by Kevin Proescholdt
The recent decision by Forest Service District Ranger Crystal Powell to deny the permit to run the La Luz Trail Run race through the Sandia Mountain Wilderness may be understandably unpopular with some runners and race organizers (“La Luz race hits end of trail as Forest Service denies permit,” Albuquerque Journal, May 15). But this decision is the proper one to protect the wilderness character of this iconic area.
Wilderness is the most protective land designation in the United States. My organization, Wilderness Watch, works to safeguard Wildernesses around the country. We often challenge Forest Service decisions and occasionally take the agency to court when it violates the 1964 Wilderness Act. But in the case of the La Luz race permit, the Forest Service has made the right decision in accordance with the Wilderness Act and agency policies, and there are good reasons for runners and others to support this decision.
Wildernesses contain a huge array of values, many of them intangible like protecting opportunities for solitude, and some of them more tangible like protecting wildlife and increasingly scarce habitat. These values go far deeper than physical impacts to trails or whether litter is left behind. Wildernesses are emblematic of our human recognition of their inherent wildness, and symbolic of our society’s need for restraint and humility in dealing with them. By designating an area as wilderness, we recognize that area’s right to function on its own, without the active management and manipulation used on other federal lands and without the types of intensive intrusions prominent there.
Commercial activities and competitive races degrade a wilderness’s wild character. They detract from an area’s wildness and make an area more like the lands overrun by civilization, rather than “in contrast with those areas where man and his works dominate the landscape,” as the Wilderness Act states. That’s why the framers of the Wilderness Act and Congress included a prohibition on commercial activities in designated wildernesses, with only a very narrow exception for some outfitting and guiding activities. The Forest Service’s wilderness regulations also contain prohibitions on commercial activities and competitive events.
I sympathize with organizers of the trail run, particularly when the race has occurred since before Congress designated the Sandia Mountain Wilderness. But all across the country are examples of activities once allowed in areas that have needed to end after an area was designated as wilderness, all to better protect the wild character of these special lands for future generations and for wildlife, which are continually squeezed into smaller and smaller pockets of secure habitat. In Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), for example, the 1978 BWCAW Act ended many activities, including a competitive international canoe race, to better protect the area.
Other options likely exist for the race. A few years back, the organizers of a winter sled dog race wanted to route its race through a portion of the BWCAW. The Forest Service appropriately rejected that proposed route, and the race organizers eventually selected a different route. That outcome—finding another venue or route outside of designated wilderness—may also well work for La Luz Trail Run, a far better outcome than weakening protections for the Sandia Mountain Wilderness.
Editor's note: Kevin's piece ran in the Albuquerque Journal on 5/31: https://www.abqjournal.com/2395565/ending-la-lu-zrun-safeguards-wilderness-2.html
------------------
Wilderness Watch
P.O. Box 9175
Missoula, MT 59807
P: 406-542-2048
E: wild@wildernesswatch.org
Minneapolis, MN Office
2833 43rd Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55406
P: 612-201-9266
Moscow, ID Office
P.O. Box 9765
Moscow, ID 83843
Comments 219
I’m glad someone is standing up to protect the character of our beautiful wild places! Don’t care if the runners get pissed, how wood you like someone running through your living room? Well the wild life that call these places home don’t like it either. Go run in the street or on a track.
some WILD places need to remain UNTOUCHED by humans!!!!
Wildernesses contain a huge array of values, many of them intangible like protecting opportunities for solitude, and some of them more tangible like protecting wildlife and increasingly scarce habitat. These values go far deeper than physical impacts to trails or whether litter is left behind. Wildernesses are emblematic of our human recognition of their inherent wildness, and symbolic of our society’s need for restraint and humility in dealing with them. By designating an area as wilderness, we recognize that area’s right to function on its own, without the active management and manipulation used on other federal lands and without the types of intensive intrusions prominent there.
I applaud this decision to protect our fragile wilderness areas. Thank you for your hard work and commitment!
Please continue to support keeping our wilderness areas “wild” and off limits for actions or uses that impair these ecosystems. Keep vanity or commercial enterprises out of these special areas.
Thank you for consideration of these comments.
Long live our wilderness areas...! There are many trails already suited for a foot race and spread across our entire country. Many national parks are well suited with extensive trails and could be a new venue for such races...!
A trail ultrarunner for forty years now, and I completely agree with the denial of a permit for La Luz. Keep the “wild” in Wilderness, and commercialization OUT. ?
There are many other locations to host a long run, there is no necessity to have it in a wilderness area - particularly during an era when all of our ecosystems are under extreme pressures from myriad causes. Running - something humans evolved to do out of biological and survival necessity - should not subsequently use that activity to threaten other species' lands - species who are also trying to live out their own evolutionary tracks.
It's time to reach out to people who are less interested in the many values of wilderness and educate them about the savings of taxpayer dollars when land is managed as wilderness instead of activities that create the need for more intensive management and cost more. Changing this race route to lands already more intensively managed will keep the costs lower for taxpayers.
GOOD CALL!!!!
Lots of other places to run a race.
Happy to see the wilderness preserved and protected.
America needs every square inch of wilderness to combat climate change. All commercialization must be excluded to protect this valuable area.
Agree with the above. We need to always consider the effect our actions will have on wild beings, and be as careful as we can. It is time that nature was put first. In truth, putting nature first outs all of us first.
Keep our wilderness wild!! Stop the commercialization of our Public Lands.
I support the denial of a permit for the La Luz run. It is very important to me that we protect wilderness areas at all costs. Runs can be done anywhere, we don't need to empower this behavior.
We need stronger protections for our natural habitats, and less protection for corporations
I've been running for most of my life, and have run in many wonderful places. Solo running is much different than an organized race. This decision is a good one.
Thank you!
Wilderness wildlife and habitat needs protection from the constant pressures of human activity. It's also important to preserve wilderness for the enjoyment of people who desire a more contemplative, natural, non-invasive experience. Many areas have become over-run with bikes, noise and light pollution, large groups, dog and human waste and debris. There are many other areas where competitive sports enthusiasts are able to utilize forest lands. Great job keeping Wilderness Wild!!
Nicely said!