Monday Meditation on WILDERNESS

This post was drafted prior to departure 

Wilderness   noun. wil-dər-nəs

…an uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region; barren or desolate area; a wasteland.

 

Wilderness, or wildlands, are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity, or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally referred to terrestrial environments, though growing attention is being placed on marine wilderness. With the new images from space, what about outer space wilderness?

 

The Wilderness Act of 1964 defines it as “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by [human beings],  and where [they] are visitors who do not remain.” The Act's purpose is to preserve and protect the natural ecosystems and wild areas and also provide opportunities for solitude and introspection.

 

A century ago, most of the land area in the world could be considered “wilderness.” Only 23% of the earth’s land area, excluding Antartica, is considered wilderness today: a 10% decline in the last 20 years. 70% of this wilderness remains only in five countries: U.S., Alaska (Arctic Tundra), Brazil (Amazon), Canada (Boreal Forest), Botswana (Okavango Delta), and Australia (Desert). This is astonishing.

 

At times on this trip, when we are days between any incorporated towns and settlements, it may seem like we are traveling in wilderness. However, the fact that we are on roads rules out the wilderness definition. Also, being on a mechanical contraption, even if it is non-motorized, also by definition nullifies being “in the wilderness”—we would have to be on foot, shod or not. The forest roads we travel may be the seams of wilderness areas, but not wilderness themselves.   

It’s an interesting thought to know how much of the land has been touched, “improved,” inhabited, or cultivated. And how previous generations of indigenous peoples lived on the land without changing its “wildness.”

 

As a city denizen, anything without lights, cars, pavement, “landscaping,” people, low flying planes, and the constant urban hum seems mighty wild to me, if not wilderness—but hardly a wasteland.