Opportunity Knocks

By Laura Paskus

Ed Abbey knew this, and I’m willing to bet Gazette readers do, too: Having fun is critically important; not only to the soul, but to the landscape—since it’s obvious that to preserve a landscape, first you have to love it.

Many readers are likely familiar with Abbey’s quote about being a “part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic.” For a refresher, here’s an excerpt:

“Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to your body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those deskbound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards.”

In the Rockies, opportunities to help you “outlive the bastards” on a daily basis abound, including everything from snowboarding to backpacking; fly fishing to mountain biking. But, for the “bastards” there are also plenty of opportunities for exploitation; just witness the expanding oil and gas fields and the stretching suburbs gobbling up more of nature’s resource every morning.

Below, I highlight a few opportunities on how to live your own life to the fullest, but also on how to raise awareness of the landscapes we all love.

1. And a history lesson, too

If John Horning, executive director of WildEarth Guardians In New Mexico, had one opportunity to help people understand the landscapes he works to preserve, he would bring them to the Gila Wilderness. From the crest of the Black Range, he says, one can look out across the heart of the Gila.

Not only is that the “birthplace of the concept of wilderness and so much of Aldo Leopold’s thinking,” he says, but the view from there to the west, “with its texture and feeling, hydrology and ecology and history, has so much meaning.”

He sneaks in another suggestion as well: The last five miles of the Rio Grande as it feeds into Cochiti Dam. Ecologically and aesthetically, he says, it offers a “glimpse of what a great western river once looked like.” And, Horning adds, what a great western river could look like again.

2. Don’t forget to look down

There is a lot to look at in Wyoming. Dramatic mountain ranges like the Tetons and Wind Rivers, the Red Desert and even the infamous gas fields that environmental organizations in other states use aerial photos of to try and build support against energy development.

But just as important as sweeping vistas and craggy peaks are the little guys at your feet.

Enter the Wyoming Native Plant Society. The Laramie-based group encourages appreciation and conservation of the state’s native plants through education and research. The group offers field trips—and even an annual scholarship to students conducting research in the state in the fields of botany or mycology.

3. Hope you’ve been training

Get ready, because on May 10, the Helena, Montana-based Prickly Pear Land Trust is holding its “Don’t Fence Me In” trail runs.

With its motto, “Protecting land close to home,” the group works to protect open lands in Lewis and Clark, Jefferson and Broadwater Counties. You can do your part by supporting conservation projects—or just running your ass off.

There are races for all levels, including a 5K Dog Walk, a 5K run-walk, a 12K run-walk and a 30K run.

Visit www.pricklypearlt.org for more information.

4. Not quite like the others

Jon Marvel, anti-grazing activist and director of the Hailey, Idhao-based Western Watersheds Project, believes that to fully understand the work his group does, people need to see both the beautiful and the ugly.

For his part, he would take a visitor seeking the opportunity to learn about the impacts of grazing upon watersheds to the Wild Horse Creek watershed, a tributary to the Big Lost River in Custer County, Idaho.

Wild Horse Creek has livestock grazing every year, he says, while another nearby tributary, Fall Creek, has had no grazing for 25 years.

“The comparison,” he says, “is dramatic and easily understood.”

5. Drink up: it’s good for you

There are a ton of businesses out there that have jumped on the green bandwagon (and good for them), but the Ft. Collins, Colorado’s New Belgian Brewery really is dedicated to sustainability—as well as good beer and good fun. In 1998, they became the country’s first wind-powered brewery, and they’ve also worked to make their brewing process more water efficient. Full disclosure: I’m writing about them because One: I like their beer. And two: When I lived in Colorado, they supported issues locally, including a Paonia Earth Day celebration and a fundraiser to build a new library. For beer-swilling capitalists, those New Belgian folks really do care about the environment and local communities.

6. SWF enjoys getting dirty

Want to muck around in the mud while restoring a watershed? Or spend the weekend shutting down illegal roads across public lands? Interested in meeting other people who like doing those same things? Check out the events and field trips offered by the Tucson-based Sky Island Alliance, a group dedicated to protecting and restoring a swath of southern Arizona and northern New Mexico. Contact Trevor@skyislandalliance.org or call 520-624-7080.

7. Let them bury me in Utah

I mean no disrespect to Joe Hill (Wobblie and folk singer executed in 1915; he asked not to be buried in the Beehive State and also wrote to the head of the IWW: “Don’t waste any time in mourning. Organize!”), but there’s no place closer to heaven for a desert rat than southern Utah.

Hell, no one needs me to point them toward opportunities for bliss in Utah. But just allow me to rhapsodize and reminisce: Grand Gulch, Escalante-Grand Staircase, Factory Butte, Cedar Mesa, the Goosenecks, Desolation Canyon, Capitol Reef….Outdoor epiphany, here I come. MG