Dear HCN,
Perhaps after losing one
too many a battle, Steve Hinchman has lost his will to fight for
what “should be,” and now advocates for what he thinks “can be,”
given political realities and resistance from local communities
(HCN, 7/31/00: Rural Green: A new shade of activism).
Where would we be today if the early
conservationists threw in the towel when they felt resistance from
logging, ranching and mining communities? What would the West look
like today if sound science had not driven us to better manage our
forests, protect endangered species and set aside vast tracts of
lands as wilderness amid the clamor of naysayers that believed we
were locking up the land and driving away
jobs?
Wilderness remains one of the most
significant tools that conservationists have to protect wildlands.
By calling modern wilderness campaigns “irrelevant,” Mr. Hinchman
ignores history, while undermining the validity and dedication of
the new generation of wilderness advocates that has sprung up
around him.
Modern wilderness advocates are
working to protect networks of wildlands – places with biological
integrity and global ecological significance. Conservation
biologists agree that wilderness protection is the keystone to any
comprehensive plan to protect vast tracts of land. We must protect
the core wilderness areas and work with local landowners to buffer
and connect those places.
Wilderness remains the
greatest protection we have against poaching, erosion, invasive
weeds, catastrophic fires, sprawl, mining, clear-cuts and the
fast-buck mentality that has defaced the West for generations.
While there is certainly common ground between
conservationists and local communities that must be explored,
removing wilderness from the equation is not one of them. To say
that its time has come and gone ignores past successes and the
potential for unprecedented protection in the future.
Mr. Hinchman’s interview is provocative. But his
disregard of what has driven and continues to drive the
conservation movement gives one pause. We must continue to work
together to preserve the biological and cultural fabric that holds
this landscape together.
Edward
Sullivan
Albuquerque, New
Mexico
The writer is executive director of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Wilderness is the key.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
