I was reflecting that World Wilderness Day is October 23rd. What does that mean in an overpopulated world now exceeding 8 billion? What does that mean in the US with a population still growing at 366 million? Wilderness is a concept of ‘untrammeled land’ as designated by the Wilderness Act of 1964. In doing so the US congress could protect lands from encroachment by human development, a good move to protect wildlife and scenic beauty but psychologically it sealed the deal that wilderness was separate from us. Wilderness areas are romanticized in the psyche of outdoor loving people as a motivation to keep in shape so that long and strenuous hikes may happen bringing one close to nature. We go there to visit, we don’t live there and when we are not there, we do not see its threats which include human sprawl, pipelines, mining and the buying of water rights by corporate interests.
Protected wild and beautiful areas do much to preserve the integrity of beauty, watersheds and wildlife. But how protected are they with continued population growth? The ever-present sprawl spurred on by the main way US population is growing, mass immigration, is an infection growing near wilderness areas in our country. Growing populations of people want to live near beautiful places, but bring with them the conveniences of modern civilization in the form of shopping areas, larger roadways and the noise that accompanies these elevated numbers. https://sprawlusa.com/
In another perspective, all designated wilderness areas were home and holy to the many tribal people who lived here prior to 1492. Native peoples don’t even have a word for wilderness because that was their home, and still is their homeland. The 574 federally recognized tribes in the US are still the best stewards of these homelands as they can see first-hand what is being done to them by corporate interests.
Many tribal nations are fiercely fighting for their lands, but they will be no match for how climate change is going to make more land available for agriculture as the tundra warms and human population expands. Wilderness areas will likely succumb to the need to feed expanded human populations as northern areas thaw and become easier to convert into farmland. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2023/october/worlds-last-untouched-wildernesses-risk-becoming-farmland.html
So on this International Wilderness Day let’s reflect on its value and what actually threatens its existence, our inability to reign in our population and its expansion into its integrity.