The wilderness offers many opportunities for recreation (e.g. biking, camping, fishing, hiking, hunting, nature photography, riding horses, skiing, stargazing, and swimming ). Outdoor recreation fulfils an innate desire humans have to reconnect with nature and themselves. However, outdoor recreation contradicts the objective of wilderness protection. The most insignificant of human activity can extensively damage the natural balance of an area. Being able to strike a balance between the two is the responsibility of wilderness managers. By taking a realistic approach to stewardship and considering societal beliefs about wilderness, wilderness managers are able to support recreational activities while preserving the surrounding environment as best they can, keeping human impacts within tolerable levels.
The wilderness provides tremendous advantages for all people. These benefits serve a dual purpose: "to renew the body and spirit and inspire a passion for the land" . People seek out the wilderness for freedom, fun, reconnecting with oneself, rejuvenation, relaxation, simplicity, and solace. Outdoor recreation builds character by challenging the spirit and fostering self-sufficiency. On a universal level, the wilderness provides a sense of wonder and excitement, reestablishing man's bond with nature. People trek outdoors to gain knowledge of the world around them as well as feel connected to nature.
In agreement with the authors of the Wilderness Management textbook, the wilderness should be managed in a way as to provide a balance between recreational opportunities and the preservation of the natural ecology, with a heavy emphasis on the latter. A human-focused approach (anthropocentrism) implies that nonhumans are of no...
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...e above wilderness management policies. For instance, he midcentric approach means that the wilderness will be more wild, and more dangerous. However, these same policies are providing a valuable service by keeping the damage at controllable levels.
The wilderness is a great place for human recreation. Intrinsic health and wellness benefits become apparent when one recreates in the wild. Wilderness management currently takes a midcentric approach, allowing a balance between recreational activities and preserving these natural areas in the form of a stewardship. Because there is no one universal expectation or experience in the wild, wilderness managers must take human values about wilderness into consideration. This affects the wilderness resource in both positive and negative ways, by allowing some recreation, but keeping human impacts at manageable levels.
Cronon, William “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” ed., Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995, 69-90
The wild is a place to push yourself to the limit and take a look at who you truly are inside. “Wilderness areas have value as symbols of unselfishness” (Nash). Roderick Nash’s philosophy states that the wilderness gives people an opportunity to learn humility but they fight this because they do not have a true desire to be humble. Human-kind wants to give out the illusion that they are nature lovers when in reality, they are far from it. “When we go to designated wilderness we are, as the 1964 act says, "visitors" in someone else's home” (Nash). People do not like what they cannot control and nature is uncontrollable. Ecocentrism, the belief that nature is the most important element of life, is not widely accepted. The novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer depicts a young boy who goes on an exploration to teach himself the true concept of humility. Chris McCandless, the protagonist, does not place confidence in the universal ideology that human beings are the most significant species on the planet, anthropocentrism.
The wilderness allows people to escape the crazy hectic lives they live daily and just unwind. Chris McCandless was “ unheeded, happy, and near to the wild heart,” throughout his soul-searching journey in the wilderness (Krakauer 31). Many people like Chris will experience different sensations in the serene wilderness, however it calls
the idea of the wild and its importance and necessity of human interaction with the wild.
At one point in our lives as human beings we began to draw mental lines between ourselves and nature. This is something that has gradually been increasing throughout their years. Most people do not seem to notice all of these constant changes simply because we are used to the type of world we live in now. I believe that in order for somebody to understand what's happening these negative changes need to affect us as individuals. For example, many people don't realize cutting down trees to build businesses will eventually cause the world to be unsustainable. Nature is something very necessary. "Wilderness" in old English was something that had its own will, just like you mentioned in paragraph three. The Wild is a place where wild undomesticated animals should be allowed to roam
...rather than in undeveloped and remote areas. By choosing to stay close to urbanized areas the impact is much more concentrated meaning animals have more habitat and are less likely to venture into human areas and become a nuisance. You can also help wildlife by obeying city laws and regulations regarding proper trash and food disposal. You can also respect local wildlife by staying out of out of bound areas that are often meant for wildlife and following the leave no trace principle of you pack it in you pack it out, meaning taking your trash with you off the mountain and not littering. You can also help the local wildlife by keeping a respectful distance and trying not to disturb them when you do happen to come across a wild animal. This has the upside of preserving the local environment as well as the scenic atmosphere that draws many visitors to the mountains.
