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Transcript of Your National Forests Summer/Fall 2014
The Old Way is the Best WayLEARNING TRADITIONAL SKILLS IN WESTERN MONTANA.
What Wilderness Means to MeA COLLECTION OF QUOTES AND SHORT ESSAYS.
Aldo Leopold in the Gila WildernessTHE STORY OF A WILDERNESS VISIONARY.
The Magazine of the National Forest Foundation Summer – Fall 2014
YOUR NATIONAL
Board of Directors Executive Committee
John Hendricks, Hendricks Investment Holdings, LLC (MD), Chairman
Craig R. Barrett, Retired CEO/Chairman of the Board, Intel Corporation (AZ), Vice Chairman
Max Chapman, Chairman, Gardner Capital Management Corp. (TX), Vice Chairman
Lee Fromson, President and COO, Goal Zero (UT), Treasurer
Timothy P. Schieffelin, Senior Director, BNY Mellon Wealth Management (CT), Secretary
Caroline Choi, Vice President, Integrated Planning & Environmental Affairs, Southern California Edison (CA), Member
Peter Foreman, Sirius LP (IL), Member
Board of Directors
David Bell, Chairman, Gyro, LLC (NY)
Mike Brown, Jr., General Partner, Bowery Capital (NY)
Coleman Burke, President, Waterfront Properties (NY)
Blaise Carrig, President–Mountain Division, Vail Resorts, Inc. (CO)
Robert Cole, Partner, Collins Cockrel & Cole, P.C. (CO)
Bart Eberwein, Executive Vice President, Hoffman Construction Company (OR)
Robert Feitler, Chairman of the Executive Committee, Weyco Group, Inc. (IL)
Barry Fingerhut, CEO/Owner, Certification Partners, LLC (AZ)
Rick Frazier, Chief Product Supply & Service Officer, Coca-Cola Refreshments, North America Group (GA)
Roje S. Gootee, Co-Owner & Manager, Rush Creek Ranch, LLC (OR)
Damien Huang, Senior Vice President, Merchandising, Eddie Bauer, Inc. (WA)
Peter Kirsch (MD)
Jeff Paro, CEO, InterMedia Outdoors (NY)
Patricia Hayling Price, President, LiveWorkStrategize, LLC (NY)
Susan Schnabel, Managing Director, aPriori Capital (CA)
Mary Smart, President, Smart Family Foundation (NY)
Thomas Tidwell, Ex-Officio, Chief, USDA Forest Service (DC)
Chad Weiss, Managing Director, JOG Capital Inc. (WY)
James Yardley, Executive Vice President, El Paso Corporation, Retired (TX)
SUPPORT YOUR NATIONAL FORESTSDonate today to ensure these resources last for tomorrow.Area of greatest need - Help the NFF fulfi ll its mission where it is needed most.
Tree-planting - Help the NFF restore forests that have been damaged by natural events like wildfi res, hurricanes, fl oods, and insect infestations.
Treasured Landscapes - On 14 sites across the country, the NFF’s conservation campaign focuses on landscape-scale restoration.
Use the envelope enclosed to contribute or visit www.nationalforests.org/give today.
Transformative ExperiencesBy Bill Possiel, NFF President
Reflecting on wilderness as we celebrate
the 50th Anniversary of the landmark
Wilderness Act causes a rush of
memories to come to mind: In Alaska
fourteen Dall sheep rams marched toward my
wife and me on the top of Mount Wright after
a severe storm. Several adventures in the Marble
Mountain Wilderness in Northern California
and the Three Sisters Wilderness in Oregon were
both humbling and exciting. My first winter
wilderness camping trip in Oregon’s Eagle Cap
Wilderness and a more recent father-son backpacking trip into Montana’s
Bob Marshall Wilderness with a group of my son’s friends and their dads
helped build new bonds and reinforce old ones. Each of these wilderness
outings stands out as a transformative experience that left me with
memories etched indelibly in my mind.
The National Wilderness Preservation System is
truly remarkable, nearly 110 million acres of truly wild
landscapes spread across 758 areas from Alaska to
Florida. Just as remarkable are the people who fostered
the wilderness movement, and while you may recognize
several of their names—Aldo Leopold, Bob Marshall, and
Arthur Carhart—you may not know that beyond their
passion for wilderness, they all worked as U.S. Forest
Service employees. That passion still exists; the Forest
Service cares for more Wilderness areas in the lower
48 states than any other federal agency, managing 33
percent of the acreage within the National Wilderness
Preservation System.
In celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the
Wilderness Act, the Forest Service issued a Stewardship
Challenge, calling for all Wilderness areas in the National
Forest System to meet baseline management standards
by 2014. Ten years ago the National Forest Foundation
launched the Wilderness Stewardship Challenge grant
program to support these efforts. In 2005 only 11 percent
of Forest Service Wilderness areas met management
standards, today almost 85 percent meet those standards.
The NFF is proud to have worked with many partners to
improve the condition of our nation’s Wilderness areas
(see the article on pages 25-27).
We hope you enjoy this special wilderness issue of
Your National Forests produced to commemorate the 50th
Anniversary of a uniquely American concept. If you
haven’t visited a Wilderness area recently, or maybe have
never visited a Wilderness area, I would encourage you to
have a transformative experience that you will cherish for
the rest of your life.
Summer – Fall 2014 1
welcome letter
16
10
28
features
The Old Way is the Best WayExploring the historic ways of the Ninemile Remount Depot and Ranger Station in Western Montana
Faces and Places of WildernessStunning photographs from our photo contest
My WildernessA collection of quotes and short essays from Wilderness champions
1
3
4
5
6
8
15
18
22
25
introductionsWelcomeTransformative Experiences
departmentsWhere in the WoodsHow well can you identify your National Forests?
What is WildernessA Wilderness Primer
Eastern WildernessThe Eastern Foundations of Wilderness
Wilderness TimelineA brief history of Wilderness policy and preservation
Wilderness ManagementWhat Future for Wilderness
Kids in NatureHiking and Backpacking with Kids
Wilderness ConservationAn Olympian Search for Martens
Featured ForestAn American Original: Aldo Leopold in the Gila Wilderness
The Greater ChallengeThe difficult challenge of retaining wilderness character for tomorrow
on the coverBackpacking in the Gila Wilderness
Photo © by Richard Steinberger
steinbergerphoto.com
2 Your National Forests
Photo © C
athrine L. Walters; Ed Bernik; C
heryl Him
melstein / coyoteclan.com
inside this edition
This National Forest is home to the largest herd of bighorn sheep in the country.
See page 27 for the answer.
National Forest Foundation
Building 27, Suite 3 Fort Missoula Road Missoula, Montana 59804 406.542.2805
®2014 National Forest Foundation and Old Town Creative Communications, LLC. No unauthorized reproduction of this material is allowed.
Your National Forests magazine is printed on recycled paper with 30% post- consumer content. This magazine’s use of FSC certified paper ensures the highest environmental and social standards have been followed in the wood sourcing, paper manufacturing, and print production of this magazine. To learn more log on to www.fsc.org.
Your National Forests
The Magazine of the National Forest FoundationEditor-in-Chief Greg M. PetersContributors Tristan Baurick, Hannah Ettema, Tim Gibbins, Bill Hodge, Zia Maumenee, Marlee Ostheimer, Greg M. Peters, William J. Possiel, Marcus SeligGraphic Artist David Downing, Old Town Creative Communications, LLC
National Forest Foundation
President William J. PossielExecutive Vice President Mary MitsosExecutive Vice President Ray A. FooteEdward Belden Southern California Program AssociateSheree Bombard Director, AdministrationKaren DiBari Director, Conservation ConnectHannah Ettema Communications and Development Associate Robin Hill Controller Lisa Leonard Oregon Program ManagerAdam Liljeblad Director, Conservation AwardsZia Maumenee Conservation Awards AssociateLuba Mullen Associate Director, DevelopmentMarlee Ostheimer Development AssociateGreg M. Peters Director, CommunicationsVance Russell Director, California ProgramEmily Schembra Conservation Connect AssociateMarcus Selig Director, Colorado ProgramMichelle Singer Accountant Deborah Snyder Development Associate, Data and MembershipEmily Struss Conservation AssociateWes Swaffar Ecosystem Services Program ManagerDayle Wallien Pacific Northwest Development Manager
Summer – Fall 2014 3
Photo © Louis Kam
ler
where in the woods
Today the National Wilderness
Preservation System contains nearly
110 million acres of lands enjoyed
by all Americans. These wilderness
lands all exist within our National Parks,
National Forests, National Wildlife Refuges, and
Bureau of Land Management lands.
The 1964 Wilderness Act created
the National Wilderness Preservation
System and immediately protected 54
areas. The Act designated 9.1 million
acres in 13 states as Wilderness.
Included were some of our most iconic Wilderness areas:
• Boundary Waters Canoe Area
Wilderness, Minnesota
• Bridger Wilderness, Wyoming
• Bob Marshall Wilderness, Montana
• Ansel Adams Wilderness, California
Today, the National Wilderness Preservation System includes:
• 758 Wilderness areas
from coast-to-coast
• 109,511,966 million acres of
protected Wilderness
• Wilderness areas in all but six
U.S. states
General Wilderness ProhibitionsMotorized equipment and equip-
ment used for mechanical transport
is generally prohibited on all federal
lands designated as Wilderness. This
includes the use of motor vehicles,
motorboats, motorized equipment,
bicycles, hang gliders, wagons, carts,
portage wheels, and the landing of
aircraft, including helicopters, unless
provided for in specific legislation.
