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Protecting wilderness shows humility, respect
By Phil Knight
What good is designated wilderness? Are the Lee Metcalf or the Absaroka Beartooth “wasted lands” because people can’t just go do whatever they want there?
I am currently (temporarily) disabled from a fall and cannot walk unassisted. There will be no wilderness trips for me this summer.
I’ve already enjoyed a lifetime’s worth of wild adventures in spectacular landscapes like the Washakie Wilderness and the Gros Ventre Wilderness and the Gallatin Range (which should be wilderness). I will be back once I heal.
The wilderness and its wildlife do not exist for my pleasure and my benefit. Yet I do enjoy many benefits from the existence of wilderness, as do we all. Even if I could never go there again I would value wild places just as much. It is a great solace to me to know that bears and wolves and elk and moose and mountain lions, frogs and birds and fish and grouse, can live in places where the hand of man is not obvious, where nature still rules. I know the water still flows, the trees still grow, the mountains still stand.
As the extinction crisis gets worse, climate change kicks in, ice caps melt and seas rise we are faced with the fact that perhaps we are not so wise. We need a more holistic approach to existence. Protecting wilderness is one of the best ways to demonstrate our humility and respect for this planet and its millions of life forms. Wilderness designation is the gold standard and sets aside lands where life can unfold under its own terms. Wilderness also gives room to help mitigate climate change.
I will certainly miss my wilderness time this year. But will the wilderness miss me? Not at all, and that is as it should be.
Phil is a long time defender and explorer of Greater Yellowstone, and serves on the board of the Gallatin Yellowstone Wilderness Alliance. He is the first person to climb the highest peak in all 22 of Greater Yellowstone's mountain ranges.
Editor's notes:
“Wilderness Experienced” is our shared stories and musings about recent experiences in our nation's Wildernesses. Stories focus on the virtues of Wilderness and/or challenges facing the National Wilderness Preservation System. We want to hear your story! Learn more and submit a story.
Phil's piece originally appeared in the Bozeman Chronicle on June 6, 2022.
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Comments 40
Thank you profoundly, Bill. Your words really resonate with me. I just retired at 84 from almost 18 years of working for a New Jersey Land Trust - 22,000 acres preserved since its 1989 founding. Nature is essential to me as a being, as it is to thee.
Also, nature is the main source of my poetry and years of writing on nearby nature for Jersey newspapers and magazines.
I send you a nature cameo from long ago: at the Grand Tetons. Speaker -- my 11-year-old daughter, to her sister, her cousin, and me: "Why does Nana want us to go into that little chapel when anyone can see God is out here?" This was her own conclusion - new to all of us. I had no answer for her. She'd written her first letter to the editor [when too small to write/type, but her words - so dictated], in defense of deer in our Princeton community.
Nature has gifts beyond measure - it deserves our militant generous constant defense more than ever in our lives.
nature must not be destroyed anymore....lets get rid of the concrete jungle....plant more trees so natures animals can complete it. but that will never happen until Jesus comes down so instead of building on every space for real estate start building up natures real estate and protect what little is left of it.
Great story Phil, I'm the same way most of my recreational activities are outside of wilderness. Even though I have bagged every peak, cross country trekked and been on every trail in Sierra Nevada's Golden Trout Wilderness I'm in no hurry to go back. I miss it dearly but I'm sure it don't miss me. Like you I have no plans to even enter a wilderness for the rest of this summer and that's fine with me. Let wilderness be wilderness without me and few less people
Thank you to Phil Knight - no, the wilderness does not exist for us at all. These days it exists in spite of us. I won't heal from my disability, but I was in Glacier Nation Park when it was covered with glaciers and I will always be grateful for that.
nature is that wonderful thing that keeps the earth healthy.......now is the time!!!!
Bravo! Well said, Mr. Knight. Thank you.
What a wonderful attitude, and exactly how I feel... how many of us feel, thank goodness! Thank you for writing such a heartfelt and succinct piece. May you be back in the wilderness soon!
Ditto!
The more there are open areas for wildlife the better off they'll be to be able to live and hunt, if predators, and raise their own families, and less conflicts with humans and livestock by keeping livestock out of the areas. Wish humans were more thoughtful but there aren't enough of them sadly. All creatures have a right to exist. But the way things are going, everything that's not domesticated will soon be gone. Humans are a catastrophe in this lifetime.
Yes indeed, Wilderness is wonderful!
I believe Yellowstone park should be protected for all past, present & future generations of National Park visitors.
People should be allowed to pitch tents & be in the middle of nature & (away from big cities, light, noise pollution) & get away from that stuff when they have time to visit this very beautiful national park.
As one of those who will likely never physically visit any of our wonderful Wilderness Areas - I agree wholeheartedly - these wild places are certainly NOT "put there for our use"! Knowing they are there and that these creatures exist and live their lives there is what matters.
To whom it may concern,
I value wild places. Thanks to environmentalists all over the world bears, wolves, elk, moose, mountain lions, frogs, birds, fish, and many other animals are still in existence.
As the extinction crisis gets worse, climate change kicks in. We are faced with ice caps that melt and seas that are raising.
We need a different approach. Protecting wilderness is crucial. Wilderness designation is important. Wilderness helps to mitigate climate change.
Please protect wilderness!
Humility and respect are good words to use in this case, as humanity tends to be so lacking in it, especially in our attitudes toward nature. We are all better humans when we drop the arrogance, stop pretending we know more than nature does, and show humility and respect, towards nature and towards much in life.
Beautifully said. Thank you for expressing this truth.
Mr Knight has captured the essence wonderfully. Thank you.
Phil, you are a person after my own heart. Thank you for expressing your wise, important thoughts and for your commitment to defending and supporting the preservation of Wilderness.
Wildlife needs to be protected.
Please save God's creatures God Bless You.
You couldn’t have said it better