Voices Of The Wilderness: Recent Episodes
Voices Of The Wilderness
When I was a child, my dad allowed me to steer the family boat for the first time. The lesson I learned from that day set the course for how I would navigate life. It’s a philosophy I try to embrace whether I’m working on a project at home, spending a few days on a hiking trail, or traveling the highways and backroads to see something new.
The post Keeping the Fate appeared first on Tales from the Cabin.
You never know when fate will intervene. Sometimes an opportunity will literally walk through the door. That’s what happened to me on a late fall evening. It was a moment that led me to find out about a man who’s story I felt I got to just before it was too late to tell it.
The post “The Book I Was Meant to Write” appeared first on Tales from the Cabin.
In the 1910s, a vast Indiana marshland known as “Limberlost” was dredged and drained to provide access for the timber and oil industries and to create more farmland. At the time, not many people were considering the effect that practically eliminating a 13,000 acre marsh would have. A local author, who had written several books about Limberlost, tried to make her voice heard. Yet, her concerns were largely ignored.
One hundred years later, a farmer who was dealing with consistency losing crops to wet soil and/or flooding, unearthed a nugget that jumpstarted an effort to reclaim parts of the wetland. It’s an uplifting tale about how we can repair landscapes through building consensus and diligently working toward shared, realistic goals.
The post A Century Later, An Indiana Marshland is Restored appeared first on Tales from the Cabin.
Grandma Gatewood was an Appalachian Trail pioneer. In 1955, at age 67, she set off to escape an abusive relationship and blazed a path that inspires women to this day.
A new project seeks to create two bronze statues of Grandma Gatewood. one at her gravesite and one adjacent to the Appalachian Trail.
I interviewed renowned sculptor, Bridgette Mongeon, whose work appears at the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame®, in numerous other celebrated public spaces, and at private gravesites about her initiative and the importance of honoring Grandma Gatewood as a way to keep her legacy strong.
Photo of Emma “Grandma” Gatewood by Stratness – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27551090
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You don’t have to quit your day job to hike the Appalachian Trail — unless you want to :)
I spent 28 years hiking the 2,100-mile trail with my friend, Wayne and I learned a ton about trip planning and preparation. Here are some things to think about if you’d like to visit part of the storied trail yourself.
Trip Planning ResourcesAppalachian Odyssey: A 28-year hike on America’s Trail
Suggested Section Hikes by State
My Guide to Loop Hikes and Shuttles
Appalachian Trail Conservancy Shuttle Provider and Transportation Information
How to Stay on the Trail and What to do if you get off it
How to Buy Hiking Boots
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I am always intrigued by the question of whether a conservationist’s love of nature came from the environment they grew up in, the influence of parents and/or other mentors, or both. To find out, I prefer to visit the places they were raised and where they practiced their craft. Tracing Aldo Leopold’s roots was something I had yearned to do for many years and I finally got to it. As always, I was grateful for the opportunity.
If you’d like to take a deeper dive into Leopold’s life, accomplishments , and legacy, please check out my full-length documentary film Aldo Leopold – Birth of the Land Ethic by clicking here.
The post Finding Aldo Leopold’s Roots appeared first on Tales from the Cabin.
In 2024, he is practically unknown — a man who considered himself an abject failure toiling in the shadows of America’s greatest triumph of its day. Yet, Steele MacKaye’s greatest “failure” spawned a number of things that are familiar and inspirational touchstones for millions of people worldwide. Things he never got to see because he was felled by his own shame.
The post Steele’s Legacies appeared first on Tales from the Cabin.
In 1983, I set out with a few friends to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. It’s hard to believe now, but it was a time when fewer than 15 people completed the trail each year. In the ’70s and ’80s, when the trail through southern California wasn’t traversing mountains on well-established tread, it dropped into desert terrain, where dirt roads, known as “Jeep Roads” became the norm.
Water sources were always a challenge, but the Mojave Desert area raised the level of uncertainty and danger. This is the story of how we came perilously close to suffering heat stroke or worse and gained a valuable lesson in relying too heavily on “known sources of information” where the margin of error was close to zero.
Add Your Heading Text HereThe post No Water — In the worst possible place appeared first on Tales from the Cabin.
In 1912, a young man in his early 20’s named Ernest Oberholtzer and his friend Billy McGee, who was in his 50’s, set off on a 2,000-mile trip through uncharted waters in a canoe. Their goal was to reach Hudson Bay and make it back home before winter set in. Defying the elements, incredible navigational challenges, and almost certain death, they limped back home barely making it before the northern Minnesota winter took hold. More than fifty years later, “Ober” realized his dream of making it back to the place that was at once the high point and low point of his amazing adventure. It’s quite the story.
