SAVING WHAT'S LEFT OF WILDERNESS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 4, 1993                   TAG: 9304040265
SECTION: HORIZON                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Reviewed by JUSTIN ASKINS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
SAVING WHAT'S LEFT OF WILDERNESS
THE BIG OUTSIDE, Revised Edition. By Dave Foreman and Howie Wolke. Harmony Books. $16 (trade paper).
With a plethora of books forecasting the demise of the natural world - Bill McKibben's "The End of Nature" is perhaps the most infamous - it is a joy to encounter "The Big Outside."
While this volume vividly catalogs the tremendous threats to wilderness acres in the United States, at core the book celebrates what is still left, 385 roadless areas of 100,000 acres or larger in the West and 50,000 or larger in the East, not including Hawaii and Alaska. That is wonderful news. As the editors tell us, "we have obviously not been able to inspect every one of these areas, although we can't think of anything we'd rather do with the rest of our lives." Me too.
The originality of this revised edition (first published in 1989) is in its method. Instead of working within traditional categories of National Park, National Forest, BLM land, etc., the authors have inventoried the areas left without regard to the individual, corporation, agency or state that controls them. It's a simple and immensely valuable tool, one that gives a clear and concise picture of what wilderness is left.
With that knowledge, the next step is to save the Big Outside: "while protecting all remaining wildlands is important, protecting all remaining large tracts of wild country is absolutely crucial." Besides being spiritually and emotionally essential, big wildernesses are the only places where semblances of complete ecosystems remain; they will be priceless guides in restoring other areas once our 20th century technological madness subsides.
The actual inventory is tremendously helpful. Each state section includes historical background, ecological description, threats, preservation efforts and the groups involved. Then each individual area is named and total acreage is specified, along with details about the flora and fauna, and a status report on threats and proposed preservation.
I have been lucky enough to visit a number of places mentioned in "The Big Outside." Whenever I entered I gave a great sigh of relief even if I knew the area was surrounded by roads or devastated by nearby clearcuts. A sacred grove had been preserved, and power and health rushed into my body. Looking at the map showing all 385 areas made me realize how much I have missed, how much I may still see.
That is terrific news, but millions and millions of wilderness acres have been lost in the past few decades; millions more could be lost very shortly under present government and corporate policies. For instance, the Forest Service "plans to construct a minimum of 100,000 miles of new roads in inventoried roadless areas alone."
Can't we stop this? Foreman and Wolke, the cofounders of Earth First! tell us, "There is not enough wilderness left to compromise any further. We must fight for every acre. We should not give up one inch." Bravo.

Justin Askins teaches at Radford University.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB