Instilling a Love of the Wild
I am a strong believer that a love for nature must be passed on.
There’s no doubt I received that love from my own parents. I remember spending a lot of early mornings on weekends sitting in a duck blind with my father, hiking the land with my brothers, or watching a sunset over breathtaking Oklahoma landscapes with my mother. I spent a lot of time outdoors early on, but my love for nature really took hold when I hit the mountains out west. I fell in love with the Rockies.
At the Wilderness Society, where I am currently president, we believe that our love for nature stems from how we as humans have evolved. We are all from and of the wild. The passage of the Wilderness Act, in 1964, the strongest protective designation that the government can prescribe to America’s natural lands, recognized that the wilderness is an essential part of who we are as a species and as a country. The wild is a core human need. I’ve learned that from my parents and work hard to pass it on to my own kids.
I have a 14-year-old son and a 12-year-old daughter. It’s really been fun to see them take to hiking. Yes, it’s hard to get them to unplug from their earphones and their electronic devices. But as soon as they get out the door and on the trail, their innate sense of adventure and wonder completely take over.
The simple act of being outdoors transforms children into their truer selves. That’s one of the reasons I love the outdoors so much. It turns us all into trailblazers, backpackers, and mountain climbers, and it empowers us to become who we want to be. But adolescents stand at a uniquely important juncture for forging their identities and their neurons; in fact, their brains are just awaiting these opportunities for growth, opportunities that for most of human history took place in wild country.
I owe my own love for wilderness to an Outward Bound course in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains the summer after ninth grade. It was there that I found my own path, that I gained a confidence I hadn’t had before. Those mountains gave me a profound sense of possibility, that I could think big, follow my dreams, and if I worked hard enough, could make those dreams happen.
Part of that was because I felt so at home in the mountains.
The experience of climbing mountains, being on an expedition, and working as a team gave me a sense of camaraderie and self-reliance that I never had before.
It ignited my curiosity in a new way and taught me the power of what can be achieved when a group works well together. And those are skills that I’ve taken with me throughout my life.
My family and I take wilderness river trips every year. Of all outdoor activities (and I appreciate them all), I love river-running the most. There is nothing like the magic of being on a river, the thrill of running rapids, the beauty of canyons, and the “just keep moving forward” metaphor for life one gains on the water. And it’s fun to pass that joy on to my children.
The simple act of being outdoors transforms children into their truer selves. That’s one of the reasons I love the outdoors so much. It turns us all into trailblazers, backpackers, and mountain climbers, and it empowers us to become who we want to be.
A love for nature needs to be handed down by trusted elders; it doesn’t just happen on its own. When we provide this to young people, a passion for the outdoors leads to a passion for protecting it.
At the Wilderness Society, we strive to be advocates for natural, wild places that are in danger. A common misconception is that people often think public land is already protected. Unfortunately, most of it is not. Unless designated as a park, wilderness, or conservation area, the vast majority of our public lands are open for all kinds of development, from constructing roadways and buildings to drilling and mining. Take Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness area, for instance. They are both really important protected places, but the grizzly bears who live there use a much bigger area around those lands. And they need the whole larger ecosystem to sustain themselves. If we don’t safeguard those surrounding lands — both public and private — we’ll lose the integrity of the very things the parks were intended to protect.
The Wilderness Act prohibits all development in designated wilderness areas and requires that these undeveloped places be managed in their natural condition. It’s the most powerful of all the conservation designations we have. As we continue to protect these natural places, they will continue to fill us and subsequent generations with awe, wonder, and identity.
The wild is not only part of our national character, but it also helps us discover who we are individually. While the outdoors, and the wilderness in particular, may mean something different to each of us, the common thread is that experiences in the wilderness are deeply personal and often life-changing.
Last summer, I embarked on a three-day backpacking trip with my son in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. A few hours into our journey, he asked me why I like the wilderness so much. You could tell he had been thinking about it a lot. So I gave him all my usual reasons, but then I asked what it meant to him.
He said, “I think a lot better when I’m outdoors. It helps me figure out who I am.”
This piece was written by The Wilderness Society President Jamie Williams