April, 2001
Garry Oye and others provide personal perspectives on the new wilderness recreation strategy for the National Forest System in a special stewardship feature. The working partnership between the Bureau of Land Management and the Student Conservation Association to restore wilderness in the California desert is explained by Dave Wash and Kate Wash. Chad Dawson remembers the work, leadership and passion of Bob Marshall, and John Shultis reviews For the Health of the Land by Aldo Leopold (J. Baird Callicott and Eric T. Freyfogle, eds).
Michael Frome contributes a moving piece for Soul of the Wilderness, discussing the wilderness as a sanctuary for us and future generations: “Wilderness areas are not playgrounds, nor theme parks, but sanctuaries, meant to be forever.” Franco Zunino contributes an international perspective on his work to bring the concept of wild nature to Italy and the mountainous wilderness landscape he and partners work to protect.
In this issue of the journal, Alan Watson contributes perspectives from the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute on the wilderness values in the circumpolar north. Tarun Chhabra contributes an international perspective in his article on the Toda people of the upper Nilgiri plateau in southern India. The Toda culture has a rich and sacred connection to wild nature, specifically the buffalo and its milk and the wildland plants used in rituals, medicine and daily activities. The Wilderness Digest section announced the Bureau of Land Management primitive skills team winning the first Corrigall Wilderness Stewardship award.