Climbing Back to Forever

The destruction of orangutan habitat in Sumatra can't be undone overnight, but the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS) has forever in mind as it replants a crucial forest.

In 2018, I wrote about the SOS campaign to buy a palm-oil plantation. The organization planned to restore the land to rainforest. Happily, the campaign succeeded, and the restoration process has begun at what is now called the Forever Forest.

Along with replanting the area, the restoration project builds relationships with local people to ensure the communities in the area can help protect the forest into the future. Check out a video of the progress so far:

The Forever Forest project involves many positive aspects. Besides the restoration of a rainforest destroyed by palm oil, the securing of orangutan habitat, and the sound strategy of forming relationships with local people, the overall plan helps protect an adjacent national park and gives many species threatened with extinction an expanded area to call home.

Forever might seem like a long time, but forests and projects like this one should have all the time in the world.

A Radical Book

For those interested in communication about the environment, Radical Wordsworth: The Poet Who Changed the World by Jonathan Bate is pure poetry.

When I first read William Wordsworth's poetry as an English major in college, it clicked with me. I understood what he was saying, and beyond that, I recognized a perspective on the world that meshed with mine. My mind couldn't help but attach green colors to his words and images. As a result, when I found out about Bate's biography of the poet, I bought it instantly.

Along with focusing on Wordsworth's most revolutionary work, the book revisits earlier definitions of the word radical to expand our sense of the poet's impact. In particular, the definition of "implanted by nature" contains great importance for students of environmental communication. The biography certainly gives a sense that much of Wordsworth's power as a poet sprang from his feelings of connection with the environment.

Bate makes clear that among the other radical tendencies and sentiments exhibited and expressed by Wordsworth in his early poems, the way in which the poet depicted the environment became his most revolutionary and lasting effect on the world. Wordsworth didn't just challenge dominant understandings of our relationship with the environment, questioning portrayals that granted people power over nature or separated them from it entirely; he prompted us to see connections to all aspects of the environment, no matter how small or obscure. In Bate's estimation, the poetry set the groundwork for movements that promote animal rights and conservation, including the creation of national parks.

By tracing today's language about the environment back to Wordsworth and through the people he influenced such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and John Muir, Bate lends great support to his contentions about Wordsworth's importance to the modern environmental movement. He goes so far as to argue that national parks, which have long been called "America's best idea," were actually Wordsworth's idea, and the case Bate builds for this claim is compelling.

I would argue that Bate could have gone even further in establishing Wordsworth's impact on environmental communication. More than simply generating the language to advocate for national parks as basic conservation, Wordsworth preceded the later discussion of national parks as places of ecological importance, which has only gained momentum in recent decades. In addressing the role of every single part of the environment, including the elements we don't typically think of as grand, charismatic, or influential, Wordsworth pushed us to think on a larger scale, and his pen strokes can probably be seen in things like the studies showing wolves' impacts on stream bank erosion in Yellowstone National Park.

Bate might also have extended the discussion of Wordsworth's radical repercussions by examining the poet's influence on Emily Brontë. Scholars such as Stevie Davies and particularly Edward Chitham have shown how Brontë read heavily from Wordsworth's works and often took up his themes. In analyzing the epitaph Wordsworth wrote for Samuel Taylor Coleridge's son Berkeley, Bate looks at language that echoes in Brontë's Wuthering Heights. Describing someone in a grave, Wordsworth writes, "No motion has she now, no force / She neither hears nor sees / Roll'd round in Earth's diurnal course / With rocks, & stones, and trees!" The imagery brings to mind Brontë's depiction of Catherine Earnshaw in her grave, and the words are strikingly similar to those used by Catherine when she compares her love for Heathcliff to "the eternal rocks beneath." Given the argument I made last year about Brontë using imagination to turn the grave imagery into a transformative experience of the connection between people and their environment, I have to conclude that Wordsworth's poetry planted some seeds for such ideas from a woman who arguably surpassed him in radicalness.

Even though I wish Bate would have taken up the points about Brontë and the ecological aspects of the national parks, his biography of Wordsworth is very good, and anyone interested in the environment should check it out. To borrow some popular 1980s language, it's radical!

