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Protecting and restoring our Olympic forest
and aquatic ecosystems
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Wilderness Is the One Place We Don’t Have to Change
by John Woolley
Is Wilderness Management an oxymoron? Perhaps we need a university degree curriculum in the topic if we are to address it seriously. How do we educate land managers to do nothing? This is a most difficult task for mankind. The freedom to do nothing, the ability to practice restraint, is often said to be the greatest freedom of all. But can we do it?
Wilderness Watch sponsored a seminar in Mazama recently to address that question. (An oft-asked
question: What is the difference between The Wilderness Society and Wilderness Watch? In spirit,
nothing; but in a mission sense, TWS works to create new Wilderness Areas to be added to the National Wilderness Preservation System. Wilderness Watch strives to keep these legislated Wilderness areas wild, as defined by the Wilderness Protection Act of 1964.) Again, this is not easy; the problem is exemptions—exemptions from Restraint.
Let’s go back a few decades. The Wilderness Act of 1964 was written very carefully, each word chosen
specifically, so that misinterpretation would be minimized. Though nearly 80% of Americans supported establishing Wilderness Areas, it took eight years for lawmakers to agree on the final draft. It passed by a landslide. Human passion for the wild has always been high. Wild lands are set aside by all cultures, to honor our source of wisdom, inspiration and religion.
By the 1980s, however, pressures to create new Wilderness Areas were leading to compromises in
wilderness character. The commitment to wildness, and to the resounding words that so defined wilderness (as the Act intended) was just not happening. The Forest Service couldn’t muster the will; so Wilderness Watch was formed to help find that resolve. As always, the key is education.
I’ll try to be objective about the seminar, but how can I be when the main lesson is to stop suppressing
our passion—our passion for wilderness and all it means, to each of us personally. Say it. Don’t censor
your enthusiasm when it emerges; it is a tonic that confirms your own values and brings wilderness and
its worth into the minds of others. A view down a pristine valley, in Alaska, or the Olympics, is a path
into unrestrained evolution and ecology. There is the aesthetics that provide us with the means to make
wise decisions, both economically and ethically. A wolf’s eyes watch me from the bottom of my note
pad, as I type these lettered words. Will we practice wilderness management, laissez faire style?
photo by Connie Gallant
One of the founders of Wilderness Watch is retired land manager Bill Worf, who wrote the Forest
Service’s Wilderness Management Plan to implement the 1964 Act. Now 80, he rode seven hours in a
carpool from Missoula to Mazama to sit at the front of the seminar. The unseasonable heat—90-something—set us all back a bit, but Bill kept us focused. So much good information led me into a personal Renaissance—a realization that I too have become dulled to my passion. Each session was attended by 17 to 21 students of wilderness. They all displayed an admirable gentleness and respect for each other, as well as gratitude for the ideas and will of those that have made Wilderness in America possible.
Nevertheless, the heat, good discussions, the overflow of information going into my brain led me to
listen carefully when Roger Kaye (Last Great Wilderness) brought up the concept of Solitude. A
state of mind free from distraction, in an untrammeled environment, where Nature is allowed to “Let
It Be” provides perhaps the best opportunity for Solitude. In such a place one can think clearly, then
get back to others, and be able to say something really worth hearing.
Wilderness Watch was a great help in a recent legal case with Olympic National Park. It supported
OFCO’s sister organization, Olympic Park Associates, in its successful effort to prevent Olympic
National Park from helicoptering two pre-constructed shelters into the remote Olympics, without due
regard for the Wilderness Act and without a written Wilderness Management Plan.
When it comes to Wilderness, doing nothing is something.
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