Wilderness Facts
• The Frank Church–River of No
Return Wilderness area is the
largest contiguous Wilderness
in the lower 48 states at ap-
proximately 2.3 million acres.
• The Wrangell–Saint Elias
Wilderness area is the largest
Wilderness area in the U.S.
covering more than nine mil-
lion acres of rugged Alaskan
mountains and forests.
• The U.S. Forest Service, of all
the agencies, manages the
most Wilderness areas—439
separate areas covering
36,160,078 acres.
• The Appalachian Trail passes
through 25 Wilderness areas.
• The Continental Divide Trail
passes through 26 Wilderness
areas.
• The Gila Wilderness was the
world’s first Wilderness area,
established on June 3, 1924.
• The Forest Service manages
33 percent of the acreage
within the National Wilder-
ness Preservation System.
CORPORATE PARTNERCoca-Cola understands the value of water. That's why we've partnered with the NFF, the USDA, and the Forest Service to replenish more than a billion liters of water on our National Forests and Grasslands.
The U.S. Forest Service, of all the agencies, manages the most Wilderness areas—439 separate areas.
BRIDGER WILDERNESS
4 Your National Forests
Photo © Louis Kam
ler
what is wilderness
The Eastern Foundations of WildernessBy Bill Hodge
The scope and grandeur of the National Wilderness Preservation
System is often captured in stunning western vistas and soaring
snow-capped peaks. But despite this iconic imagery, the roots of
the wilderness idea have a decidedly eastern backdrop.
While the West provides the stereotype, the forests
of the East have profoundly influenced the wilderness
construct, and greatly inspired those that fostered the
birth of the wilderness movement.
Bob Marshall found his love of wild places scrambling
to the top of New York’s Adirondacks. Howard Zahniser,
author of the Wilderness Act, also found inspiration early in
his life through those same ridges. Other early champions
of wilderness, like Harvey Broome and Benton MacKaye,
prowled around the Appalachian range from Georgia to
New England. Broome was instrumental in protecting what
is now the Great Smoky Mountains National Park while
MacKaye provided the vision and inspiration for the Appa-
lachian Trail. In 1935, these four visionaries and four other
like-minded individuals founded The Wilderness Society.
Despite providing inspiration to many of the early
pioneers of the wilderness ethic, the eastern United States
was not front-and-center when the Wilderness Act passed
50 years ago. Only three areas east of the Great Lakes were
protected through 1964’s landmark legislation; the Shining
Rock and Linville Gorge Wildernesses of North Carolina
and the Great Gulf Wilderness of New Hampshire.
Since the passage of the Wilderness Act, the East’s place
in wilderness legislation has grown and evolved. Eastern
Wilderness areas now play a major role in the entire system
of protected public lands. Millions of Americans have Wil-
derness areas just beyond their urban homes, up and down
the Eastern Seaboard. The relative ease of access to these
lands, and the wilderness ideals they
introduce, will continue to inspire
the next generation of conservation
leaders. The ecological challenges
faced in the East expand American
understanding of where clean water
originates and where threatened
species can seek refuge from a rapidly
changing planet.
In the East, programs supporting wilderness protec-
tions and wilderness stewardship are engaging a new
America, an America filled with a more diverse and dy-
namic population. For example, the Southern Appalachian
Wilderness Stewards (SAWS) program of The Wilderness
Society promotes stewardship and engagement through
trail maintenance. Volunteers help maintain important
Wilderness area trails while also learning leadership
skills, Leave No Trace and Wilderness First Aid skills, and
measuring and mitigating the negative impacts that close
proximity to major urban areas can have on wild places.
This immersion in wilderness fosters a life-long ap-
preciation of these incredible places and underlines how
accessible they are to residents of the East. By working
in wilderness, the volunteer stewards join the line of
protection that inspired Broome, Mackaye, Marshall, and
Frank—experiencing leading to loving, and loving leading
to protecting. Many participants take their passion to the
next level and train to become Wilderness Rangers—
patrolling eastern Wilderness areas, helping hikers,
coordinating maintenance, and working with trail crews.
In 2014, the National Wilderness Preservation System
reaches from Puerto Rico to the Hawaiian Islands. In the
East, the roots of wilderness stretch back across time to
those that first envisioned wilderness as a concept and
a special designation. Those same roots today give rise to
programs like SAWS, so that tomorrow we will have new
champions to follow.
Bill HodgeBill is the Director of Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards. He
serves on the board of the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance,
is a recipient of the Bob Marshall Award, and was recognized by the
White House as Champion of Change in building the Next Generation
of Conservation Leaders. Reach him at [email protected].
Summer – Fall 2014 5
eastern wilderness
A total of 758 Wilderness areas are part of the National Wilderness
Preservation System.
1892 1920-1929 1924 1929 1930
SIERRA CLUB FOUNDED AND LED BY JOHN MUIR.
Aldo Leopold, Arthur Carhart
and Robert Sterling
Yard begin writing about
a national wilderness
preservation policy.
The first Wilderness in the U.S.,
the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico, is established by the U.S. Forest
Service.
Forest Service establishes “Primitive
areas” within National
Forests, “to maintain primitive
conditions of transportation,
subsistence, habitation, and environment…”
Bob Marshall stated “Areas…should
be set aside by an act of Congress. This would give
them as close an approximation to permanence as
could be realized in a world of shifting
desires.”
More than 14 million acres of “Primitive
areas” are established.
1970 1975 1978 1980
Petrified Forest National Park
in Arizona and Craters of the Moon
Monument in Idaho are the
first Wilderness areas
designated within
National Park boundaries.
National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA) passes, requiring public involvement in
land management planning and
systematic evaluation of the environmental
impacts of proposed projects.
Eastern Wilderness Areas Act passes,
expanding Congress’ ability to designate
Wilderness areas in the
East and establishes 16
new Wilderness areas east of
the Mississippi.
Endangered American
Wilderness Act signed
by President Jimmy Carter
adding 1.3 million acres of Wilderness to the system.
Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation
Act is signed by President Jimmy
Carter, adding over 56 million acres to the National
Wilderness Preservation
System. This was the largest acreage addition in a single
year.
Frank Church-River of
No Return Wilderness in Idaho becomes
the largest Wilderness area in the contiguous
United States.
6 Your National Forests
wilderness timeline
Photos © U
SDA Forest Service; C
ratersoftheMoonN
PS / flickr.com; The C
arter Center / cartercenter.org
Zia MaumeneeZia is the Conservation Awards Associate at the NFF. When not
in the office, Zia enjoys hiking and playing on local National
Forests with her husband, two young sons, and dog. Reach her
1935 19561950 1964 1968
THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY IS CREATED.
The Wilderness Society’s Howard
Zahniser and the Sierra
Club’s David Brower, along with others, advocate for wilderness
protection by building public
support.
Wild & Scenic Rivers Act and National Trails
System Act pass.
Great Swamp Wilderness in New Jersey is
established as the first Wilderness area managed
by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
First draft of the bill preserving wilderness was written by Howard
Zahniser. Sixty-five rewrites and eighteen
public hearings follow!
San Rafael Wilderness in California
is the first “Primitive area” designated as
Wilderness following the
passage of the Wilderness Act.
The Wilderness Act formally
acknowledges the benefits
of wild places to the human
spirit and the nation in a nearly
unanimous vote by Congress.
President Lyndon B.
Johnson signs the Act into law on September 3,
1964.
201419841983 2004 2013
President Ronald
Reagan’s administration
oversees the most
Wilderness areas
designated in a single year—175.
40th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act. The Forest Service and the National Forest
Foundation establish
the ten-year Wilderness
Stewardship Challenge to improve
the health of Wilderness
areas by 2014.
September is declared National
Wilderness Month by President
Barack Obama. “I invite all
Americans to visit and enjoy our Wilderness areas, to learn
about their vast history, and to aid in
the protection of our precious
national treasures.”
Sleeping Bear Dunes
Wilderness area in Michigan is
the most recent addition to
the National Wilderness
Preservation System and one
of 129 areas designated since 2000.
50TH ANNIVERSARY O F T H E WILDERNESS
ACT
Bear Trap Canyon
becomes first Wilderness area
managed by Bureau of Land Management.
Summer – Fall 2014 7
wilderness timeline
Photo © N
ational Park Service / nps.gov
What Future for WildernessBy Marcus Selig
Aldo Leopold once said “the richest values of wilderness lie not
in the days of Daniel Boone, nor even in the present, but rather
in the future.” When Congress passed the Wilderness Act in
1964, it sought to protect diminishing undeveloped public
lands in the country for future generations. The Act initially designated just
over nine million acres as Wilderness, making those public lands forever
“an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by
man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” Yet, looking
to the future, Wilderness areas are destined to face evermore perplexing
management challenges. An explosion of recreation in Wilderness and
limited management options for addressing overuse are threatening the
existing values of Wilderness and maybe even their future.
