March, 1997
This issue of the IJW presents news about the 6th World Wilderness Congress, 18-25 October 1997 in India. John Hendee (managing editor) offers insight into this upcoming event – the first WWC to meet in a developing nation. A quiz by Kendall Clark and Susan Kozacek can tell you how your personal wilderness values rate, is fun and also proves extremely useful in wilderness management training sessions. Aaron R. Kelson and Robert J. Lilieholm present a scientific study of how activities on adjacent lands influence wilderness resources.
A very personal note from WILD’s President Vance Martin, remembering Sir Laurens van der Post closes this issue of the IJW. Vance retells when he first read “Heart of the Hunter,” and the mesmerizing way in which van der Post was able to capture in a story the “sense and texture of wilderness.” Vance continues on to tell of when he first met van der Post, at the 2nd World Wilderness Congress (Australia 1980), and lead to a 20 year working and learning relationship.
WILD’s President Vance Martin again closes the IJW honoring the passing of pioneers in the international wilderness movement. Nick Steele (South Africa) and Wally O’Grady (Australia) were “like emergent trees in the rainforest canopy, they were guardians over the rest of the forest.” There is also a funny section “Wilderness Lovers Say the Darndest Things,” highlighting comments left on the US Forest Service registration sheets and comment cards
George Wallace and Jim Wurz present the Management of Wildlands and Protected Areas short course at Colorado State University. Each year this program provides 21 Latin American managers with a month long intensive field-based course. Conducted fully in Spanish, this course is for most, their first exposure to the US concept of wilderness. Wayne Freimund and Bill Borrie address the question: “Will IMAX theaters and virtual wilderness of tomorrow reduce our desire for self-sufficiency, or will we have targeted a new way to meet such a need?”