The Myth about Wilderness?
A Treatise on the Notion of
Wilderness: a Canadian perspective.
By Emerson Grossmith (1988)
“Wilderness
is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives
as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of
the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and
betraying the principle of civilization itself”.
So says Edward Abbey in his
1970 book—Desert Solitaire.
Wilderness,
what is it and does it still exists? This is a question that I have been dwelling
upon lately, especially since I am back to working for the summer as a ‘bridge
builder’ for Parks Canada in the backcountry of the Rocky Mountains.[1]
There has been a preponderance of
literature on this subject and many of these authors share some of the same
views that I do. This idea of wilderness was brought to my attention by my good
Jordanian friend Mu’qaddam As’ad who asked me in innocence—“What is a wilderness?”
Mu’qaddam and I are teachers in UAE where we shared an office. I am constantly
being asked where I live in Canada and what is it like. The Levantines have
trouble envisioning what a ‘green country’ with fresh flowing waters is like. I
paused before answering his question, as English is not his mother tongue and I
feared I would have quite a bit of explaining to do regarding the subtleties of
‘wilderness’. In my mind, I immediately thought of the Canadian Rockies where I
have spent most of the past 20 years exploring. It is true that, in the
beginning I did hike mostly groomed trails, but it was after that I found
freedom in off-trail hiking, esp. above treeline. To go boldly where no one has
gone before—well, but it did feel a tad more adventurous than your weekend
hiker. Bushwhacking is one of the rewards for committing oneself to off-trail
hiking and quite often this includes shortcuts. But, it would be foolish to
assume that I had or my friends had hiked where no one else had gone.
Since
coming to Banff in 1978, I have worked on ‘trail crew’ building new trails,
maintaining old ones or constructing bridges for backpackers. In most respects,
it is hardly a wilderness, but once you are off the main highways you are on
your own, or at least that is what most people would like to believe—one
individual against the elements. But, over the years, we have become complacent
and we do not wish to live so close to the edge. For many of us, who want
excitement, we can go to the Banff Mountain Film Festival or read about it in Outside Magazine. We can get our
dose of excitement from being at these venues, actually living vicariously
through someone else’s dangers. To paraphrase Kris Kristofferson—wilderness has
just become another word for something left to lose.
During the
last great gold rush to the frontier in the Yukon, Robert Service summed it up
best—
“I’ve clinched and closed with the naked north,
I’ve learned to defy and defend.
Shoulder
to shoulder we have fought it out,
Yet, the
wild must win in the end.”
The wild is
not winning anymore. It is being ploughed under, cemented over, and turned into
parking malls for shopping centres, plundered for minerals, oil extraction and
clear cut for its lumber. There isn’t any place on the planet that hasn’t been
mapped by a satellite. There is no ‘terra incognita’. The planet is getting
smaller and population is becoming larger and larger. This myth about
wilderness is just becoming wistful thinking.
What is
wilderness? According to Webster’s
Dictionary:
1. an uncultivated,
uninhabited region; waste; wild 2. any barren, empty, or open area, as of ocean
3. a large confused mass or tangle 4. a wild condition or quality
‘Wilderness’
has been mentioned in the Bible and many think that this was the Sinai. Also,
there is mention of a ‘Wilderness of Sin’ which might well be in Arabia. I
suppose at some point, medieval Europeans considered the New World as a
wilderness. Many modern Europeans still regard Canada and parts of America with
that romantic notion of the “last great frontier”. Europeans have never had a
wilderness of their own so how could one expect them to have the slightest idea
of what a wilderness could be. To them, any land that is uninhabited or lacking
culture might well be described as a ‘wilderness’. This view still prevails
today and I quote from a recent article in The
Globe and Mail from a London correspondent:
“We are, after all, a country that has tamed the
wilderness… many of us are descendants of rugged adventurers who left the civilized Old World for the great
unknown”.