Today, more than 100 million acres of our public
lands enjoy Wilderness designation and the protection it
extends. While this may seem like a lot, in the lower 48
states, Wilderness represents just over two percent of the
land base. The federal agencies that oversee these pristine
areas are tasked with preserving their “wilderness char-
acter.” To do this, they manage Wilderness areas for their
unique qualities like naturalness and solitude, ensuring
that these special places retain a primitive, remote, and
unrestricted feel. Management agencies such as the Forest
Service, Park Service, and Bureau of Land Management
must ensure that Wilderness areas remain undeveloped
and untrammeled, restricting the establishment of per-
manent structures or landscape alterations. They also are
required by law to prevent the use of motorized or mech-
anized equipment, though there are a few very limited
exceptions.
These rigid management guidelines often clash with
the wants and actions of the growing population of
adventure-seeking recreationists. Over the last 40 years,
recreational Wilderness use has increased ten-fold, with
more than 12 million people visiting Wilderness areas
each year. The impacts from this increased recreation-
al use and the popularity of relatively new recreation
activities like geo-caching, mountain biking, base jumping,
and paragliding are necessitating changes in Wilderness
management now, and are heightening tensions for future
Wilderness designations. This is especially true for the
Wilderness areas managed by the Forest Service, which
manages more Wilderness areas than any other agency:
439 areas totaling 36 million acres.
In many Wilderness areas across the country, recre-
ationists are loving their Wilderness to death. The most
significant detrimental impacts of overuse occur when
visitation is concentrated in a specific area. This is acute
among Colorado’s 14ers (Colorado has 54 peaks over
14,000 feet in elevation—14ers—many of which are in Wil-
derness areas). “We really see the effects of ‘peak-baggers’
in our Wilderness areas—degraded trails, human waste,
campsite scars,” says Ben Lara, Recreation and Lands
Program Manager on the Salida District of the San Isabel
National Forest. Lara has three Wilderness areas on his
ranger district—the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness, Buffalo
Peaks Wilderness, and Sangre de Cristo Wilderness.
“We actually have had to designate some portions of
our Wilderness areas as ‘high-use areas’,” continues Lara.
Such a designation seems oxymoronic to most: high-use
Wilderness? When an area is designated as “high use”
8 Your National Forests
wilderness management
on the Forest Service’s Recreation Opportunity Spectrum, the agency is able
to enhance recreation infrastructure to support larger crowds. However, when
“high-use” areas coincide with Wilderness, the only infrastructure develop-
ments allowed are the construction of more durable trails and better signage.
This leads to continued environmental degradation because the agency is still
unable to build the restrooms or established campsites that the crowds require.
The mismatch of high recreational use and limited infrastructure is leading
the Forest Service to consider alternative Wilderness management scenarios. A
fee system has already been tried in some areas. However, fees haven’t reduced
visitation, and the agency often receives substantial feedback from interest
groups opposed to fee structures on public lands. A permit system for extreme-
ly popular areas, like Colorado’s 14ers, would certainly enhance the experience
of the few lucky permit holders, but it is also likely to receive pushback from a
public accustomed to unencumbered access. A simple but concerted “Leave No
Trace” education campaign could mitigate some of the damage visitors cause,
but won’t solve all of the problems. Although none of these management
scenarios are a silver bullet for managing existing Wilderness areas, a growing
consensus recognizes that protecting wilderness character will require changes
in Wilderness management.
These issues and other stressors also weigh heavily as the Forest Service and
other land management agencies consider recommending new Wilderness ar-
eas to Congress, which has the sole authority to designate Wilderness areas. The
Forest Service is under constant pressure to provide increased opportunities for
all recreation users, but in particular, non-motorized, mechanized recreation us-
ers (e.g., mountain bikers). Such uses, however, are clearly inconsistent with the
Wilderness Act. Thus, land management agencies are understandably reticent
to run afoul of increasingly organized and engaged constituencies by supporting
new Wilderness area designations. Instead, agencies are now considering the
establishment of “special recreation areas,” which can be created by statute or
Secretarial order, in areas that are otherwise suitable for Wilderness protection.
Many argue that the creation of new special recreation areas in Wilderness
-eligible lands is a slippery slope. Could such lesser land protection mecha-
nisms eventually be applied to the 100 million acres of existing Wilderness via
legislation or Secretarial order? Such a result might be appealing to the masses
of today, but what will future generations value? Will future generations have
the opportunities, or even the desire, to experience the values of Wilderness
that Aldo Leopold envisioned? Or, will Wilderness become something of the
past, a concept that can only be explained through books or the Internet?
Marcus SeligMarcus is the NFF’s Colorado Program Director. An avid skier,
mountain biker, and angler, Marcus lives in Salida, CO with his wife
Windy and daughter Avie. Reach him at [email protected].
CORPORATE PARTNERThe Exelon Foundation is proud to support the NFF’s efforts at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. Our focus on youth engagement ensures that a new generation of Americans value and support our National Forests and Grasslands.
COLLEGIATE PEAKS WILDERNESS
Summer – Fall 2014 9
wilderness management
Photo © Rovers D
ream / istockphoto.com
Ruthie, ready to go.
10 Your National Forests
The Old Way Is the Best WayBy Greg M. Peters
Casey Burns is a modern cowboy. A
straw Stetson perches on his head as
we rattle across the dirt roads dividing
the pastures we pass. A beaded
necklace floats high on his thick neck, moving in
rhythm with his deep booming voice. Dark blue
Wranglers and cowboy boots caked in spring
mud contrast a freshly ironed button up shirt.
My colleague Hannah and I are on Casey’s home turf, a 40-minute drive
from our offices in Missoula, Montana. Brown stubbled grass and leafless
cottonwoods stretch out under a pale blue sky on this cool April morning as
we bounce up to the “Donkey Pasture.” We’d driven up to learn more about the
Ninemile Remount Depot and Ranger Station where Casey works for the
U.S. Forest Service as the Manager of the Wildlands Training Center and the
Ninemile Pack Train.
Feeding TimeThe “Ninemile’s” historic collection of buildings is part typical Forest Service
ranger district, part tourist destination, and part working ranch. A standard
complement of Forest Service employees works at the station—a silviculturist,
District Ranger, trail crews, and others who ensure the District resources are
maintained and the public is safe. But Casey and the other cowboys we see
milling about have a very different role, one that exists only in this corner of
western Montana.
More than 200 government-owned mules and horses board here each
winter. These mules, and the horses that help wrangle them, make up the
Northern Region pack train—a collection of pack animals used to maintain
the vast Wilderness areas that stretch across Montana and North Idaho. Each
summer, these mules are loaded with food, lumber, water, crosscut saws, and
myriad other tools and packed into the Bob Marshall, the Scapegoat, the Great
Bear, the Selway Bitterroot, and the other sprawling Wilderness areas managed
by Region One of the Forest Service.
“That’s Big Mike,” Casey points to a huge brown mule. “Prozac, Hiram, Rudy,
Bones, Preacher, Red, Ben,” he continues as we bounce across the pasture.
Ranch hand Marc Pengali, stands on the back of a flatbed pickup truck slicing
orange twine from rectangular bales of hay and chunking off bits of the green
yellow alfalfa onto the ground. The line of animals stretches to the far end of
the pasture. It’s feeding time and Marc and his young partner, Eli Indreland, are
doling out rations in a tight choreography. The animals munch contentedly or
Summer – Fall 2014 11
Photo © C
athrine L. Walters
unforgettable experiences
nose up to our SUV to check out the strangers. Casey tells
us it takes 400 tons of hay to feed the animals all winter.
They raise about 320 tons on site during the summer,
cutting, bailing, and storing it under an immense shed.
The rest they buy.
The Mule EraIn the 1910s and 1920s, the Forest Service relied on
horses and mules for nearly all aspects of managing its
vast territory. Roads were few and far between, and the
Great Burn of 1910 was still fresh in the young agency’s
mind. Rangers rode horses across their huge districts and
mules packed in fire-fighting tools, supplies, and rations
for the growing wildland fire-fighting efforts that had
become a primary focus of the Forest Service. In those
early years, the agency relied on hiring the pack animals
it needed from local farmers and ranchers, but by the
late 1920s, tractors and trucks did most of the farm’s
hauling, plowing, and haying, and quality animals were
scarce. Recognizing a need for self-provision, the Region
One office of the Forest Service leased a one-square mile,
run-down ranch in the Ninemile Valley, and the Ninemile
Remount Depot was born. Its primary goal: supplying the
agency with a reliable supply of sturdy, mountain-ready
mules and horses for fighting fires.
Three years later, the Forest Service purchased the
ranch, and with help from the Civilian Conservation
Corps, a New Deal program, the Remount Depot was
transformed from a run-down work-in-progress into a
shiny white-washed showpiece. The “CCC boys” worked
hard and fast. Bunk houses, Ranger offices, tack sheds and
a huge barn appeared almost overnight. Irrigation lines
were dug, fences were built and whitewashed, and mules
and horses were bred, housed, and trained for fire-fighting
and other backcountry duties.
While mules and horses proved invaluable to the
Forest Service during the 1920s and 30s, by the mid-1940s,
the agency was ready to fight fires with more modern
technology. A decade or so of successful experimenta-
tion and a sudden surplus of planes capable of hauling
men and gear into remote mountainous terrain following
World War II ushered in the era of smokejumpers. Mules
still played an important role in wildland firefighting, they
hauled out the gear smokejumpers used to extinguish
fires, but on July 1, 1953, twenty-three years to the day
after the Forest Service first leased the shabby ranch that
became the Ninemile Remount Depot, Region One issued
a press release that began:
“Services formerly rendered by the Forest Service Remount
Depot at Ninemile will be considerably reduced commencing
in July…in line with a program of economy aimed at reducing
government expenditures.”
