urban ku # 113 ~ love the one you're with
Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 09:08AM 
Wilderness from my windows • click to embiggenEveryone seems to be enjoying the discussion about 'wilderness' so lets give another go - again from William Cronon's essay;
"... the most troubling cultural baggage that accompanies the celebration of wilderness has less to do with remote rain forests and peoples than with the ways we think about ourselves—we American environmentalists who quite rightly worry about the future of the earth and the threats we pose to the natural world. Idealizing a distant wilderness too often means not idealizing the environment in which we actually live, the landscape that for better or worse we call home. Most of our most serious environmental problems start right here, at home, and if we are to solve those problems, we need an environmental ethic that will tell us as much about using nature as about not using it. The wilderness dualism tends to cast any use as abuse, and thereby denies us a middle ground in which responsible use and non-use might attain some kind of balanced, sustainable relationship ... a world better for humanity in all of its diversity and for all the rest of nature too. The middle ground is where we actually live. It is where we—all of us, in our different places and ways—make our homes.
That is why, when I think of the times I myself have come closest to experiencing what I might call the sacred in nature, I often find myself remembering wild places much closer to home ... What I celebrate about such places is not just their wildness, though that certainly is among their most important qualities; what I celebrate even more is that they remind us of the wildness in our own backyards, of the nature that is all around us if only we have eyes to see it ..."
Now, it must be said that I'm a lucky guy. My family and I live in a protected wilderness, the Adirondack Park, which is larger than 5 or 6 US states. The park is home to 100,000+ people who are spread out in approximately 100 small villages and hamlets. While the park is about 1/2 'forever wild' state lands, there are also vast tracks of private/commercial forest lands - paper companies, mining companies, hunting clubs, vast estates, and the like. Land use is governed by the Adirondack Park Agency whose mission is to protect the forever wild forest and the 'wilderness character' of all lands, public and private, within the Park. It's a nasty job but, thank goodness, someone has to do it is doing it.
What has emerged from this highly regulated patch-quilt of public and private interests is an ever-evolving modern model of sustainability - if you will, man and nature 'at peace' with one another, or, at 'one' with one another. It ain't perfect - there is an ongoing 'tension' as public and private interests collide but, for the most part, a balance has been struck.
And, more to the point, since I have been living in a wilderness, my idea of wilderness has evolved into something akin to what Cronon and others are advocating - 'pristine wilderness' taken down from its throne and integrated into the rest of the world.
It's why I can wake up in the morning and just look out a window and see and appreciate the 'wilderness' that is all around me.
So, here's my challenge to you (all of you) - if I start a Wildness Close to Home Gallery, will enough of you participate to make it worthwhile? There would be only one rule - pictures must be made within a 1/2 mile radius of your home, preferably reached on foot.
Are you up to it?
Reader Comments (7)
Once again, I don't think a belief in wilderness is what causes poor land use with the rest of our landscapes. I think that we are lucky to have any wilderness in the face of pressure from bad land use policies.
Having said that, I agree that we don't have a reverence or respect or whatever we need to have to do the right thing with the landscapes around us. Maybe our art can be part of the propaganda needed to capture the hearts and minds of the masses.
I was refreshed to read Bill Cronon's essays once again (have a copy here at home) and I have to say even though Cronon makes me believe we (the human race) need to figure out how to live in harmony with nature and create "wilderness" wherever we are (whatever the hell you want to call it), I still really really like the idea of a 100-thousand or so acres set aside as a "no machines" zone. Call it what you will, but I like the idea of wilderness, in the sense of primitive. No cars, no mining, no logging, no anything! Not to make it sound like I disagree with Cronon's philosophies. Contraire, I actually agree fully; the idea that better "zoning" (aka land use management) might be the solution to this planet's woes still excites me. But the ultimate incarnation of wilderness being the "wilderness area" is something that makes this guy's pulse quicken.
(of course, my pulse quickens when crossing the street in lower Manhattan, but thats for a different reason, and not quite the same reason, ya get it? I'm, not anti-civilization, I just like to be in the wilds.)
I'm in.
This has been very interesting reading Mark and I absolutely love the idea of a wildness close to home gallery. I think a challenge like this could really open up some eyes and minds to what lies just outside our doors and at our feet.
Brett expresses my view on the subject perfectly.
Yep.
I'd like to participate, but it's fairly tough for me not to show the "hand of man" in images given that I'm completely surrounded by (organic) farm land. Here's an example of what you'll find within a kilometre of my home (all but one reached by walking):
http://www.neutralhillsstills.ca/index.php?showimage=211
http://www.neutralhillsstills.ca/index.php?showimage=210
http://www.neutralhillsstills.ca/index.php?showimage=209
http://www.neutralhillsstills.ca/index.php?showimage=208
http://www.neutralhillsstills.ca/index.php?showimage=207
http://www.neutralhillsstills.ca/index.php?showimage=206
http://www.neutralhillsstills.ca/index.php?showimage=205
http://www.neutralhillsstills.ca/index.php?showimage=203
http://www.neutralhillsstills.ca/index.php?showimage=198
http://www.neutralhillsstills.ca/index.php?showimage=199
http://www.neutralhillsstills.ca/index.php?showimage=195
http://www.neutralhillsstills.ca/index.php?showimage=193
I love where I live and I enjoy sharing it with others, but it's not wilderness like you'll find in the Adirondacks.
That and I'm not sure that my photography would be considered "true" enough for you folks. :-(