Montana: An Ode to Wilderness
Colter Sienkiewicz
When I think of wilderness, I think of the scuffed knees and bloody noses I got roaming the woods as a toddler. I was called wild-child. I have always loved traveling and seeing new places, but when I am exploring the wilderness, wherever it may be, I feel at home. Naturally, some of my fondest memories have been made on adventures in the wild, whether it was a foggy morning rafting on a desert river, staring at the stars, or camping in alpine meadows.
Throughout my childhood, I moved many times, and although I was an awkward, introverted kid, I always felt comfortable in nature. From the snowy slopes of Colorado to the humid forests of Vermont and Maryland, my family eventually came to settle in Montana. Here in the Paradise Valley, east of Bozeman, Montana, the fight for public lands, the place where I call home, has been escalating. Increasing population and tourism has meant development encroaching on public lands. In the wake of the 2016 election, defense of public lands is losing support across many demographics, but public lands are not a partisan issue: they are as fundamental a piece of our world as water or that Spotify premium account you can’t live without. From a young age, I had grown to appreciate the recreational opportunities as well as the solace public lands offer. Public lands hold great importance to our society, culturally and ecologically.
Public lands are managed by a country’s government, becoming a public entity of that country’s citizens. As a method of satisfying a country of various livelihoods and opinions, the public lands system in the U.S. was created with many sub-categories that fall under varying laws and restrictions. Although I believe all types of public lands are important to our planet, wilderness areas, a subtype of public lands, are the most pristine. Because they are completely undeveloped, wilderness areas hold the most importance to me. I remember the night I took the thumbnail picture for this article. My younger sister and I had hiked the entirety of the day to a remote lake in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness area behind my house. There is a certain excitement that one experiences when they are inconsequential and when the world feels big and mysterious. Wilderness is one of the few places in the world that captures the mystery of our planet. In a world of over seven billion people, wilderness areas are a roadless, motorless haven for many species.
The planet and its ecosystems exist in a delicate symbiosis, vital to global environmental health. Wilderness areas are critical to the stability of this symbiosis because of their role in a process known as carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration is a process by which atmospheric carbon is absorbed and stored in oceans, soils, geographic features, and phototrophic organisms, including trees and algae. This carbon sinks into the Earth’s crust and until recently stayed there. Except, scientists discovered that this carbon could be drilled from the Earth as fossil fuel and is now being released back into the atmosphere. This is where the role of the wilderness comes into play. First, because wilderness is under the protection of the federal government, fracking, the drilling of fossil fuels, cannot occur in a wilderness area. This is not to say that fracking will occur on other public lands, but wilderness areas, under law, will stay “untrammeled by man, where he himself is a visitor who does not remain.” (1) Everyone should have the opportunity to experience the joy of wilderness, and in turn, we must be stewards of the land and involve ourselves in environmental organizations around our community. Indeed, we must vote for politicians who support public lands. The writer Edward Abbey noted, “The idea of wilderness needs no defense, It just needs more defenders. Remaining silent about the destruction of nature is an endorsement of that destruction.”
Aside from their fundamental role in the environment, wilderness areas hold great significance to many people around the globe. Many cultures, including tribes native to North America, still hold many lands protected under the Wilderness Act to be sacred ground, where people have lived and prospered alongside nature for thousands of years. The wilderness behind my home is sacred to the Crow people of Montana; Absaroka, the wilderness area behind my home, means raven in their native dialect. Today, many people still find refuge within these protected spaces. Wilderness allows people the freedom to be alone with nature on a personal level, with only dirt between them and the Earth. Wilderness areas have become a fundamental method of preserving wild and sacred land in modern culture.
Wilderness areas, as well as all public lands, are not only crucial to the health of the planet but also provide solace to many from the complicated, often stressful world we call home. These places are vital to our story as a species and we must defend them.