Robert Michael Pyle
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226444666
- eISBN:
- 9780226444970
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226444970.003.0003
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Nature
This chapter teases apart the various distinctions between wildness and Wilderness by exploring the author’s own experience of the wild continuum, from a modest drainage ditch in suburban Denver, ...
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This chapter teases apart the various distinctions between wildness and Wilderness by exploring the author’s own experience of the wild continuum, from a modest drainage ditch in suburban Denver, Colorado, to the de facto wilderness of the Dark Divide in Washington State. Attention is given to the “sliding scale” of wildness, graduated not in numbers but in degrees of differentiation from the human quotidian. Much of what defines the wildness of any place, the author argues, is its unknown otherness—which sometimes means that certain areas must be protected from human use and remain places, in the words of the Wilderness Act, “where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” While underscoring the importance of wildness “in its most compressed, contained, and essential forms,” the chapter defends the necessity and anti-elitism of Wilderness lands (“the Big Wild”) and wilderness experiences at the far end of the wild continuum. Human uses that respect and enhance the relative wild should be celebrated, the author contends, but we also must remain vigilant in protecting wilderness from human abuse.Less
This chapter teases apart the various distinctions between wildness and Wilderness by exploring the author’s own experience of the wild continuum, from a modest drainage ditch in suburban Denver, Colorado, to the de facto wilderness of the Dark Divide in Washington State. Attention is given to the “sliding scale” of wildness, graduated not in numbers but in degrees of differentiation from the human quotidian. Much of what defines the wildness of any place, the author argues, is its unknown otherness—which sometimes means that certain areas must be protected from human use and remain places, in the words of the Wilderness Act, “where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” While underscoring the importance of wildness “in its most compressed, contained, and essential forms,” the chapter defends the necessity and anti-elitism of Wilderness lands (“the Big Wild”) and wilderness experiences at the far end of the wild continuum. Human uses that respect and enhance the relative wild should be celebrated, the author contends, but we also must remain vigilant in protecting wilderness from human abuse.
Gavin Van Horn and John Hausdoerffer (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226444666
- eISBN:
- 9780226444970
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226444970.001.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Nature
Exploring how people can become attuned to the wild community of life and also contribute to the well-being of the wild places in which we live, work, and play, Wildness brings together esteemed ...
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Exploring how people can become attuned to the wild community of life and also contribute to the well-being of the wild places in which we live, work, and play, Wildness brings together esteemed authors from a variety of landscapes, cultures, and backgrounds to share their stories about the interdependence of everyday human lifeways and wildness. Far from being an all or nothing proposition, wildness exists in variations and degrees that range from cultivated soils to multigenerational forests to sunflowers pushing through cracks in a city alley. Spanning diverse geographies, these essays celebrate the continuum of wildness, revealing the many ways in which human communities can nurture, adapt to, and thrive alongside their wild nonhuman kin. From the contoured lands of Wisconsin’s Driftless region to remote Alaska, from animals and plants thriving in urban areas to indigenous lands and harvest ceremonies, from backyards to reclaimed industrial sites, from microcosms to bioregions and atmospheres, manifestations of wildness are everywhere. This book illuminates what wildness is and could be, as well as how it might be recovered in our lives—and with it, how we might unearth a more profound, wilder understanding of what it means to be human.Less
Exploring how people can become attuned to the wild community of life and also contribute to the well-being of the wild places in which we live, work, and play, Wildness brings together esteemed authors from a variety of landscapes, cultures, and backgrounds to share their stories about the interdependence of everyday human lifeways and wildness. Far from being an all or nothing proposition, wildness exists in variations and degrees that range from cultivated soils to multigenerational forests to sunflowers pushing through cracks in a city alley. Spanning diverse geographies, these essays celebrate the continuum of wildness, revealing the many ways in which human communities can nurture, adapt to, and thrive alongside their wild nonhuman kin. From the contoured lands of Wisconsin’s Driftless region to remote Alaska, from animals and plants thriving in urban areas to indigenous lands and harvest ceremonies, from backyards to reclaimed industrial sites, from microcosms to bioregions and atmospheres, manifestations of wildness are everywhere. This book illuminates what wildness is and could be, as well as how it might be recovered in our lives—and with it, how we might unearth a more profound, wilder understanding of what it means to be human.
