Mountainfilm: Protecting Wilderness, Highest Act of Self-Respect

17 May Mountainfilm: Protecting Wilderness, Highest Act of Self-Respect

Editor’s Note: Shelley Silbert is the executive director of Great Old Broads for the Wilderness, an organization that gives voice to the millions of older and not-so-able Americans who wish to see our wild public lands protected for future generations. She will speak at Mountainfilm’s Moving Mountains Symposium 2014 all about “Wilderness.” The Moving Mountains Symposium takes place Friday, May 23, 9 – 3:30. Below is a preview of coming attractions.

Huge colonies of Little Auk are found in the fjords of Svalbard. They are nesting in little cavities in the steep rocky cliffs. West coast of Svalbard, European Arctic. Image by Florian Schultz

Something within us yearns to know the unbroken portions of a map, those areas not crisscrossed by roads or even foot trails. Similarly, we yearn to know which bird sings so sweetly from high in the forest, which plants feed the mule deer, or where the bear by the lake sleeps in winter. This world of mystery anchors the lives of all species, ours included.

I never thought about wilderness as a child. We grew beefsteak tomatoes and crookneck squash in our Tennessee garden, caught crawdads and turtles in the creek and spent hours climbing our respective branches of the sprawling mimosa tree, counting its seeds like money. My Brooklyn-raised father thought wilderness was an empty lot down the street from his brownstone where he played stick ball with his friends.

My draw to backpacking in my late teens came from a spiritual yearning, a deep desire for a sense of wonder from the moment of rising in the morning until lying my body down at night. I still experience this most fully when sleeping under the stars,…

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