Reflections on wilderness 60 years after the Civil Rights and Wilderness Acts

Abstract

America’s dominant narrative of the origin of a beloved wilderness often centers Aldo Leopold in a heroic fight at the turn of the century against rapid industrialization that occurred at the expense of nature. Wild spaces, so the story goes, needed preservation from and for the people, so that future generations would know what it means to be self-reliant in pristine nature far away from civilization (Nash 2014). These future generations could experience a re-creation of the ancient human connection to nature. In this story, wilderness is at once a safeguard for the environment and wild beings, and an escape for modern humans from the ills of industrial society (Rashkow 2014; Cronon 1996).

Citation

Redmore, Lauren; Sene-Harper, Aby. 2023. Reflections on wilderness 60 years after the Civil Rights and Wilderness Acts. International Journal of Wilderness. 29(2): 4-11.