One strength of his article is that it can easily elicit an emotional response from the more sympathetic readers and outdoor enthusiasts. Duane appeals to pathos when first setting the scene of a day in the wilderness. He describes what it would be like if one had the “good fortune” to spot a Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep in the wild. He writes, “You unwrap a chocolate bar amid breathtaking views . . . the sight fills you with awe and also with gratitude for the national parks, forests, and yes, environmental regulations that keep the American dream of wilderness alive” (Duane 1). For the audience that connects to this emotional appeal, this instantly draws them in to the article and can arouse feelings of amazement and wonder toward the sight described. It can likewise leave readers wondering whether or not this scene is truly so perfect. This statement can also appear too dramatic for those less passionate. When Duane writes, “The sight fills you with . . . gratitude for the . . . yes, environmental regulations that keep the American dream of wilderness alive,” it seems almost untrue, as most people do not think twice about the environmental regulations that keep animals in their
John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and Aldo Leopold all have moderately different views and ideas about the environment in terms of its worth, purpose, use and protection. At one extensively non-anthropocentric extreme, Muir’s views and ideas placed emphasis on protecting environmental areas as a moral obligation. That is to say, Muir believed that wilderness environments should be used for divine transcendence, spiritual contemplation, as a place for repenting sins and obtaining devotional healing, rather than being used for exploitative materialistic greed and destructive consumption, such as industrialism, mining, and lumbering. At the other extreme, anthropocentric, Pinchot views nature simply as natural resources. In other words, nature is explicitly
Since its creation in 1916, the National Park Service (NPS) has had to balance between its two goals, which are to preserve wilderness and nature and to provide the public with access to these wonders in a monitored environment. These two goals tend to create a conflict for the NPS because as soon as one goal is given more priority than the other, the administration of national parks is harshly criticized by the public. The accusation that by allowing people to experience the wilderness, the NPS is corrupting the natural environment is very common, as well, as the criticism towards the lack of government funding to preserve nature and history. However, regardless of arguable criticism and a certain need for improvement, after one hundred years,
In Wallace Stegner’s “Wilderness Letter,” he is arguing that the countries wilderness and forests need to be saved. For a person to become whole, Stegner argues that the mere idea of the wild and the forests are to thank. The wilderness needs to be saved for the sake of the idea. He insinuates that anyone in America can just think of Old faithful, Mt. Rainier, or any other spectacular landform, even if they have not visited there, and brought to a calm. These thoughts he argues are what makes us as people whole.
The majority of this piece is dedicated to the author stating his opinion in regards to civilization expanding beyond its sustainable limits. The author makes it clear that he believes that humans have failed the natural environment and are in the process of eliminating all traces of wilderness from the planet. Nash points out facts that strengthen his argument, and quotes famous theologians on their similar views on environmental issues and policies. The combination of these facts and quotes validates the author’s opinion.
Many years ago, people saw the wilderness as a savage wasteland, but today, it is viewed as “the last remaining place where civilization, that all too human disease, has not fully infected the earth.” (Cronon) He discusses this changed point of view by stating the difficulties that society will have rectifying environmental ailments if it stops viewing wilderness as “a dualistic picture in which the human is completely outside the nature.” (Cronon) This is understandable because humans rely on others to create opinions, and they do not know how to form their own thoughts and solutions to issues such as environmental ones. Therefore, it is with great importance that humans begin to learn how to formulate their own thoughts and share those personal thoughts with others, such as sharing solutions about environmental
have both a sense of the importance of the wilderness and space in our culture
Muir’s wilderness is rooted in the idea of an aesthetically pleasing natural scape given they fit into certain criteria such as, “ none of Nature’s landscape’s are ugly so long as they are wild” (Muir). The attachment of this emphasis on an aesthetically pleasing landscape was partial truth, which drove people out the national parks. While these places where indeed wild and beautiful, Muir sold the masses on this idea of all nature being pristine and pure, when in reality that was not the
Anthropocentrism is the school of thought that human beings are the single most significant entity in the universe. As a result, the philosophies of those with this belief reflect the prioritization of human objectives over the well-being of one’s environment. However, this is not to say that anthropocentric views neglect to recognize the importance of preserving the Earth. In fact, it is often in the best interests of humans to make concerted efforts towards sustaining the environment. Even from a purely anthropocentric point of view, there are three main reasons why mankind has a moral duty to protect the natural world.