This is a
Eurocentric view that Canada is a big wasteland and not civilized. Perhaps, these Europhobes confuse wide-open spaces and
big sky country with their idea of wilderness. There are those, south of the 49th
parallel who still regard Canada as something of a “frontier”. In his 1998
book, An Empire Wilderness,
Robert Kaplan refers to the area just east of the city of Vancouver as “a
magical frontier, breathtaking even
when seen from the air”. I think
many people confuse forested areas and mountains with the eternal misnomer-
frontier or wilderness, as the title of his book implies. What a myopic view of
Canada, but it does not seem out of line with the world’s general view of
western Canada, if not, Canada in general. Basically, it is a fundamental error
if not downright insulting!
At any
rate, I had to give Mu’qaddam a definitive description of what I thought was a
‘wilderness’. He assumed that Canada was all a wilderness and to a certain
degree he was right—there is a large expanse of uninhabited land. But, I also
pointed out that much of the Middle East is a ‘wilderness’: great tracts of
land and sand where no one lives or could live. You could live in the northern
tundra as there is wood for shelter, wild game, fish and berries to eat, fresh
water to drink and solitude. However, in the Middle Eastern desert, water is a
premium and difficult to find. As a Near Eastern archaeologist, there are not
too many places in the Middle East where one can walk without finding visible
remains of “lost cultures or civilizations”. As such, it is difficult for my
friend Mu’qaddam to appreciate what Canada looks like without conjuring up
visions of a wilderness. For him, if there is no visible evidence of past
civilizations then the land must indeed be a wilderness, no less a cultural
wilderness.
Being back
in North America and particularly in Canada, I realize that this notion of
‘wilderness’ is being assailed from all sides: mining, logging,
commercialization, ecotourism and Parks Canada. Moreover, the idea of ‘wilderness’
is rapidly becoming an obsolete word in English. What brought this to a head
was a recent trip to the ‘wilderness’ at Helmet Creek cabin. My crew and I were
sent in to work on a bridge in the backcountry of Kootenay National Park. We
were flown in by helicopter to carry out this mission. We were linked to the
outside world by radio and instructed to leave the radio on from 7:00am--7:30am
and again in the evening from 5:00pm–5:30pm. It was as if we had big brother
looking over our shoulder all the time. So much for the ‘wilderness
experience’. To compound matters further, Lake Louise/Yoho/Kootenay Unit
(LLYKU) policy stated that we had to call in to the Warden Dispatch out of
Banff. This seemed a little much as we worked for LLYKU and not Banff Park. We
had to do this everyday we were in a cabin or camp at 8am and again at 8pm—a
bit much! My supervisor told me that if we didn’t report in everyday that
Warden Dispatch would assume that we were in trouble and that they would
dispatch a helicopter to our cabin for a rescue. I felt like a teenager who had
gone away on a trip and had to check in with parent’s everynight. How
patronizing Banff Park has become. How obsessive they have become over a
territory that they have no authority over. My supervisor explained that the
reason we had to check in could be traced to an incident that involved a
solitary backcountry warden. Apparently, the warden was alone in the
backcountry where his horse accidentally kicked him in the head. Perhaps he
died but the outcome is that everyone who goes into the backcountry for an
extended time must now do these daily reporting. This kind of protocol might
well be appropriate for a solitary warden in the backcountry but it is entirely
unnecessary for a three man crew to adhere to. The prospect of three trail
workers being involved in an accident in a backcountry cabin is highly remote.
This is just another example of Banff Park’s control of the Four Mountain Parks
system. Moreover, what does it say about our qualifications to handle difficult
situations in the backcountry. Have we become so inept in our wilderness skills
that we need to report in on a daily basis? This is just another shrinking of
the wilderness on a personal level. Helicopters, GIS, cell phones and highways
have all helped to shrink the physical and mental boundaries of what once
constituted a wilderness. Everybody wants to give the impression that they are
going on a wilderness trip but when things go wrong, they want all the modern
conveniences to get them out of a jam.
This Orwellian 1984 spectre of
radio contact obscures the idea of a wilderness tradition. The idea of going
into the backcountry is to get away from modern conveniences and enjoy the
natural beauty of the land. In the future, I can envision video cameras in the
backcountry cabins and trails that will monitor your every mood. Almost like a
scene from the latest film- Truman’s
World. It’s an apocalyptic vision if ever there was one. I thought it
was bad enough that there are mountain climbers with cellular phones for quick
rescue—what an adventure. Also, the advent of GPS gadgets is really making a
mockery of the whole backcountry experience and the ability to read
topographical maps. Where’s the adventure in knowing exactly where you are?
