A Wilderness-Use technique

Thompson, Ben

Discusses the need of a technique of using wilderness without spoiling it. Yellowstone National Park, and the balance between its human facilities and the wildlife and their habitats is used as an example.... In northwestern Wyoming is a land guarded by mountains. It is a wilderness of forest, swamps, and lakes, broken by cliffs and lofty granite spires, and chiseled by crackling ice and the sunny dripping of water. Long river tentacles reach up to this high plateau from different oceans. In winter it is a land of heavy snow and sweeping sleet, and sometimes the night is whiter than day. Then the elk herds drift down from the sage and aspen valleys where the rivers go to warmer levels. The weasels turn white with little black tips, and the snowshoe rabbits have black-edged ears above muffed feet. Sometimes a Great Gray Owl comes softly out of a wet sky. In spring it is a land of mist-blue forests and sparkling lakes. Then summer haze begins to rise from the forest and makes the great mountains look like bluer shadows in a blue sky. Ocean birds come sailing in to nest in unseen swamps. There is the mute whistle of ducks, the call of geese, and the “weer” cry of gulls. The marsh grass grows in seeping ground and the forest blooms; the pond lilies push their soft yellow lamps above water, and sage and lupine bask in the sun.

A Wilderness-Use technique

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