When I was in college and my friends all went to study abroad, I attended a field study program run by The Sierra Institute, an outpost of the University of California, Santa Cruz. Over the course of an academic quarter, we learned about four California ecosystems by studying in them: the Mojave Desert, the Big Sur coast, the High Sierra and the Klamath Mountains. Along the way we hiked and camped and read and wrote and took turns with cooking, cleanup, fire tending and latrine duty.
“Nature, Philosophy and Religion” was the course title and our area of inquiry. We studied the thinkers and spiritual traditions that have been concerned with the splendor of nature, the sustenance humans get from it, and our mutual symbiosis. We considered our own obligations as individuals and as a species. Rather than a distant place and foreign language, we immersed ourselves in the ways that humans live with, steward and find holiness in the natural world.
These are not values I see reflected in today’s political discourse. Our government is working to cancel any programs aimed at sustainability. Elected and appointed officials are erasing climate data and defunding climate action. They are seeking to sell and develop public land and ignoring, at great risk, the ways humans depend on healthy natural systems. They have no interest in the ethics of their policies: who or what will be impacted, and how. Any deference to the land and its creatures — canceled!
If everyone could do an extended field study program, could be exposed to natural wonder and experience close-knit community, perhaps the idea of having a responsibility toward the Earth, each other and future generations would be more widely understood and accepted. If you’ve haven’t learned why it’s important to respect and preserve natural systems, how would you understand that you have a choice, at this very moment, to be on the side of life — all life — and against the denigration and desecration of habitats and wild places, the last refugia where humans are required to show restraint. At High Country News, we side with life.
Sadly, after 40 years of running field programs in the backcountry, The Sierra Institute closed in 2015. A post on its Facebook page read, “It is something of a mystery as to why over the last decade the programs became more and more difficult to fill, but it is likely due to a broader cultural change than merely a miscalculation of how to advertise and promote.” The broader cultural change we so desperately need is one in which people believe in the value of nature because they have experienced it and want to continue experiencing it, and because they want those experiences to be available to future generations.
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