Walcher: Just to know it’s there

We failed to convince him that Rhode Island congressmen should leave Colorado land management decisions to Coloradans. He pointed out that these lands belong to all the people. We explained that most of the people who live there opposed it. He correctly said the people there are a minority. We said people who lived there knew more about it, which only offended him. He said it wasn’t his job to care what people in Colorado thought. As a last resort, we explained the importance of business activities in the area, upon which communities were dependent and which the proposed wilderness legislation would effectively ban. He countered with a glowing description of the last great places, so we asked the question Westerners often do: “Have you ever been there?” He had not, but I will never forget his response. “We don’t have to visit the place to care about it. For many of us, it’s enough just to know it’s there.”

For millions of people who live in the American West, it is not enough just to know these great places are there. Life requires that we use the water and other assets of these lands, because throughout most of the West, the federal government owns the resources upon which life chiefly depends. Yet that staffer’s smug view is more common than most people imagine. And it will be the reality for almost everyone if one of the most famous environmental writers gets his way.

George Wuerthner proposes what he calls a “Civilization Area System,” as opposed to the national “wilderness system.” In fact, he would turn the whole idea of wilderness areas upside down. Instead of drawing lines around places where people should be kept out, he would draw a line around the places people should be kept in.