Different This Time

For my hike at Mount Rainier this summer, I chose a familiar trail and came away with a new view of it.

In 2016, I hiked the trail at Rampart Ridge near Longmire. The experience stayed with me as one of my favorite places at Mount Rainier National Park. In fact, it made such an impression on me that I blogged about it here. The one thing that trip lacked was a view of the mountain. Heavy clouds that made for a misty, mystical hike also concealed Rainier, creating an opportunity for a return visit and a fresh look at Rampart Ridge.

This year's hike started out much like the one three years ago. When we arrived at Longmire, clouds covered Mount Rainier. Even as we reached one of the viewpoints on the ridge, the mountain remained hidden. However, the sun had started to break through in places, hinting that better views might appear soon. We stayed at the viewpoint a while, and the very top of the mountain began to show. With another viewpoint ahead, we resumed the hike.

The clearing view of Mount Rainier from Rampart Ridge.

Upon reaching the second viewpoint, the familiar trail looked altogether different from what I remembered. Last time, the clouds hugged the top of the ridge, making everything feel close. This time, the expanse across Kautz Creek had opened up to reveal sections of the mountain. The trend was clear: The clouds would soon leave the view entirely untrammeled, so we sat, ate lunch, and watched the entirety of the mountain emerge. By the time the wind had blown away the last of the clouds, it was hard to believe that we had been to that very spot before. What a spectacular view the clouds had kept secret!

It was a long hike (three years) to get that view of Mount Rainier from Rampart Ridge, but I ended up with two very different ways of knowing the trail.

Taking Palm Matters into Their Own Hands

As palm-oil companies continue to grab up land, including areas in national parks, despite the pleas of environmental advocates, groups like the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS) have begun taking the matter into their own hands.

For years, we've heard about the awful impacts of palm-oil plantations. They clear out rainforest and replace it with monoculture oil palm trees, displacing the native wildlife and destroying entire ecosystems.

Despite the growing awareness and campaigns designed to persuade international corporations from using palm oil, more and more rainforest disappears in the name of greed. The corporations continue to drag their feet, watching as the forests go up in flames or fall by the chainsaw.

Instead of waiting any longer for the companies to do the right thing, environmental groups have started buying the plantations and restoring the land to its natural condition. The current campaign from SOS seeks to raise $1.1 million to purchase a plantation in Indonesia. Click here and watch the video below for more information. The video creatively uses characters from Disney's The Jungle Book.



The existence of rainforest ecosystems and the wildlife that live in them is in our hands; corporations are too busy snatching land and cash to protect them.

Falling up the Mountain

The higher they are, the harder they fall.

In the lowlands of western Washington, the signs of autumn (the smells, the cooler temperatures, the September rains, the greening grass, the mist on the spider webs, the coloring leaves) started appearing a few weeks ago. They have gradually built momentum in the temperate climate, and I have enjoyed watching their development. At the same time, I have kept an eye on the webcams at Mount Rainier, waiting for the chance to see the intense colors of the mountain's fall foliage in person. Those colors really began to pop this week, so my mom and I headed up for a hike on Thursday.

We received a few autumnal previews on the drive to the mountain. The morning fog sure suggested fall, and near the Ohop Valley, we started seeing trees dressed in golden leaves.

Inside Mount Rainier National Park, I could feel excitement welling up inside me. Pine scent hovered heavily at Longmire. The cliffs above the Nisqually River Valley revealed hints of the sights to come at the higher elevations. Bright reds and yellows flared on the gray rocks, and it soon became clear that we had timed the fall transformation of the mountain just about perfectly.

Fall painting a stunning scene at Mount Rainier.

We started the hike at the Reflection Lakes with the scenery above at Paradise our destination. On the trail, we saw increasing evidence of fall. The leaves of Cascade blueberries appeared in purples and reds, the nuthatches chattered joyously while spilling the contents of tree cones down around us, and the pine scent intensified. Near the halfway point, the meadows started to open up with patches of bright colors and views of the mountain. Each spot built on the beauty of the last. The fall grew more forceful the higher we went. Then came the radiant blast at Paradise. Fueled by the midday sun, the full reds, oranges, and yellows lit up the area around the Henry M. Jackson Visitor Center and the Paradise Inn and blazed across the slopes to the east.