Sharpening a crosscut saw.
12 Your National Forests
unforgettable experiences
While smokejumpers and aviation-based firefight-
ing played a large role in the Remount’s loss of purpose,
the post-war building boom helped too: houses required
timber and timber required roads. By the mid-1950s, areas
that were accessible only by mules and horses were now
criss-crossed with miles and miles of roads. By the 1970s,
pretty much the only areas on National Forests that didn’t
have roads were Wilderness areas.
Today, land managers still need access to Wilderness
for trail maintenance, bridge building, and fighting small
wildfires, so the horses and mules that spend their winters
at Ninemile are used almost exclusively for maintaining
these remote, roadless spaces. Were it not for Wilderness,
these animals, and perhaps more importantly, the skills
needed to string a pack train and march into some of the
most remote and rugged terrain in the U.S. would have
likely vanished decades ago.
Sharpening, Setting, and SawingThe sound of hammer striking metal ripples through
the room. The air smells like WD-40 and metal shavings.
A half-dozen folks stand upright behind long wooden
racks, intent on the shiny metal saws affixed firmly to the
tops of the handmade racks. We’ve discovered the crosscut
saw sharpening class and are getting an introduction to
another unique service that Ninemile offers.
In addition to wintering more than 200 mules and
horses, Ninemile runs the Wildlands Training Center. The
Center offers a series of Traditional Skills classes to agency
professionals and hobbyists from across the country. The six
students in this session—one of the weeklong crosscut saw
sharpening classes throughout April—are a mix of Forest
Service employees or contractors and everyday Americans.
They’re here to learn how to maintain crosscut saws so
they can clear Wilderness trails or cut firewood for their
homes without the noise, stench, and danger of a chainsaw.
We get a quick lesson from Arden Corey, the class
instructor. The saw’s large, jagged teeth cut across the
wood’s grain, hence the “crosscut” name. Depending on
the saw design, a group of sharp teeth alternate with the
raker, a half-inch wide spout of metal notched in a v that
chisels out the wood cut by the teeth. Each component
needs to be skin-slicing sharp to operate as efficiently as
possible. The tips of the raker are hammered and filed
so that they’re five one-thousandths of an inch shorter
than the teeth. The teeth, in turn, are “set” eight one-thou-
sandths of inch outside of the plane of the saw. This keeps
the saw from binding in the log but also maintain efficien-
cy and ease of cutting. Too much set and the saw cuts too
large a swath through the tree, wasting energy. Too little
set and the saw binds in the log, disrupting the smooth
rhythm of the sawyers.
While it’s Arden’s first year teaching the class, he’s
definitely not new to crosscut sharpening. Wearing
a waxed canvas apron, he moves about the class, helping
the students with their saws. He learned how to sharpen
crosscut saws from Warren Miller who literally wrote the
book. Casey hands me a copy as we mill about, chatting
with the students. Miller passed away suddenly this
winter, a sad reminder of how important these classes,
and their instructors, are for the agencies that manage
Wilderness. Without the skills to properly sharpen a
crosscut saw or string a pack mule—Ninemile offers both
introductory and advanced packing classes—the Forest
Service, the Park Service, and other public land agencies
wouldn’t be able to clear trails, build bridges, and effi-
ciently fight small fires in remote areas.
There are a handful of old timers like Arden who
have this knowledge, and the Forest Service sends many
of its saws to them to sharpen during winter’s cold, dark
months. But as they age and as recreational Wilderness use
increases, there is a real need to teach a new generation of
sharpeners and sawyers the intricacies of maintaining and
operating these simple but effective tools.
“Without Wilderness, we wouldn’t be here,” Casey tells
me on the phone prior to our first meeting. “You can’t use
a chainsaw in the Wilderness, and you can’t drive there
either, so the mules and the crosscut saws are integral to
our ability to maintain these areas.”
Casey Burns tying up a pack box.
Summer – Fall 2014 13
unforgettable experiences
Photos © C
athrine L. Walters
Hannah and I get a turn bucking a log when the class
heads outside to see how their saws perform. Tim Fetterer,
a friendly Midwesterner from Indiana, lends us his. “That
was my grandfather’s saw. He was a logger in Washington
in the 1930s.” He grins, “It took me about 20 hours to clean
the rust off of it, and it’s taken the better part of the week
for me to sharpen it.” Other students nod in appreciation.
There’s more than one grandfather’s saw in the class,
shined and sharpened by a new generation of homestead-
ers who purposefully eschew more modern technologies.
Tim’s grandfather’s saw works amazingly. The first
pull slices through the reddish brown bark, and with
each subsequent pass, we send small slivers of pale tan
wood drifting through the air. In less than thirty seconds,
a round disk of wood thunks to the ground. It’s a small
tree—only about ten inches in diameter—but the saw’s
efficiency and cutting power is impressive. I smile at
memories of spending an hour swearing at a sputtering
chainsaw, cleaning spark plugs, spilling chain lubricant,
and dealing with last year’s water-fouled gasoline. A big
part of me sees the appeal of the old way.
We accept the “nice job” and “there you go” accolades
with a flush of mild embarrassment. We shake hands with
the class members we’ve met—Sam Andrews, a quiet,
steady Coloradan woman who works as a Forest Service
contractor clearing trails; Bill Hardin, the Intel engineer
from Oregon; Michael Raney, a gregarious Canadian from
Saskatchewan; Jeremy Watkins, a young Forest Service
trail boss based out of tiny Elk City, ID, and Corey Crone,
who maintains a Youtube channel devoted to modern
homesteading called “Wrangler Star” and from whom
many of the attendees learned about the class. With this
final exchange, we’re off to watch Casey “pack” a mule
name Ruthie.
Mule Era ReduxIt’s abundantly clear Casey has both packed a mule
and taught scores of others how countless times before.
Before he lifts a piece of gear or touches a saddle, he loads
some grain into a green mesh sack and places it over
Ruthie’s head. In an instant, she’s contentedly munching
away on the oats and corn. With Ruthie occupied, Casey
begins. First he brushes her flanks and then a fleece
blanket free of dirt, pine needles, and other bits that could
rub raw on a long pack into the Wilderness. The fleece
blanket goes on first and then with a practiced expertise,
he gently sets a forty pound “Decker” saddle on Ruthie, ex-
plaining not only how it works, but who invented it, when
it became the standard mule packing saddle, and why.
Half-hitch knots appear magically from the coils of rope
he handles; leather straps pass through shining metal
buckles, are cinched and cinched again.
To the uninitiated, it might seem arbitrary and un-
polished, but every movement and piece of equipment
has a purpose—often more than one. Boxes full of gear
are wrapped with a “manny,” a canvas sheet that Casey
deftly folds into place creating a self-binding wrap that’s
virtually waterproof. He ties it up in a series of binding
hitches with 35 feet of rope, which can be used in camp to
tie horses, set up an impromptu corral, or hang food from
a tree. The canvas sheet becomes a ground cloth, a rain
tarp, or a sun shade once the mule is unloaded for the
night. In sixty short seconds, he’s hoisted the bundle onto
the saddle and with a couple more magical half-hitches,
the load is secure and ready, perched vertically along
Ruthie’s right side, waiting for its mirror image to appear
a few minutes later on her left. Almost every knot is quick
release in the event of a spill—these mules travel through
some of the most unforgiving country in the U.S.
Casey finishes the lesson with a short definitive dec-
laration, “In horsemanship, the old way is the best way.”
Based on what else we’ve learned at Ninemile, it seems this
is true in more than just horsemanship. From dutch oven
cooking, to axemanship and crosscut saw maintenance, to
packing mules deep into the backcountry, the old ways are
not only the best, they’re becoming hip again. The Wild-
lands Training Center’s classes are becoming more and
more popular every year as a new generation of Wilderness
rangers, rural and urban homesteaders, and niche Internet
video producers connect the past to the present.
As we pile back into my car to drive back to the future—
Missoula, the office, emails, and phone messages—Hannah
wonders if they need someone to spend
the summer at Ninemile, posting to
Facebook, sending daily tweets, and
starting a blog. I wonder if they need
another Wilderness Ranger and how
my wife will feel about my latest career
fantasy.
Visit nationalforests.org/blog/ninemile to
see additional photos from this story
GREG M. PETERSGreg is the NFF’s Communication Director. When he’s not lost
in a mountain of paperwork at his desk, Greg enjoys skiing,
hiking, canoeing, and getting home after dark. Reach him at
14 Your National Forests
unforgettable experiences
Hiking and Backpacking with KidsBy Marlee Ostheimer
At the point in parenthood when a
“walk” consists of wandering in
several large circles—off to the left
to inspect a rock, over to the right
to follow an ant, punctuated by a diaper that
needs changing—the thought of a hike, let alone a
backpacking trip, may feel daunting. Don’t despair!
With some extra planning, an outdoor adventure with
your child is easier than you think.
