The Wilderness Society Turns 80
From Jamie Williams, President of The Wilderness Society
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Today marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of The Wilderness Society. This is a celebration not just of the organization that we have become today, but of the work of our predecessors over the past eight decades, and of the commitment of our founders in 1935 to the protection of wilderness as “an essential human need” – “a natural mental resource having the same basic relation to man’s ultimate thought and culture as coal, timber, and other physical resources have to his material needs.” (Founding letter). TWS continues to this day to work for balanced use of our public lands—conserving the wildest places, and connecting those lands into a broader network of protected areas for nature to adapt and survive.
As I read a great op-ed in the Sunday New York Times just last weekend (“Our Ecological Boredom,” January 18, 2015), about the importance of rewilding our civilized places, our civilized selves, I was not only reminded of how truly relevant our mission is today but how it was founded on the idea of freedom itself. Indeed, Bob Marshall’s famous call for an organization of people was to “fight for the freedom of wilderness.” This op-ed painfully highlights how, in our modern quest for freedom with all kinds of time-saving devices, we are now living less free lives than ever before. The article’s author, George Monbiot, concludes that getting into the wild gives us that sense of freedom and connection to ourselves that we all seek—and that this country was truly founded upon.
I wanted to send you a link to our blog on this 80th anniversary milestone. As we consider the challenges we face in this Congress, it is important to remember that conservation has always been a bi-partisan ideal, and that the lands protected in 2014 all enjoyed support from both Democrats and Republicans.
Thank you for your continued support for TWS and your engagement in our mission to protect wildlands and inspire Americans to love these places.
Jamie”