Having gone up there in pursuit of this concentrated burst of fall, I felt almost staggered by happiness. Two of my most cherished things, the fall and Mount Rainier, came together in stunning perfection; and as those autumn colors washed over the side of that mountain, they took a hold on my heart so tight that I suspect they'll never relinquish it.

Going up is a pretty good way to fall.

Sold Outdoors

The United States National Parks Service (NPS) has proposed a massive entrance-fee hike that carries a cost far greater than its $70 price tag.

According to this news release from NPS, the peak rate at 17 heavily visited parks, including Washington state's Mount Rainier and Olympic, would jump from about $25 to $70 in 2018. NPS argues that the rate hike helps address maintenance costs for the parks.

Without a doubt, we must fully fund and maintain our parks. However, the approach taken by NPS exacts a much heavier toll than the money for an entrance pass. I would pay the $70 because I love these places and because I can afford it, but for many, the price will turn them away, and that's where the real cost emerges.

Are we willing to pay the price for losing our connection
to places like Paradise in Mount Rainier National Park?

We preserved national parks as part of a social, cultural, and environmental trust. They were and continue to be places where we can go and connect with nature and other people more closely. Instituting a prohibitive entrance fee destroys that connection, cutting people off from important human and environmental relationships. Once severed, those bonds wither and fade, leaving our planet and ourselves at risk and opening the door for the possibility of privatized national parks (a great and devastating oxymoron). Violating a sacred trust like our national parks with a privatization scheme would threaten our deepest values.

As I said above, the national parks need full funding, but satisfying their budgets calls for more collective commitment, not less. Consequently, we must reexamine our priorities. Do we want tax cuts, particularly for the richest individuals, at any price, or do we want to have a society that makes us proud and nourishes us by returning the investment we make in it?

Whatever we choose, we'll pay something, but I doubt we can afford the first option.

Headed in the Right Direction

Anthropologist Elizabeth Kapu'uwailani Lindsey once said, "True navigation begins in the human heart. It's the most important map of all." Compass Outdoors, a new outdoor gear and apparel company based in Washington state, embodies those words.

Before going any further, in the interest of full disclosure, I know one of the company's co-founders.

Following in the footsteps of companies like Patagonia and Klean Kanteen, Compass Outdoors places environmental ethics at its heart. The company logo, which consists of a compass pointing toward the Pacific Northwest's iconic Mount Rainier, gives the sense that Compass Outdoors knows what's important to it and where it's going. Looking more closely, the company has the stated objective of, "Using business to help create awareness and support for environmental issues." Such ethics influence the business model as well with five percent of each purchase going to support the national parks.

The launch of the company Web site last Wednesday marked the first step in Compass Outdoors' journey toward its core vision. The initial offering of six products, including an insulated bottle, a shirt, and hats will soon expand with additional items. To see the current selection, click here.

Compass Outdoors also plans to pursue a better environment by carving a path beyond simply selling products. Its Web site will expand in the future with a companion blog that spotlights environmental issues by featuring individuals working to address those concerns. Such issues did put the company on its path after all.

Knowing what Compass Outdoors set out to achieve and the reasons at the heart of that objective makes me excited to see where the company goes. It's clear they have a good navigation system.

The Shredding of Our Moral Core

According to Immanuel Kant, "We can judge the heart of a (person) by his(/her) treatment of animals." In a more general sense, that behavior, along with how people treat the environment, probably also says something about the heart of a society.

It is with a heavy heart then that I have watched recent environmental policy coups play out around the United States. For example, as this article from BuzzFeed describes, the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives recently passed legislation to reinstitute the barbaric killing of wolves and bears on wildlife refuges in Alaska. The approved tactics include aerial shooting and killing pups and cubs in their dens. To say nothing of the fact that these activities would take place on wildlife refuges, the inhumane legislation reveals those supporting it as sadistic, sociopathic, and bereft of conscience.

