POMONA COLLEGE
FRESHMAN SEMINAR, CRITICAL INQUIRY
ID 1, Section 25, Fall, 2008
The Wilderness, Paradise on Earth?
Wayne E. Steinmetz
COURSE HOMEPAGE
Gifford Pinchot, Conservationist and Forester
Founder of the United States Forest Service
Source: Library of Congress
From the Wilderness Act of 1964
A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area of wilderness is further defined to mean in this Act an area of undeveloped federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation…
Hidden Lake, San Jacinto Wilderness
(taken by WES on 18 July 1998 during a scouting trip for an OA trek)
The ID1 class in 2006 formulated its understanding of Wilderness.
· Wilderness is a place that offers solitude, serenity, silence, seclusion, simplicity, and freedom.
· In the Wilderness, the elements of the ecosystem are in balance.
· Those who experience the Wilderness feel at one with a greater unity and struck by the immensity and profundity of it all.
· Some seek the Wilderness as a place of adventure and others see it as a counterbalance to human hubris.
Hidden Lake, San Jacinto Wilderness
(taken by WES on 23 August 1998 during an OA trek)
Goals of the Course
Section 25 of ID 1 deals with the wilderness and considers the following questions.
· What is the value of the wilderness?
· What are its characteristics?
· How do we use the wilderness?
· How can we preserve the wilderness?
This simple Web page provides links to materials used in the course.
Course Mechanics and Resources
1) Course handouts
b) catalogue description of the course
c) handout on art and the wilderness
d) citation styles (prepared by the writing Center)
e) guidelines on the final paper
1) General resources on the WWW dealing with the wilderness
a) The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, Library of Congress
b) USFS film The Greatest Good
c) National Park Service resources
e) Maps and aerial photographs
Google Earth (photographs)
Microsoft Terraserver (photographs and USGS topographic maps)
2) Full text of Gifford Pinchot, The Fight for Conservation
3) Robert (Bob) Marshall’s seminal article on need for wilderness areas--Robert Marshall, “The Problem of the Wilderness”, The Scientific Monthly, 30(2), 141-148 (Feb., 1930)--can be accessed via Honnold Library’s links to on-line journals. The journal was published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is available through JSTOR.
4) On-line translation of the Bible (Revised Standard Version)
5) Works of John Muir (provided by the Sierra Club)
a) The Yosemite
b) Steep Trails
c) Studies in the Sierra
John Muir, source: National Park Service
6) Resources on Hetch Hetchy
a) Hetch Hetchy study site maintained by the State of California
7) Low Impact Camping (BLM site)
8) WWW sites for national parks
9) Resources dealing with the oceans as the last wilderness
a) DiPeso, “The Case for Ocean Wilderness”
b) Oceana report on the deep sea
c) article by Smith in Environmental Conservation
(Click on Publications to reach Professor Smith's list of publications and the link to his paper.)
11) Field Trips
a) West Fork of Bear Creek on 20 September 2008
group picture of the 2006 class at the lunch spot
b) Joshua Tree National Park on 15 November 2008
The Desert Queen Mine, Joshua Tree National Park (photo by WES)
San Gorgonio Wilderness, view north of a glacial cirque
(taken by WES at a saddle between San Gorgonio and E. San Bernardino Peaks on a 1998 OA trek)
last revised, WES, 14 October 2008
Additions will be made periodically during the course.