Your May 24 cover story “Accidental Wilderness” was for me a catalog of former or current projects I have worked on as an environmental consultant. The map on page 15 showing select Department of Defense and Energy Department sites around the West identified seven facilities where I have worked or visited as a consultant, chief among them being Hanford and the Idaho National Laboratory.
I have long noted that the rangelands at both of these sites are considerably healthier than the surrounding overgrazed public and private lands. When driving across southern Idaho as I frequently do, I will often take the longer route through the INL because I enjoy the geology and ecosystem more than the faster route through the more developed landscapes along I-84. Author David Wolman could have toned down some of the hyperbolic language, but otherwise this was a great piece that demonstrates that wild places can often heal themselves if they are just left alone, whether intentionally or otherwise.
Patrick N. Naylor
Boise, Idaho
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The land less traveled.
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