You probably don’t need this newsletter to tell you that public lands in the US are under attack.
The NPS, Forest Service, BLM…all of it. They’ve gutted federal agencies, especially targeting scientists and firefighters, and they want to sell our country’s best assets…it’s heart and soul, to the highest bidder. And they’re blatantly lying about it (I’ll save you my rant…)
But what does this mean for OAE programs?
It means a lot of things, and it certainly makes it harder to have a good partnership with your land manager, if they were able to keep their job.
But, imagine a world without public lands. Where does that leave us? We can look to programs in other parts of the world, where permitting and access work differently and the land management system isn’t nearly as robust as in the U.S.
To run an expedition program in Asia, for example, many programs have to build itineraries that cross multiple jurisdictions across multiple levels of government. You build access town by town and county by county, and then fill in the gaps by property owners. Every piece of a potential route is negotiated, and investment in a relationship and a show of goodwill is required for each potential party. If you lose access to one site or stretch, the whole course can fall apart.
The easier and more practical type of program to run is less remote and shorter, day programs where you just need access to one venue, like a park. There are really good programs in Asia, and there's a lot to learn from them. But the programs are designed the way they are in large part because of access. The wilderness itself, the expanse of it and being in it for a long period of time, is what makes legacy wilderness programming so effective.
That access isn’t guaranteed anymore.
About a year ago, when I was chair of the WRMC, I spoke with Jonathan Jarvis, the former director of the National Park Service. His point was that environmentalism is fractured. Groups are constantly trying to one-up each other to be the purest version of the cause. Now, he said, is not the time for that.
OAE programs don’t typically get involved in politics. We're small, our organizations are fragile, and we exist on the fringes of education, recreation, and environmentalism. The people in our field are values-driven. We vote, we call our representatives, and we use our voices.
But our organizations sit at the intersection of all three of those causes. Our programs are the living proof that education and environmentalism work together for the betterment of society.
Increasingly, we're turning to companies in our field, especially gear companies, to speak up and raise their hand. That seems to be working. But the rest of us have a role too, even if it's just making sure the people in those bigger fights know what's at stake for programs like yours.
Stu
P.S. The Wilderness Society does incredible work in this space and on our behalf. In particular, check out Paul Sanford’s work.