Not long ago, I gave our staff a homework assignment: give me a one-pager evaluating the wilderness community today.
Almost to a person, they wrote that our greatest strength in this quest to pass along a natural legacy to future generations is the people who are involved; folks like Monte Matheson, the fisherman from Port Orford, Oregon; Keith Distel, a rancher from Olathe, Colorado; John Vasquez, a previous president of the Hispano Chamber of Commerce in Las Cruces, New Mexico; and Carol Warren, a member of the faith community from Potato Knob, West Virginia.
This doesn’t come as a surprise. Research conducted by the U.S. Forest Service found seven out of ten Americans favor designating more public land as wilderness.
A weakness? One most cited by our staff is the imperative to get more of the 70 percent of Americans who say they favor wilderness protection actively involved in wilderness campaigns around the country.
It’s about making our cities and towns a better place to live for people like Monte and Keith and John and Carol. But it’s also about leaving the country a more livable place for all our children.
Because it’s our common ground now. And for the future.
