The Living Wilderness

"Howard Zahniser (1906-1964), executive secretary of The Wilderness Society and editor of The Living Wilderness from 1945 to 1964, is arguably the person most responsible for drafting and promoting the Wilderness Act in 1964. The act, which created the National Wilderness Preservation System, was the culmination of Zahniser's years of tenacious lobbying and his work with conservationists across the nation. In 1964, fifty-four wilderness areas in thirteen states were part of the system; today the number has grown to 757 areas, protecting more than a hundred million acres in forty-four states and Puerto Rico. Zahniser's passion for wild places and his arguments for their preservation were communicated through radio addresses, magazine articles, speeches, and congressional testimony. An eloquent and often poetic writer, he seized every opportunity to make the case for the value of wilderness to people, communities, and the nation. Despite his unquestioned importance and the power of his prose, the best of Zahniser's wilderness writings have never before been gathered in a single volume. This indispensable collection makes available in one place essays and other writings that played a vital role in persuading Congress and the American people that wilderness in the United States deserved permanent protection. Mark Harvey, author of the standard biography of Zahniser, provides prefaces to the essays that outline the contexts in which they were written as well as a general introduction to the man whose vision, decency, and quiet passion shine from the pages of this book. Mark Harvey is professor of history at North Dakota State University and the author of Wilderness Forever: Howard Zahniser and the Path to the Wilderness Act and A Symbol of Wilderness: Echo Park and the American Conservation Movement; "Howard Zahniser authored the Wilderness Act of 1964 and was its most tireless advocate. A quiet, self-effacing man who felt no need to call attention to himself, he was also a graceful and eloquent writer whose essays--widely scattered in hard-to-find periodicals--deserve to be much more widely read than they have been. This first-ever anthology gathers his most important wilderness writings into a single volume to make them available to modern readers as never before"--William Cronon"--

A guide to surviving in the woods. It covers immediate needs like starting a fire, erecting temporary shelter, and finding edible plants. It shows how to make tools by chipping stones.

Winner of the Forest History Society's 2006 Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Book Award As a central figure in the American wilderness preservation movement in the mid-twentieth century, Howard Zahniser (1906-1964) was the person most responsible for the landmark Wilderness Act of 1964. While the rugged outdoorsmen of the earlyenvironmental movement, such as John Muir and Bob Marshall, gave the cause a charismatic face, Zahniser strove to bring conservation's concerns into the public eye and the preservationists' plans to fruition. In many fights to save besieged wild lands, he pulled together fractious coalitions, built grassroots support networks, wooed skittish and truculent politicians, and generated streams of eloquent prose celebrating wilderness. Zahniser worked for the Bureau of Biological Survey (a precursor to the Fish and Wildlife Service) and the Department of the Interior, wrote for Nature magazine, and eventually managed the Wilderness Society and edited its magazine, Living Wilderness. The culmination of his wilderness writing and political lobbying was the Wilderness Act of 1964. All of its drafts included his eloquent definition of wilderness, which still serves as a central tenet for the Wilderness Society: "an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain." The bill was finally signed into law shortly after his death. Pervading his tireless work was a deeply held belief in the healing powers of nature for a humanity ground down by the mechanized hustle-bustle of modern, urban life. Zahniser grew up in a family of Methodist ministers, and although he moved away from any specific denomination, a spiritual outlook informed his thinking about wilderness. His love of nature was not so much a result of scientific curiosity as a sense of wonder at its beauty and majesty, and a wish to exist in harmony with all other living things. In this deeply researched and affectionate portrait, Mark Harvey brings to life this great leader of environmental activism.

Authoritative information presented by a certified USAF Survival School Instructor. Organized and indexed for easy reference.

For those who have been accustomed to reading books on wilderness skills that entertain but fall short of actually teaching you "how to" accomplish the tasks and skills at hand, this book is a pleasant surprise - written for those who wish to actually head into the wilderness and practice the skills of our ancestors. Primitive Wilderness Living and Survival Skills is a compilation of ten booklets written over the course of seven years each chapter a complete, concise "how-to" in itself. Unlike many who have written on this subject in the past, John and Geri McPherson have spent years daily practicing these skills, perfecting methods through trial and error - and documenting it. This vast knowledge is passed on to the reader. Illustrated with over 700 photographs crammed into 400 pages, this massive work is not a rehashing and perpetuation of myths. These are tried and true methods of primitive wilderness living and survival skills. Field and Stream says: "The McPherson's book....deals with taking flat nothing into boondocks and staying for a long period of time. If you'd like to know how to make a spear thrower, or pottery, or brain cure deer hides, or build a permanent shelter from what you find at and, here is the place to learn." And Sports Afield: "....Full of practical, tested advice for living off the land." Also the Museum of the Fur Trade: "This is without doubt the best raining guide for eral primitive living skills" Web Site www/prairiewolf.net;email: john/[email protected] or [email protected].