A front carrier can be a great way to pack the youngest children. You can
wear clothing or a jacket over the carrier, keeping your child toasty warm and
freeing up shoulder space for a backpack. Remember a hat for your little one,
especially if he or she will be perched up high in a pack on your shoulders. For
longer trips, some parents enlist a "sherpa" to help carry gear—a friend or furry
companion who can carry extra food, water, diapers, or other essentials. Be
sure to have older kids carry some very light gear in their own backpack too. It
will help them feel like they’re part of the adventure.
It’s always good to start with small trips. A car-camping (or backyard over-
night) adventure to get your tykes used to sleeping in a tent and sleeping bag is
a great first step. Bring some toys and books and a few changes of clothes—kids
are experts at finding water and dirt. Special “camping” treats like marshmal-
lows, chocolate bars, or other sweets will help kids remember camping fondly.
Once you’ve mastered the overnight, you can expand to longer day trips or
hike-in camping trips.
Children are more sensitive than adults to altitude, sunburns, windburn,
and bee stings. Whether you are a mile from the trailhead or two days out in
the backcountry, be prepared with a small bag of “just in case” items including:
baby or junior Tylenol, sunscreen, teething ointment, lots of wipes and tissue,
diaper rash treatment, Benadryl, and plastic bags for trash. Treats, sketchbooks,
and a field guide or two can also help get kids excited about hiking and camp-
ing as well.
Whatever your destination, be safe, have fun and be prepared!
Visit nationalforests.org/blog/hikingkids to find additional resources for safely
and enjoyably hiking and backpacking with your kids.
Marlee OstheimerMarlee is the NFF’s Development
Associate. Her young son, Ellis,
keeps her pretty busy whether
he’s checking out rocks, leaves,
planes, or dirt. Reach her at
FLATHEAD NATIONAL FOREST
Summer – Fall 2014 15
Photo © Lisa N
esic
kids in nature
Faces and Places of Wilderness
Our National Forests feature serene and breathtaking
Wilderness areas. To help celebrate the 50th Anniversary of
the Wilderness Act, the National Forest Foundation hosted the
“Faces and Places of Wilderness” Photo Contest featuring stunning
images of Wilderness areas on our National Forests. We thank all who
entered and look forward to hosting another photo contest soon! Follow
the NFF on Facebook at facebook.com/NationalForestFoundation.
Photo Tips“Pop.” That’s what we photographers strive for in our
images, but how do you get it? First, know your subject. In
most cases, simplifying your composition will strengthen
the image. Second, use focus carefully but aggressively:
a plant or animal in sharp focus against a soft background
gives tremendous punch.
Third, “paint with the light.” Use bright areas to draw
attention, and dark areas to create mood and context.
Fourth, pay very close attention to edges so you can elimi-
nate distracting clutter. Finally, experiment! Electrons are
cheap, and lots of trial and error will sharpen your eye.
Happy shooting!
Landscape Winner“Tidioute Island” by Ed Bernik of
Pennsylvania. Taken on the Allegheny
National Forest, Allegheny Islands
Wilderness area.
16 Your National Forests
wilderness special
People Winner “Robert Marek, Camp 3” by Ehren
Epperson of Oklahoma. Taken on
the Tongass National Forest,
Kootnzoowoo Wilderness.
Wildlife Winner“What are you looking at?” by Carol
McCallion of Wyoming. Taken on the
Sequoia National Forest, Monarch
Wilderness.
Summer – Fall 2014 17
A Pacific Marten.
18 Your National Forests
Photo © D
an Font / National Park Service
An Olympian Search for MartensBy Tristan Baurick
On a chilly January morning, a group of hikers set off into
Olympic National Forest in search of a furry little carnivore
that gets fewer reported sightings than even Bigfoot.
The Pacific marten hasn't been seen in this wild and wet
corner of Washington State since 2008. "Are there any left? We just don’t
know,” noted Olympic National Forest biologist Betsy Howell.
Helping Howell find some answers is Adventurers and
Scientists for Conservation (ASC), a Bozeman, Mon-
tana-based nonprofit that puts volunteer climbers, divers,
paddlers, and other outdoor athletes to work gathering
data for scientists in far-flung areas around the world.
ASC's recent expeditions had mountaineers plucking
microbes from rocks in the Himalayas and sailboaters
scooping water samples off the Chilean coast.
On the Olympic National Forest, ASC trained volun-
teers to set up and maintain monitoring stations in the
remote, high-elevation habitats martens prefer. Eight out
of twenty camera stations are in Wilderness areas on the
Olympic, including four cameras in the Mount Skokomish
and four in the Brothers Wilderness areas. The stations
have two basic components: bait—usually chicken—and
a motion-triggered camera that snaps photos of anything
that moves within its view.
Last year, the project generated thousands of photos
of bobcat, skunk, coyotes, and mountain lions—but no
martens. ASC returned this year with a bigger team and
more cameras thanks to $15,000 grant from the National
Forest Foundation.
Twenty-four volunteers were selected. Selection cri-
teria included screening for backcountry experience—a
critical component of this project—because so many of
the sites are far from trailheads and require significant
distances that must be covered on foot.
Their first weekend of training had them waking early
at a crowded Forest Service bunkhouse. They packed in
an odd assortment of gear—hammers, saws, chicken wire,
and raw chicken.
“Who’s packing the lure?” someone asked during the
dark morning.
“Don’t pick the lure; it’s nasty,” another volunteer said.
Stored in an amber-colored bottle, the lure is a
pungent mixture of skunk, castor, and muskrat musk.
Apparently, martens can’t resist it.
“My cat gets very excited when he smells it on me—
rolls around, attacks me,” Howell said.
Jace Barkley from Vancouver, Washington, volunteers
to take the lure, just as he did the day before.
“My olfactory senses might be blown out now anyway,”
he adds.
After checking and rechecking their backcountry
maps, they broke up into groups and piled into trucks and
vans. Howell thanked several of them as they left.
“This wouldn’t happen without them,” she said. “With
the Forest Service’s declining budget and personnel, we just
don’t have the people to do wildlife surveys like we used to.”
The Forest Service and ASC pairing happened when
ASC founder Gregg Treinish began calling around asking
what his organization could do on the Olympic Peninsula.
Howell jumped at the chance to have ASC round up
a crew of "extremely fit and extremely motivated" volun-
teers help her with the monitoring project.
Along with the NFF grant, ASC’s involvement is
covered by a $15,000 matching donation from a private
funder and $5,000 from the Forest Service, along with a
few gear sponsorships from companies like Osprey and
Kahtoola. The volunteer labor comes at a value of about
$150,000, according to Treinish.
Howell emphasized the significance of this research.
While marten populations appear stable in the Cascade
Range of Oregon and Washington, they’ve plummeted on
the Olympic Peninsula and other coastal areas. Conse-
quently, populations of coastal martens have recently
been listed with NatureServe, a nonprofit organization
that provides conservation status rankings, as “critically
Summer – Fall 2014 19
wilderness conservation
imperiled” in Oregon and Washington. This designation
may help the species gain status as a Forest Service
sensitive species, a change that could lead to future funds
directed toward their conservation.
“Where martens exist, they readily come to camera
stations, so the lack of them during these many (Olympic
Peninsula) survey efforts would seem to be a cause for
concern,” Howell wrote in a report last year.
On the trail, Treinish, who worked as a tracker in
Montana, kept his eyes open for
signs of martens as he led one of
the volunteer groups. He poked into
rocky nooks and peered at scratch
marks on trees, but found only signs
of mice, squirrels and bobcat.
It’s this sort of thing—enjoying
the outdoors but having a purpose
beyond his own enjoyment—that led
him to found ASC in 2011.
“I was hiking the length of the
Appalachian Trail, somewhere in
Pennsylvania, when I thought ‘what
the hell am I walking six months
for?’” he said. “It was an awful
moment. I was in tears. Who am
I doing this for? It felt so selfish.”
He realized that “tens of thou-
sands of people were playing” in
remote areas every day. Why not team them up with
scientists who can’t—for lack of time, funding, or skills—
get there to take a water sample or set up a camera.
ASC grew faster than Treinish could have imagined.
“Right now, we have 847 volunteer athletes on all
seven continents,” he said.
Treinish led the group above 3,800 feet before he start-
ed looking for the right pair of trees. A marten monitoring
station must be beyond earshot of the trail and have two
thin trees that are no more than twenty feet apart.
On one tree goes the camera, which must face north
to reduce glare, and on the other goes the bait. Volunteer
April Ann Fong, a community college instructor, pulled
the chicken wire and chicken from her pack.
“This is how we make chicken burritos,” she said while
folding three drumsticks into a sheet of wire.
Mason White, who works in technology marketing,
nailed the burrito to a tree and then dropped to the
ground to do his best marten impression while a few
test photos were shot. Barkley logged all the details and
marked the station’s coordinates on a GPS.
Doing Science in Wilderness
The 1964 Wilderness Act ensures that Wilder-
ness areas remain free of almost all modern tech-
nologies. The Act prohibits wheeled conveyances
like bicycles, ATVs and motorcycles, machines
and mechanical technologies like chainsaws and
motor boats. It prohibits hang gliders, helicopters,
airplanes (except where expressly
allowed), and other such intru-
sions on natural, wild places.
So how do scientists conduct
their studies in Wilderness areas,
where the typical assortment of
machines and devices that aid
scientific study are either expressly
prohibited or too heavy, cumber-
some, or expensive to transport via
foot or mule?
