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The West in all its Grandeur

by Stephen Capra, Executive Director, Bold Visions Conservation


As summer kicks in, people from across the world pour into the West. This place of dreams is filled with those seeking adventure. Many will try to pet a buffalo (not a good idea) or, for the first time, get work thousands of miles from home. They will be awestruck by sunsets and surprised by late snow.


I was once one of the 18-year-olds who came West for my first job at the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. It snowed the first week we arrived. With my friends, we explored the park on days off and drove into the mountains at night, drinking in and feeling the freedom that comes with youth and the wonder of magical landscapes. At the end of the summer, with my friend Sam Wainer, who would in the years to come hike with me from Mexico to Canada to raise awareness for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, we once drove all day and night to the Grand Canyon.

We arrived on the north rim at about 3 a.m. In the first light, we could see what we had driven for: the canyon in its splendor opened before us. Both being photographers, we dove out of the car and stood dumbstruck in awe. We took many pictures, hugged one another, and shouted to the canyon below. We were young and free, and the West was now part of our soul.

 

We went back east that year, and I flunked out of school. I was lost back in the East, and my very being needed to be in the West.

 

Many adventures followed, working for a few months, then quitting to explore the wilds of Glacier, Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Olympics, Alaska, and so many more. My eyes over that time began to see what my excited youth could not. Scars on the land, timber cutting, mining, erosion by cattle, and the various ways our public lands were degraded.

 

We were also surprised by how little wildlife we encountered. Each one was met with wonder, and the excitement was something we talked about for days and weeks. It never occurred to me in those early years that so many wanted to kill wolves, bears, or any animal. They were so innocent, so beautiful; it all seemed so perfect.

But as the years passed, I saw many a hunting season come and go; coyotes hung from fence posts. My time in conservation made me read and learn so much about how people find killing animals a thrill. Like many, we have witnessed such injustice for so many animals that simply want to live.

 

As I get older, there are books I can no longer read and things that happen to animals that leave me brokenhearted. Still, my will to protect them never dies, as it does for many of you. I may not be the best scientist, and I cannot give you endless facts, but like many of you, passion and justice are the drivers.

 

It seems to me over the years, the conservation community has spent far too much time trying to work with people who hate us, who continue to control our public lands for one reason- to abuse them.

Our efforts now to create a sanctuary of 1.6 million acres are meant to protect the wildlife we love and allow another generation to experience the freedom and magic of wildlife and wildlands.

 

But it is also a statement that we are not giving in. We want our public lands protected, not disseminated. We want to hike and explore lands where wildlife can be part of the experience. We can send a message and create a new precedent for wildlife and public lands. We can turn Yellowstone, which is now 2.2 million acres, into a park of 3.8 million protected acres.

Trappers will not enter; trophy hunters will not kill predators in this sanctuary. We can take back from Game and Fish agencies that they have stolen and make clear that wolves belong in the West.

 

Perhaps I am a dreamer, but I have faith in the Tribes who will lead this and in the people like yourself, hungry for victory and tired of killing at the hands of ignorance.

 

I hope one day we can all enjoy a summer day in this vast and beautiful land under the sign that reads America’s newest National Monument. That exceptional land and the wildlife it protects can be a sanctuary for wildlife and our souls.

 

Perhaps then we can all shout our joy into the canyons of our youth and the mountains that leave us with the satisfaction that comes from a life in the West.


Trappers will not enter; trophy hunters will not kill predators in this sanctuary. We can take back from Game and Fish agencies that they have stolen and make clear that wolves belong in the West.

 

Perhaps I am a dreamer, but I have faith in the Tribes who will lead this and in the people like yourself, hungry for victory and tired of killing at the hands of ignorance.

 

I hope one day we can all enjoy a summer day in this vast and beautiful land under the sign that reads America’s newest National Monument. That exceptional land and the wildlife it protects can be a sanctuary for wildlife and our souls.

 

Perhaps then we can all shout our joy into the canyons of our youth and the mountains that leave us with the satisfaction that comes from a life in the West.


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