Call of the Wild

There will always be someone trying to convert your favorite wild space into profit.

Hey Everyone,

I recently wrote an Op-Ed for the Star Tribune in conjunction with Sportsmen For the Boundary Waters (upon whose board I sit). Below is the piece as it was published (I believe it was gently caressed by an editor). This was my first stab at the format so go easy on me:

Wilderness is endangered. The wild and untamed landscapes that once seemed endless and opaque to our ancestors are now barely visible to most of us. As our population grows, as we stumble toward technology and away from our hunter/gatherer roots, many now question the validity of retaining these blocs of wild land and water at all. However, to those of us who find immense value in these places, the modernity in which we steep is exactly what makes them so precious. To those of us who can’t imagine life without the ability to dive into some wild place and live with the rhythms of the natural world for a time, and who believe every human has a right to do the same, a right to wilderness, now is a crucial time.

We in the U.S. are undoubtedly some of the luckiest knuckleheads in the world. Clean drinking water and a decent average life span aside, one glaring reason I say this is the 640 million acres of public land managed by the federal government that we all collectively own. Throughout our tenure we have decided to keep some of the most exciting places in our country free from development and open to anyone who feels like rambling around in them. Sometimes I forget how incredible that is. These lands may also be used for grazing, timber and other needs of a needy society. These lands unceremoniously protect our drinking water, mitigate flooding, provide habitat to countless critters and remind us that we are simply a part of the natural cycle of the universe.

My nearest chunk of wild is the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. For most of my life I have paddled, camped, fished, hunted, struggled, prayed, bled and grown in that place. The BWCA is where I, and many others, go to leave the modern world behind. It’s where we go to get up with the sun, eat when we’re hungry, sleep like logs, work our tails off and enjoy a peace that can only come from being far away from clocks and the internet. Ask anyone who values this, and none of them would sell it.

But, of course, not everyone sees wilderness in this way. There are plenty of people who think of land as simply a commodity to be sold or mined into oblivion or developed into mediocrity and think nothing of its spiritual value. They also ignore its value in protecting our planet and food systems, or its role in the $1.2-billion-per-year outdoor recreation industry (if you need a financial hit). Some people in political power this very moment are working to find ways to take these lands we all own and use them for their own personal gain. As any kindergarten student would tell you, this is unacceptable.

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is the largest wilderness area east of the Mississippi River, the gem of the Midwest and under constant threat of ruin or sale at the hands of shortsighted politicians. At this very moment there is a nefarious plan to open a copper-sulfide mine within its watershed by Twin Metals, owned by a Chilean mining company with a history of polluting its sites into rust-colored poisonous wastelands.

In addition, there is a bill that was introduced in October by U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah that is, unironically mind you, called the “Borderlands Conservation Act.” This bill would open all federal lands within 100 miles of the U.S. border to the construction of roads and “tactical infrastructure.” Furthermore, any federal unit (National Park, Wilderness Area, National Forest, etc.) that brushes up against the border is included in its entirety no matter how far from said border it extends. That includes the whole BWCA, not to mention Glacier National Park, Joshua Tree National Park and several other irreplaceable examples of American outback.

Our country needs to mine and be conscious of its borders; I am not debating that. But the way in which we do these things is important. What kind of country do we want to be? The people proposing permanent damage to our few remaining areas of wilderness for such unimaginative reasons as profit and fear have no doubt never heard a loon wail toward a full moon nor eaten a meal of freshly caught walleye on the shore of a nameless lake. They do not know the healing powers of a simple life in the outdoors nor the deep purpose in sharing them with the next generation. They have lost their romance with nature, and I feel sorry for them.

My compassion does not extend toward passivity, however, and I have joined my friends in Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters in passionately opposing any operation that would endanger the Boundary Waters, one of the last remaining jewels of American wilderness. If you treasure our nation’s wild spaces, I’m asking you to please make your voice heard. Join up with one of the many available conservation organizations that do the work. There is undoubtedly one that aligns with your vision. We here at Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters will be fighting for these spaces that create our most powerful memories and the traditions we pass along to future generations, and we would be happy to have you. The time is now, and I am hopeful.