Don’t hike off the main trail or you might find an adventure. Who needs an
adventure when you can read about somebody else’s harrowing escape from
misfortune or misadventure? Moreover, you can never get lost anymore; as help
is just a coordinate and a phone call away. Why not just stay at home and play
this on a computer game. Experience the dangers of ‘the wilderness’ without
leaving the comfort of your ergonometric mouse. You can peruse the ‘virtual
wilderness’, get lost, thwart a bear attack, cross a dangerous current, climb
an unclimbable peak, weather a freak snow storm, bivouac at 9,000ft and
identify wild ungulates as you sup your cup of designer coffee.
In conclusion, it would appear that Parks Canada wants total
control of the Four Mountain Parks and everything inside it whether it is the
whereabouts of a trail crew, hiker or even the wild animals—everything is
tagged and monitored. I can’t wait until they issue hikers with a computer chip
that will act as a homing device that will allow Parks Canada to monitor our every
movement in the backcountry. Also, we have been instructed to get rid of all
fire grills in the backcountry and not provide firewood. What is more natural
than to have a fire in the backcountry especially when you are cold and damp?
Parks Canada doesn’t see it that way. There is always a risk of a forest fire
eventhough it is pissing down with rain. However, the Warden’s cabins (which
are strategically located next to campgrounds) are outfitted with wood burning
stoves in case of cold or rainy weather. I can’t help but feel sorry for those
campers who huddle under their tarps during a downpour whilst smoke from our
wood stove drifts slowly across the river. If I were in their boots, I would be
pissed off. I may even start my own fire—which would, no doubt, bring a heavy
fine. When I am out hiking (and depending upon the circumstances), I like to
have a small fire for warmth. I do bring a gas stove and have done this since I
first started hiking in the Rockies but in certain situations-- a warm fire is
most welcome.
A friend in describing Edward Abbey recalls that:
“He believes in wilderness
first of all for its own sake and secondly, because it allows human beings to
have feelings of danger and freedom which are too often removed from modern
life.”
Which brings us back to this notion of wilderness? If Parks
Canada does consider these backcountry areas as ‘wilderness’ then why can’t
hikers have fires. In the past, hikers were allowed to have controlled fires
but now this appears to be outmoded.
I suppose I am an adherent to the philosophy of the Earth First group who is practicing
“deep ecology”. “Preservationism—or “deep ecology,” as it is sometimes
known—calls for a fundamental revaluation of our attitudes toward the
hierarchies of nature, of our place in the global ecosystem.” Moreover, we are
not masters of the universe but merely wards or caretakers of the planet earth.
I don’t know if we are either or that we could be responsible caretakers of the
planet. So far our record is quite dismal. We are managing to deplete our
natural resources; fish, fresh water, oil, gas, leach minerals from the earth,
not to mention environmental and human pollution.
I also consider myself as the
antithesis to most humanoids that are homocentric. They believe that man is
wonderful and isn’t it great that people can travel into outer space. Great,
we’ve fucked up this planet now let’s go to another one to corrupt. I was very
influenced by the writings of Harkin in his book The Spaceship Beagle. Philip Caputo’s recent article Alone mentions that:
“It
seems that the more we despoil the land and divorce ourselves from the rhythms,
cycles, and
beauty of the material world, the less civilized we become.”
The synopsis of the Harkin’s book basically states that the
earth is the Spaceship Beagle, and we are responsible for what goes on inside
the spaceship. So, the idea of hiding or shipping uranium waste or garbage to
landfill sites in other countries will come back to haunt us, because like a
spaceship—there’s nowhere to hide!
[1] I have just come back to Canada for the summer from
the sparse, sandy ‘wilderness’ of the Arabian Peninsula. I have
been teaching English in the ‘wilderness’ of the United Arab
Emirates for the past year.
