An excerpt:
I always loved wild, open country, from the time I was a kid. I spent much of my youth on a canoe or lost in some forest. It’s why I came West. In 1982, I heard about a new grassroots group called The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, I signed right up. Later I briefly became a board member. The idea of “saving the West’ via my involvement in environmental organizations seemed like a good idea to me and in those early years, we were all driven by the same motivations.Going back to 1989, I stated my own reasons why I valued wilderness. In the November issue of The Zephyr, I wrote:
“The concept of wilderness is most troubling to many because it is a radical departure from the traditional American ethic of work and utility. We have been taught that everything has a utilitarian function and if it can’t be used for something, it has no value. But the fact is, more Americans do see a value and are willing to make a sacrifice to see that those wild places are preserved. Whether they get to explore them is irrelevant. And it doesn’t matter if the creation of wilderness areas produces economic benefits to nearby communities, because that is NOT why they were created.”
To read more of Jim’s article, click the image below:
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