First, you find the right part-
ners. The ASC-trained volunteers
who helped Betsy Howell with
her marten monitoring were fit,
athletic and ready to cross-country
ski for miles, then snowshoe more
miles, and then camp for the night
to access the spots where Howell
wanted to monitor. They were willing, and able, to
carry large loads with cameras, raw chicken, bea-
ver carcasses, chicken wire, hammers, and other
assorted gear. And they were willing to do it for
several weekends over the winter, skiing, show-
shoeing, and scrambling back to the stations to
retrieve images and refresh batteries, lure, and bait.
Second, you cross your t’s and dot your i’s. In
2010, when Howell began marten surveys with
other volunteer groups, she completed a “Minimum
Tools Analysis” to ensure that the monitoring
would not permanently impact the Wilderness
areas on which they set up stations. This formal
analysis of required tools and methodology details
not only how the stations would be set up, but how
they’d be dismantled and packed out as well. Once
completed and approved, Howell’s band of vol-
unteers could set up the camera stations without
running afoul of Wilderness rules and add valu-
able insight to the management of wild animals
throughout the Olympic National Forest.
“…we don’t know if we’ll come back with anything to show. But I’m excited to see if we do.”
20 Your National Forests
wilderness conservation
At the last possible moment, Allison Osterberg, a county planner from
Olympia, Washington, slipped on surgical gloves and set the lure. The team
packed up quickly as the musky odor caught hold of the breeze.
White and his hiking partner, Bill Agnew, a retired homebuilder, will return
to this station four more times during the winter and spring to check the bait
and download the camera’s images. Treinish expects that the next trip will
require snowshoes and cold-weather camping gear.
“Having people give up two weekends for training and then four more
weekends to hike up here—it’s a big commitment,” he said. “It’s also a huge
workforce that can accomplish a lot.”
Agnew is looking forward to his return trips.
“There’s a lot of sweat in the execution,” he said. “But I like that it’s about
going into the unknown. You don’t know what the conditions will be, and we
don’t know if we’ll come back with anything to show. But I’m excited to see if
we do.”
Visit nationalforests.org/blog/pacificmarten to see additional photos and watch
a great video from ASC about this project.
ASC Volunteers setting up a camera.
Tristan BaurickTristan works as a reporter for the
Kitsap Sun in Bremerton, WA. A Ted
Scripps Environmental Journalism
Fellow, Tristan’s writing can be found
at his blog, Trails & Tides. Find him
online at tristanbaurick.com.
CORPORATE PARTNERSouthern California Edison proudly supports the NFF’s work on the Angeles National Forest. From creating sustainable recreation opportunities to restoring watersheds, SCE recognizes the critical role National Forests play in our country today and in the future.
Summer – Fall 2014 21
Photo © Tristan Baurick
wilderness conservation
An American Original:
Aldo Leopold in the Gila WildernessBy Tim Gibbins
Years before the Gila Wilderness existed on a map, Aldo
Leopold shot a wolf from atop a rimrock canyon in New
Mexico. He reached the still breathing wolf and saw something
that forever changed him. In his classic text, A Sand County
Almanac, Leopold describes the experience, “We reached the old wolf in
time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes.”
Aldo Leopold sitting on rimrock with quiver and bow.
22 Your National Forests
Photo © C
ourtesy of the Aldo Leopold Foundation
featured forest
“I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was
something new to me in those eyes—something known only to
her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch;
I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no
wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die,
I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.”
The year was 1912—the same year New Mexico was
annexed from Territory to statehood—and Leopold was
only 24-years old. With his round-frame glasses and
tobacco pipe, he looked more like a naturalist professor
than a trigger-happy hunter. He grew up sketching fawns
and flowers along the banks of the Mississippi River in
his boyhood home of Burlington, Iowa. He had earned
a degree from the Yale School of Forestry before the U.S.
Forest Service appointed him Supervisor of the Carson
National Forest in New Mexico. “In
those days,” Leopold said, “we had
never heard of passing up a chance
to kill a wolf.”
Leopold’s boss, Gifford Pinchot,
the first chief of the nascent Forest
Service, instructed his agency to
manage its vast natural resources for
the betterment of mankind. Leopold
shared this opinion at first, but as he
traveled by horseback through his
nearly 500,000-acre jurisdiction, the
conservationist began to have ideas
of his own. The wolf-killing policy, for
instance, he likened to sharpening
the pruning shears of God, because
plants in wolf-less regions were
grazed to the ground by deer and cattle. It dawned on him
that healthy ecosystems required biodiversity, wolves and
all. He called the concept “thinking like a mountain.” And
after watching the fire fade in the dying wolf’s eyes, he
believed that sometimes the natural world would be most
wisely managed if mankind simply left it alone.
Leopold thought the Gila (Hee-la) River landscape in
southwestern New Mexico made a prime candidate for
wilderness preservation. His tenure at the Carson National
Forest had provided him ample opportunity to know the
area intimately. He liked how the Mogollon Mountains,
the peaks of the Black Range, and the San Francisco
Mountains all converged with the Chihuahuan and
Sonoran Deserts to create a topographic fortress against
the pioneers’ axe or plow.
A place where ecological worlds collide, the Gila
captivated Leopold. The pinyon-juniper woodlands of
the Mexican desert mingle with the spruce-fir forests of
the Rocky Mountains. Aspen trees and prickly pear cacti,
herds of elk and elusive Gila monsters, rattlesnakes and
white-nosed coatis, wolf packs and javalinas all haunt the
Gila as they did in Leopold’s day. In a single river bend,
you can hook a catfish on one cast and the endemic Gila
trout on another.
“Like winds and sunsets, wild things
were taken for granted until progress
began to do away with them. Now we
face the question whether a still higher
'standard of living' is worth its cost in
things natural, wild and free.” ~Foreword to A Sand County Almanac (1949)
Summer – Fall 2014 23
featured forest
When cattle ranchers proposed a road to improve grazing access into the
undeveloped core of the headwaters in 1921, Leopold penned an article to the
Journal of Forestry asserting America’s need for wilderness. He argued for
“a continuous stretch of country preserved in its natural state.” He also wrote
a wilderness proposal and mailed it to his superiors in Washington, D.C.
On June 3rd, 1924, the Forest Service accepted Leopold’s proposal and set
aside more than 500,000-acres of mountains, rivers, and desert surrounding the
Gila River. It became the first federally-recognized Wilderness area in the coun-
try, and it would serve as a model for wilderness preservation to come.
The Wilderness ActForty years later, on September 3rd 1964, Secretary of the Interior Stewart
Udall, Idaho Senator Frank Church, and other dignitaries gathered around
President Lyndon B. Johnson in the White House Rose Garden as he signed the
Wilderness Act into law.
The Wilderness Act immediately placed 54 areas within the National
Wilderness Preservation System, including some of America’s most iconic
Wilderness areas: the Bob Marshall in Montana, the Boundary Waters in
Minnesota, the Ansel Adams in California, and, of course, the Gila Wilderness.
Congress later protected 202,016 acres adjacent to the Gila Wilderness,
naming it the Aldo Leopold Wilder-
ness. Together, these two areas form
an uninterrupted wilderness the size
of Rhode Island. It’s a continuous
sweep of country that stretches for
27 miles north to south and 39 miles
east to west. Hunters stalk bighorn
sheep and Rocky Mountain elk in
the highlands each fall. History buffs
flock to the numerous cliff dwellings
that Mogollon people built around
1300 AD. Hikers can follow the 800
miles of trail to the 10,895-foot sum-
mit of Whitewater Baldy, the area’s tallest peak, or along a rushing creek in
a canyon only ten feet wide.
Most importantly, the Gila Wilderness protects the relative abundance of
what the region lacks—water. The West Fork, Middle Fork, and East Fork of the
Gila River elbow through twisting canyons as they tumble down the west slope
of the Continental Divide. Each fork is over 30 miles long, and they are the
longest free-flowing rivers in New Mexico. Sycamore, walnut, cottonwood, and
willows grow along their banks offering luxurious shade to native grasses and
habitat to over 300 species of birds.
The Gila Wilderness today is as healthy as it was in Leopold’s time. After
decades of absence, four healthy packs of Mexican wolves again prowl the Gila
through successful reintroduction efforts. To celebrate the Wilderness Act’s
50th Anniversary this year, you can still disappear into the Gila Wilderness and
hear the wolf’s howl at a quiet, moonlit camp and contemplate, as Leopold did,
“the hidden meaning within the howl of the wolf, long known among moun-
tains, but seldom perceived among men.”
Tim GibbinsTim works as a copywriter for The
Clymb in Portland, Oregon. In his
spare time he runs his 20-year old
raft down the Pacific Northwest’s
rivers, looks at birds, and tries to
catch trout on a fly. His articles have
appeared in Outside Magazine and
The Oregonian.
Plan Your VisitThe Gila Wilderness is located in
the Gila National Forest, with road
access from the historic Silver City,
New Mexico. From town, it’s 44 miles
on Highway 15 until it dead-ends
at the Gila Cliff Dwellings National
Monument, and the many trailheads
that access the Wilderness. Soak in
Jordan Hot Springs, an eight-mile
hike. Walk the Catwalk Trail up
the canyon used as a hideout by
Geronimo and Butch Cassidy. Hike
along the Continental Divide. Or visit
the eerie ghost town of Cooney. Call
the Gila National Forest for more info
to plan your visit: 575-388-8201.
“ He argued for ‘a continuous stretch of
country preserved in its natural state.’ On
June 3rd, 1924, the Forest Service accepted
Leopold’s proposal and set aside more than
500,000-acres of mountains, rivers, and desert
surrounding the Gila River.”
24 Your National Forests
featured forest
The Greater ChallengeBy Hannah Ettema
Designating a Wilderness area is often a long and complex
legislative process that when successful, deserves celebration.
But after the votes are counted and the reporters leave, the
landscape is forever protected—at least on paper. Despite the
political wrangling required to designate a Wilderness area, the greater
challenge becomes retaining the wilderness character that makes these
places special for today and tomorrow.
The Wilderness Act of 1964 declared Wilderness
necessary “for the American people of present and future
generations” and mandated that Wilderness “retain its
primeval character and influence.” But Wilderness areas
do not always remain “primeval.” Human impacts, even
when well-intended, frequently threaten the health and
character of Wilderness areas.
A Call for ActionFast forward nearly forty years: many Wilderness
areas were overrun with invasive species. Visitors created
trails that degraded habitat. Management agencies strug-
gled to devote the necessary resources to these special
places. Something had to be done.
In 2002, a group of National Forest managers and
academics took action. They formed the Wilderness
Information Management Steering Group to streamline
methods used to measure the ecological health of Wilder-
ness areas, reducing the 200 tasks that had been in use for
decades to ten distinct elements (page 26). They estab-
lished a new definition of determining Wilderness health
by imposing a scoring system for Wilderness areas based
on the ten new elements. Under this new protocol, only
eleven percent of the 406 Wilderness areas on National
Forests passed.
The Steering Group’s efforts eventually made it across
the desk of the 15th Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, Dale
Bosworth, who recognized that Wilderness areas needed
help. Humbly, the Chief couldn’t claim that the idea for
the Wilderness Stewardship Challenge was his own. “I
knew there were a lot of Wilderness areas that weren’t
up to snuff so I thought it was a great idea. It was simply
recognizing a good idea when you hear it.”
Under Bosworth’s leadership, the Forest Service
resolved to make the 40th Anniversary of the Wilderness
Act a pivot point for its Wilderness areas, launching a
decade-long stewardship challenge for all National Forest
System Wilderness areas designated on or prior to 2004.
With the celebration of the Act came a challenge: Nation-
al Forest managers were to ensure areas under their care
met baseline management standards by 2014, the 50th
Anniversary of the Act.
While some wished the challenge would increase
Wilderness budgets, Bosworth knew it wasn’t all about the
money. “We can do more than what we’re doing if we fo-
cus with the dollars we have,” he said. Looking back on the
beginning of the Challenge Bosworth notes, “I think [the
Wilderness Stewardship Challenge] just helped people
focus on getting this done.”
As the Congressionally-chartered partner of the Forest
Service, the National Forest Foundation played a key role
in helping to meet the Challenge. By providing grants and
technical assistance to nonprofit organizations, the NFF
helped the Forest Service make measurable progress to-
ward the Challenge. At the end of 2013, nearly 85 percent
of the 406 qualifying Wilderness areas met the standards
of the Challenge. The Forest Service, nonprofit partners,
and the NFF have made an even more concerted push this
last year of the Challenge to help meet the standard.
CORPORATE PARTNERVail Resorts, Inc. salutes the NFF. From California to Colorado, we work with the NFF and local partners to improve the National Forests that provide our guests with a lifetime of memories.
Summer – Fall 2014 25
wilderness special
Coming TogetherSince the beginning of the Challenge, the NFF has distributed 189 grants
to 74 organizations, investing nearly $3.8 million in federal and private funds.
For example, the Arizona Wilderness Coalition (AWC) has received six grants
through the Wilderness Stewardship Challenge. Such NFF funding helped AWC
establish their Wilderness Stewardship Program, Wild Stew.
“The NFF has been the primary funder of Wild Stew and allowed it to start,”
said Sam Frank, AWC Central Arizona Director. Wild Stew hosts group volun-
teer days on Wilderness areas and provides training for individual wilderness
stewards. Citizens volunteered more than 7,500 hours for Arizona’s Wilderness
areas, translating to $166,000 of donated time.
Recently, AWC has taken on not just monitoring non-native species but
removing them. On the Prescott National Forest, the Apache Creek Wilderness
area is now almost completely rid of tamarix plants, a priority species of Forest
Service Region 3. Frank explained, “We had to get to some really, really tough
places. And then one by one, we cut and sprayed individual plants.”
Despite the Wilderness Stewardship Challenge ending, AWC will continue
to support the health of Wilderness areas through the state, including those
managed by the Bureau of Land Management. AWC also plans to expand their
work with veteran groups.
Another partner with immense on-the-ground results is Friends of Nevada
Wilderness (FNW). Nevada’s only National Forest, the Humboldt-Toiyabe, is the
largest National Forest in the lower 48 and has 1.2 million acres of Wilderness.
To boost the efforts of FNW, the NFF has awarded eight grants for Nevada’s
Wilderness areas. FNW has significantly leveraged those grants with cash and
in-kind contributions exceeding $1.1 million in conservation impacts.
From 2006 to 2013, FNW has stepped up to help the state’s Wilderness
areas meet standards. They have engaged more than 1,100 volunteers in
on-the-ground restoration, donating more than 12,900 hours back to the
Humboldt-Toiyabe. Among the organization’s many accomplishments, FNW
worked with the Forest Service to develop a noxious weed management plan
for the Mount Rose Wilderness, and their diligent work continues in 2014.
Looking ahead, the official Challenge will end, but the greater challenge
remains. Wilderness is “an area where the earth and its community of life are
untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain,” as
stated in the Wilderness Act. We do not remain, but that doesn’t mean we don’t
lend a hand to keep these places wild.
The Ten ElementsSuccess of the ten-year Wilderness
Stewardship Challenge means:
• Fire managers consider a full range of
responses with the goal of restoring
natural fire
• Invasive plants are successfully
treated
• Air quality trends are measured
• Recreation site inventory is completed
• Opportunities for solitude or
primitive unconfined recreation are
protected
• Priority actions identified in a wilder-
ness education plan are implemented
• Outfitter/guides model wilderness
practices and incorporate apprecia-
tion for wilderness values to clients
• Adequate direction exists to protect
wilderness character
• Information needs are met
• Baseline workforce is in place
Hannah EttemaHannah is the Communications and
Development Associate at the NFF.
When she’s not running the NFF’s
Social Media program or lending her
design skills to fellow staff, she’s
out exploring Montana’s National
Forests. Reach her at:
JOHN MUIR WILDERNESS, INYO NATIONAL FOREST
26 Your National Forests
Photo © D
amara M
ullens
wilderness special
3 Questions with Dale Bosworth, Chief of the U.S Forest Service
Dale Bosworth served as the 15th Chief of the U.S.
Forest Service from 2001-2007. He was instrumental in
implementing the Wilderness Stewardship Challenge in
2004, which has improved the health of dozens of Wilder-
ness areas across the country in just ten years. The NFF’s
Hannah Ettema caught up with Chief Bosworth for a short
Q&A about his long-standing love for Wilderness.
NFF: Where did your connection and passion for Wil-
derness develop?
Bosworth: When I became a ranger on the Powell
District of the Clearwater National Forest, we had about
200,000 acres of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness and
that’s what really got me caring about Wilderness. Having
that Wilderness on my district, going out into the Wilder-
ness, and understanding and learning more about the Wil-
derness Act just started making a big difference to me.
NFF: What are some things visitors can do when
they’re in Wilderness areas to help steward these places
to make sure they stay healthy?
Bosworth: Well I think the things they need to do are
‘Leave No Trace.’ People that go into Wilderness areas
need to make sure when they leave, it’s as if they were
never there.
And that means when you’re building a fire that you
put a rock ring around, and that you put it back when
you’re done so it doesn’t look like someone was there
building a campfire. People need to educate themselves by
reading and understanding ways to Leave No Trace.
Some like to cut the trail at the switchback and pretty
soon you’ve got a new trail, which is a problem. Obviously
leaving any kind of trash and paper is a problem.
But I think people that want to use Wildernesses
should try to educate themselves and make it a person-
al challenge, “I’m going into this Wilderness, but when I
leave, I’m not going to leave any trace that I was there.
Now how can I do that?”
NFF: Do you have a favorite Wilderness area?
Bosworth: I guess I’d have to say my favorite is the
Selway-Bitterroot because that’s the first Wilderness area
I had the opportunity to manage part of. It’s a beautiful
Wilderness. Big. Wild.
Every Wilderness, every place I’ve been is really
special. But if I had to pick one, I’d say Selway-Bitterroot.
wilderness50th.org
Our Common Heritage& ResponsibilityJoin us for the
October 15–19, 2014Albuquerque, NM
The Forest Service’s fi rst wilderness, the Gila, was
designated in 1964 © NATHAN NEWCOMER
Join us for the
October 15–19, 2014
National Wilderness Conference
CelebratingAmerica’s
Wilderness legacy
Answer from page 3This National Forest is home to the largest herd of bighorn sheep in the country.