The post Ernest Oberholtzer’s True North – Chapter 3 appeared first on Tales from the Cabin.
When my hiking buddy and I set out for a four-day hiking adventure on the Appalachian Trail in Vermont, we discovered that mother nature had much more in store for us than we could have imagined. Eleven days later, I limped back to Maine with a new appreciation for perseverance and just how much damage a determined porcupine can do.
The post Tales from the Cabin, Chapter 2 — The Porcupine appeared first on Tales from the Cabin.
In 1897, a young man in St. Joseph, Michigan began building a 30-foot boat in the shed behind his parent’s house. That proved merely the beginning of an adventure that was bold, unpredictable, life changing and — best of all — done not for the notoriety, but simply because they wanted to do it.
The post Tales from the Cabin – Chapter 1 — The Voyage of the Gazelle appeared first on Voices Of The Wilderness.
The post The Past and Future of Public Lands appeared first on Voices Of The Wilderness.
The Forest History Society recently asked me to present some of the learnings from my latest book and I was thrilled to oblige. Please check it out.The post Finding their conservation roots appeared first on Voices Of The Wilderness.
The post How a patch of New England forest inspired a child and a career appeared first on Voices Of The Wilderness.
The post Author Talk – USFWS Historian Mark Madison and author Jeffrey H Ryan appeared first on Voices Of The Wilderness.
This Land Was Saved for You and Me traces the path of the establishment of America’s public lands from New York’s Central Park in 1858 to the passage of The Wilderness Act in 1964 and beyond. Available now from Amazon, Books-a-Million, Barnes & Noble, and […]
The post New Book Explores the History of America’s Public Lands appeared first on Voices Of The Wilderness.
Maine author and historian Jeffrey Ryan appeared on the popular Nature Revisited podcast to discuss the history of the Appalachian Trail.
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Facilitated by the Trust for Public Land, the US Forest Service has added 2,100 acres of habitat to the Green Mountain National Forest
The post USFS Adds 2,100 Acres to Green Mountain National Forest appeared first on Voices Of The Wilderness.
6,500 acre Grafton Forest Wilderness adjacent to Appalachian Trail preserves open forest Grafton Forest Wilderness Preserve. ©2022 Northeast Wilderness Trust. The Northeast Wilderness Trust quite fittingly celebrated its 20th Anniversary by announcing the largest single land purchase in its history — 6,045 acres to be known as […]
The post Northeast Wilderness Trust Announces Major Acquisition appeared first on Voices Of The Wilderness.
New Hardcover by Jeffrey H Ryan follows the arc of the America's conservation movement.
The post This Land Was Saved for You and Me appeared first on Voices Of The Wilderness.
In a lead up to the airing of my film about Howard Zahniser, I had a great and wide-ranging chat with Mark Madison about my projects to date.
The post A quick trip through the bookshelf appeared first on Voices Of The Wilderness.
Howard Zahniser's son, Ed, speaks about his father's impressive efforts to establish and protect American wilderness areas. It was a pleasure to interview him for this episode.
The post Episode 2 – Howard Zahniser: A Champion for the Wilderness appeared first on Voices Of The Wilderness.
Ernest Oberholtzer set out to become a renowned writer and explorer. He ended up saving millions of acres of wilderness instead.
The post Ernest Oberholtzer’s expeditions of 1912 and 1963 appeared first on Voices Of The Wilderness.
Today is the 199th birthday of the father of American landscape architecture and of such great public spaces as New York City’s Central Park, campuses such as Stanford in California and the University of Maine in Orono, and hundreds of other famous parks and grounds. […]
The post It’s Frederick Law Olmsted’s Birthday appeared first on Voices Of The Wilderness.
In 1864, George Perkins Marsh's book, Man and Nature, placed the concepts of sustainable forestry, sustainable farming and water conservation in the public eye for the first time.
The post Happy Birthday, George Perkins Marsh! appeared first on Voices Of The Wilderness.
Writing a book is like running a marathon. When you complete one, you need to rest for a while, then start training again. In this case, I’ve been “training” for this book for several years. My interest in the history of wilderness creation and protection […]
The post Here we go again … appeared first on Voices Of The Wilderness.
Jeff Ryan recently joined Matt Luppo to discuss America’s hiking trails and the contributions of America’s conservation giants, who foresaw the need to set aside a portion of public lands with the intention of keeping them forever wild.
