Every story of conservation started with a vision. Whether it is the vision of one individual, one community, one government, or one business, change never happens if we live in denial or just give up. It takes action.
In a time where some of the challenges to our environment and the future of sustainable communities are coming at us from so many directions, it can seem overwhelming and hopeless.
Personally, I often want to sit in a state of denial or surrender. But I’ve lived my life where sitting in denial or giving up isn’t an option. If I”m going to complain, I need to turn those complaints into action. If I want to surrender, I need to regroup and figure out another way to get something done. What I do know, from 30 years of working on conservation issues, is that for every success there are an equal amount of failures. So I have to break it down into small choices and actions.
Conservation successes, both large and small, show us that without action we would not have the legacy of our wild places today.
I recently finished up a rafting trip down the Grand Canyon. Every day was inspiring. I’d often see my friends looking up at the towering canyon walls with a look of awe on their faces. In the powerful whitewater, we challenged ourselves to meet the demands of the river’s power. As humans, we felt insignificant and powerful at the same time. It’s those wild places that help us connect with our wilder selves. The wild places inscribe in our minds, our human history as part of the earth, not separate from it.
Grand Canyon at Marble Canyon
The incredible beauty and ruggedness, of this living ecosystem, reminded me of why some places should be left to nature’s intentions, both for our own futures and that of the natural ecosystems that provide for us and everything that is a part of it.
The Grand Canyon National Park is an example of a conservation success that most people will be familiar with. What they may not be familiar with, is that it wasn’t given that it would be a National Park. Starting in the 1920s there was a proposal to build a dam downstream of the Grand Canyon that would have flooded part of the Canyon. The push for the dam continued and was defeated in the 60s with help of the Sierra Club. There were also other proposals upstream in the Marble Canyon section of the Grand Canyon. Without the vision of former president Theodore Roosevelt (also someone brought the area to his attention) and others, the Grand Canyon would not have been protected and made a National Park and most likely, the dams would not have been stopped. Think about it. One of the wonders of the world and UNESCO World Heritage Site would have been underwater.
Closer to home, in our own backyard, is the Green River Gorge. While the Gorge isn’t on the scale of the Grand Canyon, it is, in its own right, a unique river-cut gorge. Local whitewater boaters have named a massive cliff in the middle of the Green River Gorge the “Grand Canyon of the Green.” At times the walls of the Gorge tower 150-300 feet above the river. There is a shared reverence by boaters, locals, hikers, and others acknowledging that the Green River Gorge is a special place.
Grand Canyon of the Green River Gorge
”Recalling the high points in one’s life becomes a growing pleasure with age. There are those that you cherish and those that others have recognized. Of those I own, the Green River Gorge experience overshadows all the others. In the long-term future, a preserved Gorge will be a legacy that my generation will, indelibly, have left behind. As a nice thought and treasure.
The impact of the Gorge on my psyche remains undiminished. What was it about those first exploratory paddles into the hidden museum of nature? Was it its unbelievable isolation in the midst of a million people? Was it the antiquity of its ancient walls, hinting at massive faulting and erosion over millennia? Was it the sculptured images and fossilized imprints of ancient life forms from both above and below the seas? I think it was the realization that there are “Cathedrals of Nature” that inspire awe and humility far beyond any man invented religious symbols and beliefs.
Down its cliffs and gentler draws remain untouched first growth stands of evergreens, hiding moss and fern-covered grottos, and myriads of tiny waterfalls seeping from the canyon walls. Freshness and moisture permeate the floor of the canyon in its shadowy twilight to nurture rain forest type vegetation, water-oriented birds, and man’s awed senses within its massive cathedral like halls. Placid pools like miniature chain lakes create an occasional corridor of silence into which only faint and muffled hints of rushing water may penetrate from around the bend. Disturbed but by an occasional kingfisher, merganser, water ouzel, or trout rippling the water’s impatient slack. Thus, represents an ecological entity, which owes its close-in and unique existence and character entirely to its canyon walls rising up to 300 feet above the riverbed. As such, it supports a biologic community in a living laboratory that can sustain itself indefinitely into the future without man’s help, even in the midst of any civilization encirclement behind its protected canyon rims. It can probably do this better here than in any other instance and site in the region.”
— By Wolf Bauer
Wolfe Bauer. Spearheaded original Green River Gorge Conservation Plan in the 60s
On this Earth Day, April 22nd, 2022. I want to challenge each of you to look at how you can make a difference. One small action can lead to larger change and one day you may look back and realize that you made a difference.
Ways that you can make a meaningful contribution:
Donate to your local conservation nonprofit
Volunteer at local events in the Green-Duwamish Watershed
Introduce your friends and family to the beauty and uniqueness of the Gorge.
Write emails and letters in support of local conservation efforts.
Support Washington State Parks.
Buy a Washington State Park Pass.