a drive that culminated in the creation of the Wilderness Society.
Marshall and others advocated for Wilderness as a place where natural processes dominated, “untrammeled” by those who would use mechanized or motorized equipment. People like Bob Marshall and Aldo Leopold saw wild land as essential for ecological and spiritual reasons. The Wilderness Act, passed in 1964, gives federal protection to these specially designated lands. Bicycles, chainsaws, and helicopters are restricted.
New York State has adopted Wilderness restrictions on the wildest parts of the Forest Preserve, while leaving some “Wild Forest” areas accessible to motorized equipment but still not to be cut. (Interestingly, federal Wilderness is vulnerable to the whims of Congress, whereas New York State Wilderness is protected by the State Constitution.)
Unfortunately, the idea of Wilderness is still misunderstood by many. Every Wilderness Area in the country has issues of encroaching development and motorized intrusion. Few recognize Wilderness as a small subset of public lands with deep value and important restrictions.
In September, on a day off from my job as a fire lookout at the edge of Idaho’s Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, I attended the opening day of a gathering organized by Wilderness Watch, a watchdog group dedicated to preventing abuses of Wilderness and advocating for its protection.
Members of the Nez Perce Tribe (or Nimiipuu, “the people”) joined the Idaho gathering. Much of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness was part of their original treaty land (similarly, much of the Adirondacks was originally Haudenosaunee – formerly “Iroquois” -- land). Indigenous voices have joined Wilderness voices in advocating for protection of Wilderness and asserting “rights of nature” worldwide. This movement has the potential to fundamentally change our relationship to nature. Imagine a world where rivers and trees have rights over private interests and corporations. This may be the next step in the evolution of Wilderness, allowing protection for nature, including trees and flowing water.
After the Wilderness gathering in Idaho, I walked with a couple friends to Grave Peak, where Bob Marshall was once treed by a grizzly bear. His brush with death thrilled him. Marshall saw Wilderness as a place to enter with care and consideration, knowing death or injury is possible. When people enter Wilderness, they need to remember the words from the Wilderness Act defining it as “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”
Wilderness is still a challenge to understand and educate others about. As Adirondack Mountain Club members, we have a responsibility to understand the value of Wilderness and advocate for it. Wilderness is more than a convenient recreation area or natural area for our benefit. It is more than a critical carbon sink for buffering climate change, more than a source of ecological diversity.
Most of our Adirondack rivers originate in Wilderness Areas. These rivers and their creatures have a right to exist. Their survival is connected to ours. When we enter a Wilderness Area, we should recognize that we are entering an area dedicated not to us, but to natural processes and the beings living there (and a long history of Indigenous use).
We could stand to be reminded of this when entering Adirondack Wilderness. We are incredibly fortunate to have these uniquely defined lands nearby. They may help save us and all beings from ourselves.