Morally corrupt as it is, the wolf-bear policy displays a cunning level of strategy. Targeting wolves and bears proves a clever tactic for unraveling the threads of human concern and environmental policy. As apex predators, those species indicate the health of the ecosystems in which they live. When they're wiped out, proponents of environmental exploitation can more easily make the case that extracting resources will not damage an ecosystem anymore than it already is. Additionally, as charismatic megafauna, wolves and bears generate public concern, and people rally to save them. In short, these species are critical to environmental preservation, and it is no accident legislators are targeting them.

We see the reasons for using bears and wolves as strategic targets in environmental policy proposals and decisions across the country. Stripping the species of their federal protections takes the first step in breaking down the systemic mechanisms that foster, institute, and enact our environmental ethics. Eliminating key reasons to protect the land opens the door to proposals that allow for expanded environmental exploitation. For example, we've already seen a proposal to permit oil and gas drilling in national parks and renewed efforts by Democrats and Republicans in the state of Alaska to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Ultimately, taking federal government out of the picture puts our environment in the hands of private interests, which is exactly the point of these policies. One of the best (though most egregious) examples of this process comes from Oregon, where a state board led by Democratic State Treasurer Tobias Read voted to sell off the Elliott State Forest to private interests. Covering the story, Men's Journal calls the sale "the natural conclusion of a land losing federal protection" and "a bad sign for America's public lands." Throwing away our heritage of conservation and our responsibility to future generations, the board sold the forest for short-term profits.

In the place where our moral and environmental ethics once found their footing, a corporate callus now resides, an indifference to anything other than consuming resources and making money. That's how, according to Greenpeace, the public relations firm for Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline, ended up writing the letter in which the Republican governors of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa asked the Army Corps of Engineers to approve the pipeline.

At their heart, these actions by our elected officials represent a bipartisan, corporate attack on the core of our society and the shredding of our moral and environmental fabric.

Our Worst Idea

In documenting how our national parks represent America's best idea, filmmaker Ken Burns also gave us a glimpse of what our thinking looks like at its worst, and another example of this poor thinking has arisen at Olympic National Park in Washington state.

The United States Navy seeks to turn the park into a venue for its war games. This plan threatens the park's ecosystem, wildlife, and human visitors with noise and electromagnetic weapons (click here for a more detailed news story about it). It also puts at risk the cherished idea that our national parks represent.

Six years ago, in The National Parks: America's Best Idea, Burns demonstrated how the creation of the parks brought to the world a new combination of democracy, environmental protection, and civic duty. The parks came from public land, helped protect species and ecosystems, and gave generations of Americans something to pass down to those that followed them.

Burns' documentary also captured the constant threat facing the parks. From the start, people have looked for ways to exploit the national parks for personal gain. This self-centered approach to a social institution and an environmental cornerstone has placed several of the parks, including the Grand Canyon, on the verge of destruction at various times in the past. Through a simple application of logic, it is our worst idea, and the Navy's war-games plan is the latest incarnation of it.

One of the biggest lessons from the Burns documentary is that the idea of the national parks as well as the parks themselves must constantly be defended. In this spirit, a petition has been created to challenge the Navy's proposal for using Olympic National Park. To sign it, click here.

When it comes to our national parks, we deserve the best.

Go Fisher

Although it's an awesome place, the Pacific Northwest isn't complete.

Several species were either entirely or partially wiped out from the area in the 19th and 20th centuries. These included the wolf and the fisher.

Those missing pieces have started a comeback, and people can help them take a next step. In 2008, fishers were returned to the Olympic National Park through a successful reintroduction program. Now, the National Park Service is proposing to reintroduce this member of the weasel family to the Cascade Mountains, and the agency will be taking comments on the plan until September 30. To voice your support for this next phase of reintroduction, visit this page from Conservation Northwest.

By bringing fishers back to another part of the Pacific Northwest, we help restore the full promise of this great area.

The Best Idea

Olympic National Park

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns called the national parks of the United States the country's best idea, so visiting those parks would probably be a pretty good notion too.

US-parks.com promotes and advocates for our parks, and the organization also provides a park locator to make finding the parks easy. You can also find a park by using the National Wildlife Federation's Nature Find, which I blogged about in 2011.

Our national and state parks are great places and create wonderful opportunities to connect with our environment. Use the tools above to make the idea of visiting them a reality now and in the future.