| Description |
Exploring the Edge: Searching for Wilderness in Desolation and Gray Canyons looks at the difference between legal and experienced wilderness. Legal wilderness is that wilderness defined by the 1964 Wilderness Act and the wilderness mandate in the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act as well as the court cases that worked out the details of legal wilderness. Experienced wilderness is that wilderness which is defined by and through our individual and personal experiences. I explore this difference by first focusing on legal wilderness and then on experienced wilderness-specifically, my experienced wilderness. The wilderness discussion in the paper focuses on Desolation Canyon, a river section managed by the Bureau of Land Management to protect its wilderness characteristics, which flow through the heart of the Uinta Basin. In the first half of the paper, I look at the history of the development of wilderness as an idea, the origins of legal wilderness (The Wilderness Act and The Federal Land Policy and Management A ct), the court cases that directly affected wilderness implementation and definition, and the federal offices responsible for implementing wilderness. In the second part of the paper I explore, through photos and journal entries, my experienced wilderness-the ideas about wilderness that I personally hold as a result of multiple river trips I took down Desolation and Gray Canyons in the summer and fall of 2011. I conclude that although the wilderness definition, identification, and protection procedures the Bureau of Land Management utilizes are not perfect or all inclusive of my wilderness ideal, those procedures do protect a beautiful, wild stretch of river from over exploitation. That protection opens up the ability for exploration and personal wilderness definition. |
