Letter from Allen Best
Wilderness – August 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Ed:
In reviewing the revised edition of the Roderick Nash classic on wilderness, you point out one of the ironies of designated wilderness, namely that designation sometimes (maybe even often) directly correlates with increased visitation and hence loss of solitude. Indeed, the quietest, least-visited places on public lands may be those unsexy leftovers, the BLM lands.
But solitude can be defined in different ways. My own measure of wilderness solitude tends to be inversely related to motorized access. The fewer cars I can see, hear, or smell, the less I can discern the direct effects of the internal-combustion engine, the more wild a place feels, the more solitude I sense. I can abide dozens of tents more readily than a half-dozen cars, trucks, or motor bikes.
We need not designate all the public lands as wilderness, but neither do we need drive-through windows for all of our public lands.
Allen Best
I-70 Corridor
