{"id":993,"date":"2026-10-26T09:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T13:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/?p=993"},"modified":"2026-10-25T18:07:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T22:07:39","slug":"the-trouble-with-wilderness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/blog\/2026\/10\/26\/the-trouble-with-wilderness\/","title":{"rendered":"The trouble with wilderness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In an earlier post<\/a> on industrial tourism, I struggled with how to balance the desire many of us have to protect wilderness with our concern for those who cannot enjoy its pleasures. I argued that those of us who want to protect wilderness must recognize and respect the values of those who want easier access just as much as they must recognize ours. I also argued that we need to trust one another. I don\u2019t know how we build trust, but I have two ideas to share that might help us understand each other better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first idea traces to William Cronon and his essay The trouble with wilderness: or, getting back to the wrong nature<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The more one knows of its peculiar history, the more one realizes that wilderness is not quite what it seems. Far from being the one place on earth that stands apart from humanity, it is quite profoundly a human creation\u2014indeed, the creation of very particular human cultures at very particular moments in human history. It is not a pristine sanctuary where the last remnant of an untouched, endangered, but still transcendent nature can for at least a little while longer be encountered without the contaminating taint of civilization. Instead, it\u2019s a product of that civilization, and could hardly be contaminated by the very stuff of which it is made<\/strong><\/em>. (emphasis added)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Those of us who value wilderness have to recognize that valuing wilderness is a recent historical development. Cronon argues that before the 19th century wilderness \u201cwas a place to which one came only against one\u2019s will, and always in fear and trembling.\u201d Wilderness became a place that we value because most of us were no longer struggling against a wild nature to survive. It became a place we had left behind, a place we could value because it no longer threatened us. Wilderness is there because we made it, not because we discovered it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who value access wouldn’t understand any of that. They may never have had a pleasant experience in wild nature. They still see it as forbidding and threatening. Think of a friend or a relative whose idea of nature is a well-manicured public park or golf course. They might be literally frightened for their life if they were to find themselves on a hiking trail in the Rocky Mountains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, we need to recognize that <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A man could be a lover and defender of the wilderness without ever in his lifetime leaving the boundaries of asphalt, powerlines, and right-angled surfaces. We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire <\/em>, p. 162<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

So the person who doesn\u2019t place a value on wilderness now, might be persuaded to change their mind. But we\u2019ll only be able to persuade them if they trust us, and we\u2019ll only be able to persuade them if we trust them enough to open our minds to the possibility that we might learn something from them too. We\u2019ll especially need to keep in mind Jonathan Franzen\u2019s advice<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We can\u2019t make a reader care about nature. All we can do is tell strong stories of people who do care, and hope that the caring is contagious.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Franzen was writing about nature writing, but the same principle applies to conversations about nature. We have to meet people where they are, not where we want them to be. We have to hope that if we tell strong stories of people who care about wilderness, the caring will be contagious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an earlier post on industrial tourism, I struggled with how to balance the desire many of us have to protect wilderness with our concern for those who cannot enjoy… Read more ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=993"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":997,"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions\/997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}