The Wilderness Writings of Howard Zahniser

Introduction: Evangelist for the Wilderness

3 INTRODUCTION Evangelist for the Wilderness Howard Zahniser was an office man who spent the bulk of his working hours at the headquarters of The Wilderness Society in Washington, DC. For almost twenty years, from 1945 until 1964, he sat at a desk and poured over an immense body of printed material involving wilderness in the national forests, parks, and other public lands. He read Forest Service wilderness maps and reams of correspondence from fellow conservationists , scrutinized the essays of authors who contributed to the Living Wilderness , the Society’s quarterly journal, and scanned memoranda from federal officials, members of Congress, and their staff. His life and work centered on words, on writing and editing and publishing, all of it directed toward protecting the nation’s wild lands. To be sure, his desk work fit him well. He loved language, puns, wordplay, books and libraries, and the company of almost anyone who appeared at his desk. A gentle, bespectacled man, Zahniser was the consummate working professional. Most days he enjoyed his work immensely, especially when it gave him the opportunity to collaborate with writers, artists, poets, and others who contributed to the Living Wilderness, which he edited for almost two decades. But Zahniser also worked under tremendous strain, especially during the last eight years of his life when he led a national movement to secure passage of a bill to establish a national wilderness system. That effort embroiled him in political and economic complexities and pressures, entailed numerous appearances at public hearings, and compelled him to hold countless meetings with agency officials, members of Congress and their staff, and fellow conservationists. He often became weary of the 4 | Introduction whole business and yearned to be in the wilderness. In addition to spending time in his family’s getaway cabin in the Adirondacks, he took himself into a wilderness area at least once every year to the annual meetings of the governing council of The Wilderness Society. There, he rediscovered how being in the wild brought restoration, healing, and refreshment of body and soul. His friend and fellow wilderness lobbyist Sigurd Olson had articulated those effects eloquently in an essay in 1938. Recalling his experiences guiding people by canoe into the boundary waters area of Minnesota and Ontario, Olson concluded: They have long days with nothing to clutter their minds but the simple problems of wilderness living, and at last they have time to think. Then comes the transformation and, of a sudden, they are back to earth. Things move slowly, majestically in the wilds and the coming of the full moon in itself becomes of major importance. Countless natural phenomena begin to show themselves [and] with this, some of the old primitive philosophy works itself into their thinking, and in their new calm they forget to worry. Their own affairs seem trivial. . . . Whenever it comes, men are conscious of a unity with the primal forces of creation and all life that swiftly annihilates the feeling of futility , frustration, and unreality. Zahniser appreciated Olson’s description every time he got away from Washington and into the wilderness. In the summer of 1956, with his wife Alice and their children in the Cloud Peak Primitive Area in Wyoming’s Big Horn Range, he awoke early. “As I looked through the open flaps of my tepee tent that morning, alone,” he wrote: I wakened to a world of wilderness so bright, so lovely, so peaceful that its exquisite quiet was itself so exciting that I could hardly keep from disturbing it myself. The air was still. The lake was smooth. The roar of waterfalls from the surrounding high and immense cliffs of mountain rock was a background of sound so constant that at first it must have seemed itself an aspect of the quietness. As I lay there, inspired to worship , the words from some Psalm came to my mind: “Great peace have they which love thy law.” Evangelist for the Wilderness | 5 Howard Zahniser’s wilderness writings may be less known than those of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir, and Aldo Leopold, but his articles, essays, and speeches left a significant mark on American wilderness thought. As executive secretary of The Wilderness Society, editor of the Living Wilderness, and book columnist for Nature Magazine, Zahniser contributed a distinctive voice to the growing public interest in wildlands in the United States. In his role as editor and chief administrator of The Wilderness Society, he defended the nation’s fragile wilderness...