Wyoming’s Shoshone National Forest was
originally protected as part of the Yellowstone
Timberland Reserve in 1891. Bordering Yellowstone
National Park, the Shoshone is home to a variety of
wildlife including bighorn sheep, gray wolves, and
grizzly bears to name a few. More than half of the
forest is designated Wilderness, including the Popo
Agie (pictured on page 3). The area features several
mountains exceeding 12,000 feet, including the
famed Cirque of the Towers. The landscape hasn’t
changed much since explorers first laid eyes on the
majestic peaks, valleys, and canyons.
Summer – Fall 2014 27
wilderness special
Estella B. Leopold is the daughter of famed
conservationist Aldo Leopold. A noted
conservationist and botanist, Dr. Leopold
is a Professor Emeritus at the University of
Washington, Seattle. She has served on the
board of a number of conservation organizations
including the National Forest Foundation from
2003-2005.
Back in 1924 it must have been
difficult to foresee or imagine the
possible loss of our wild lands in
America. How fortunate we are that
Aldo Leopold did consider that. Such
a loss was indeed developing in the
ensuing decades, and the threat
became a real danger. We need to be
grateful to all those stalwart giants
who gathered together in 1935 to start The Wilderness Society; this group
paved the way for the work of Howard Zahniser, and the passage of the
Wilderness Act in 1964.
My colleagues and I testified at the Denver hearing on the Wilderness Act
and both Mother and I handed in testimony. I remember that it was this ex-
perience that moved me toward activism in conservation, and I am aware this
was also the experience of many others. How proud we all were when the bill
became law. This national act became the very first major conservation legis-
lation in our entire history. We are aware that the Wilderness Act set the stage
for the environmental movement that developed in the 1970’s. I think the Act
really did inspire humanity and gave us an “ethical rudder” for the protection
and treatment of our wild areas.
Dr. Leopold graciously provided this recollection for this issue of Your National Forests.
My Wilderness
The following excerpts from authors,
politicians, scientists, and historic
figures speak to what Wilderness
means to them. We hope you enjoy
them and find inspiration to discover your own
Wilderness.
Estella B. Leopold
28 Your National Forests
Photo © U
niveristy of Washington Photo
voices from the forest
“As we step over the threshold of the twenty-first century, let us acknowledge that the preservation of wilderness is not so much a political process as a spiritual one.”
Terry Tempest Williams is an author,
activist, and conservationist based in
Southwest Utah. Known for her lyrical
and impassioned prose, Mrs. Williams’
books include Leap, Red: Patience and Passion in
the Desert, Finding Beauty in a Broken World, When
Women Were Birds, Desert Quartet, and others. In
2006, Williams received the Robert Marshall
Award from The
Wilderness Society.
I believe we need wilderness in
order to be more complete human
beings, to not be fearful of the
animals that we are, an animal who
bows to the incomparable power of
natural forces when standing on the
north rim of the Grand Canyon, an
animal who understands a sense of humility when watching a grizzly overturn
a stump with its front paw to forage for grubs in the lodgepole pines of the
northern Rockies, an animal who weeps over the sheer beauty of migrating
cranes above the Bosque del Apache in November, an animal who is not afraid
to cry with delight in the middle of a midnight swim in a phosphorescent tide,
an animal who has not forgotten what it means to pray before the unfurled
blossom of the sacred datura, remembering the source of all true visions.
As we step over the threshold of the twenty-first century, let us acknowl-
edge that the preservation of wilderness is not so much a political process as
a spiritual one, that the language of law and science used so successfully to
define and defend what wilderness has been in the past century must now
be fully joined with the language of the heart to illuminate what these lands
mean to the future.
From “A Prayer for a Wild Millennium,” copyright © 2000 by Terry Tempest Williams.
Appears in her book Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert, published by Pantheon
Books in 2001. Used by permission of Brandt and Hochman Literary Agents, Inc. Any
copying or distribution of this text is expressly forbidden. All rights reserved.
Terry Tempest Williams
Summer – Fall 2014 29
Photo © C
heryl Him
melstein / coyoteclan.com
voices from the forest
Bob Marshall is a lion of the wilderness
movement. He founded The
Wilderness Society in 1935 with
several other like-minded activists and
worked as the head of recreational management
for the Forest Service in the late 1930s before
his death in 1939. The Bob Marshall Wilderness
area in Montana bears his name as does
Mount Marshall in the
Adirondacks where he
spent much of his youth.
There is just one hope of repulsing
the tyrannical ambition of civilization
to conquer every niche on the whole
earth. That hope is the organization of
spirited people who will fight for the freedom of the wilderness.
In a civilization which requires most lives to be passed amid inordinate
dissonance, pressure and intrusion, the chance of retiring now and then to
the quietude and privacy of sylvan haunts becomes for some people a psychic
necessity.
The preservation of a few samples of undeveloped territory is one of the
most clamant issues before us today. Just a few more years of hesitation and
the only trace of that wilderness which has exerted such a fundamental in-
fluence in molding American character will lie in the musty pages of pioneer
books…To avoid this catastrophe demands immediate action.
F rank Forrester Church III
represented Idaho as a
Senator from 1957-1981. Senator Church was the floor sponsor
of the Wilderness Act in 1964, and in 1968, he sponsored the Wild and
Scenic Rivers Act. In 1980, he played a key role in establishing the
Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness area, the
largest Wilderness in the nation outside of Alaska.
The great purpose is to set aside a reasonable part of
the vanishing wilderness, to make certain that generations
of Americans yet unborn will know what it is to experience
life on undeveloped, unoccupied land in the same form and
character as the Creator fashioned it. It is a great spiritual
experience. I never knew a man who took a bedroll into an
Robert “Bob” Marshall
Senator Frank Church
This quote is widely available on the
Internet. It is generally uncited. Most of
the lines are from Marshall’s seminal
essay, “The Problem of the Wilderness”
published in Scientific Monthly (30) 2,
February 1930.
Idaho mountainside and slept there
under a star-studded summer sky
who felt self-important that next
morning. Unless we preserve
some opportunity for future
generations to have the same
experience, we shall have
dishonored our trust.
Senator Frank Church during a
1961 Senate debate on the
Wilderness Act.
30 Your National Forests
Photo © C
ourtesy of Wilderness.net; N
ational Archives Photos
voices from the forest
Howard Zahniser served as the
executive secretary of The
Wilderness Society and editor of
The Living Wilderness from 1945
through 1964. Widely recognized as an eloquent
and persuasive writer, Zahniser authored the
Wilderness Act beginning with a first draft in
1956. Eight years and more than sixty drafts
later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill
into law. Tragically, Zahniser died a few months
before The Wilderness Act became law.
We are a part of the wildness of the universe. That is our nature. Our
noblest, happiest character develops with the influence of wildness. Away from
it we degenerate into the squalor of slums or the frustration of clinical couches.
With the wilderness we are at home.
Some of us think we see this so clearly that for ourselves, for our children,
our continuing posterity, and our fellow men we covet with a consuming inten-
sity the fullness of the human development that keeps its contact with wild-
ness. Out of the wilderness, we realize, has come the substance of our culture,
and with a living wilderness—it is our faith—we shall have also a vibrant vital
culture—an enduring civilization of healthful, happy people who, like Antaeus,
perpetually renew themselves in contact with the earth.
This is not a disparagement of our civilization—no disparagement at all—
but rather an admiration of it to the point of perpetuating it. We like the beef
from the cattle grazed on the public domain. We relish the vegetables from
the lands irrigated by virtue of the
Bureau of Reclamation. We carry in
our packs aluminum manufactured
with the help of hydroelectric power
from great reservoirs. We motor
happily on paved highways to the
approaches of our wilderness. We
journey in streamlined trains and in
transcontinental airplanes to confer-
ences on wilderness preservation. We
nourish and refresh our minds from
books manufactured out of the pulp of our forests. We enjoy the convenience
and comfort of our way of living—urban, village, and rural. And we want this
civilization to endure and to be enjoyed on and on by healthy, happy citizens.
Our only hope to avert this loss is in our deliberate effort to preserve the
wilderness we have. The ramifications of our developing mechanical enter-
prises are such that only those areas which are set aside for preservation will
persist as wilderness.
Howard Zahniser
“It is this civilization, this culture, this way of living that will be sacrificed if our wilderness is lost. What sacrifice!”
From “The Need for Wilderness Areas,”
The Living Wilderness, Number 59,
Winter-Spring, 1956-57.
Summer – Fall 2014 31
Photo © C
ourtesy of Wilderness.net
voices from the forest
32 Your National Forests
National Forest System Wilderness Areas
The Forest Service
manages 33 percent of
the acreage within the
National Wilderness
Preservation System. Spread out
across the country, these wild
landscapes offer solitude, beauty,
and respite from the modern world.
This map shows National Forests and Wilderness
acreage managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Managing
439 Wilderness areas, the Forest Service is responsible for
more Wilderness areas than any other federal agency.
Alaska contains more Wilderness acreage than any
other state—more than 57 million acres—but much of it is
managed by the National Park Service. In the entire coun-
try, Wilderness areas represent about five percent of the
total landscape. In the lower 48 states, Wilderness areas
make up only 2.7 percent of the landscape.
Wilderness Areas on National Forests
National Forests
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