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It’s amazing what we can stumble upon when doing research. When I was working on my film about Howard Zahniser, I discovered an article Eleanor Roosevelt had written in the early 1950s outlining her opposition to a proposed dam that would have been constructed within Dinosaur National Monument. The sentiment appeared in Ms. Roosevelt’s “My Day” column, which she wrote six days a week for more than an astounding twenty-five years. In it, she called for all Americans to take up the cause of protecting our lands, saying,
“The whole National Park system and State Park system, our nationally-owned and state-owned forests, and all of our natural resources, mean the future of our country. If they are wasted or wrongly used, our children and grandchildren may inherit bare mountains and a land no longer able to support them. Therefore, anything that happens in any of these areas is of interest to all of us.”
The efforts of Eleanor Roosevelt, Howard Zahniser, David Brower and many other individuals and organizations ultimately prevailed in protecting Dinosaur National Monument, but more than 60 years later the forces of consumption are still trying to chip away at our public lands, particularly those designated to remain forever wild.
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When I compiled my first list of possible subjects for Voices of the Wilderness episodes, some names jumped right into the mix – Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Edward Abbey, Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold.
Then I started digging into the USFWS archive material at the National Conservation Training Center, headquarters for the federal agency, an act that changed my trajectory.
One day, I was standing at a counter in the archive sorting through documents when USFWS historian Dr. Mark Madison walked by and asked, “Are you going to do an episode about Howard Zahniser?”
It was the first time I’d heard the name, yet it didn’t take me long to find out why I should get to know his story and start working on how to share it in film.
They said he wasn’t a “Wilderness Man” Zahniser never lived Thoreau’s life of solitude, walked through the High Sierra’s nourished only by nature and the one biscuit in his pocket like John Muir or sabotaged bulldozers to discourage wilderness destruction like Edward Abbey. “Swashbuckling wilderness man” simply wasn’t Howard Zahniser’s style. All he did was quietly, determinedly set a course for the preservation of over 100 million acres in perpetuity, a goal that was ironically achieved just weeks after his death in 1964.
Wilderness Influences I am always intrigued by the influences that guided the “difference makers”, particularly those who have been inspired to preserve and protect the natural world. I enjoy traveling back to the towns of their childhoods to see the surroundings firsthand. It’s the first tangible connection I have with them.
In the case of Howard Zahniser, I traveled to Tionesta, Pennsylvania twice. It’s a beautiful town on the banks of the Allegheny River with the Allegheny National Forest snugging up against the city limits. It doesn’t take long to see where a young boy gained his reverence for the world around him.
Signs of Recognition And the town maintains its reverence for their most famous citizen as well. A few years ago, the town hosted a celebration and unveiled a new Pennsylvania historical marker just north of town at the edge of the river. It is hoped that people will pause long enough to gain an appreciation for the man who ensured his generation would make sure that wilderness areas would remain part of our nation’s DNA.
I hope to help spread the word.
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Architect of The Wilderness Act of 1964
One of the greatest contributors to the 20th century American conservation movement has also been one of the most overlooked. Howard Zahniser’s active role in the protection of both New York’s Adirondack State Park and Utah’s Dinosaur National Monument were notable achievements, but his successful effort to protect nearly 100 million acres of American wilderness is enduringly inspirational.
Featuring the perspective of “Zahnie’s” son, Edward, this film captures the humbleness and grace of a man who believed that,
“The true wilderness experience is one, not of escaping, but of finding one’s self by seeking the wilderness.”
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Aldo Leopold was a visionary forester, wilderness advocate, watershed expert and pioneer in land restoration. His life’s work culminated in the development of a “land ethic”, one that encouraged us to look at land not as a commodity, but a community to which we belong.
To create this film, I traveled to Leopold’s birthplace in Burlington , Iowa, and to the Leopold family farm and home of the Aldo Leopold Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin, where I interviewed Leopold’s biographer, Curt Meine, eminent Leopold historian Stanley Temple and the Executive Director of The Leopold Foundation, Buddy Huffaker. I also spent considerable time researching the project at the National Conservation Training Center, with the generous support of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
This is episode one of a series that will feature other giants of the US conservation and wilderness movements.
I hope you enjoy the film. – Jeff Ryan
The post Episode One – Aldo Leopold appeared first on Voices Of The Wilderness.
Aldo Leopold was one of the most talented and important contributors to America’s conservation movement. In the 1920s, he successfully lobbied for the creation of the first wilderness area in the world. In the 1930s, he established the field of game management by championing the […]
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