Originally published in Outside's (then, Mariah) October/November 1978 issue

One argument that never fails to get Mariah's hackles up is the definition of what constitutes a wilderness. Somehow, the public, the media, and a startling number of legislators who ought to know better can't see the forest through the trees—which, by the way, is exactly the problem: People have a notion that a wilderness has to have trees, preferably lush, green pines.

For the record, let's look at the various definitions that exist. Webster's New World Dictionary defines wilderness as "an uncultivated, uninhibited region...any barren, empty, or open area, as of ocean." The same dictionary defines a "wilderness area" as "an area of public land, as of virgin forest, preserved in its natural state." There it is again: the virgin forest syndrome.

Mariah shares the definition of wilderness put forth by conservationist (and semanticist) Howard Zahniser, who wrote the Wilderness Act. A wilderness, according to the Act, is "an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain." By that definition, Mariah believes that mountains, glaciers, deserts, oceans, lakes, rivers, and even the air can be properly called wilderness.

Unfortunately, the greentree philosophy has taken root in a society that defines wilderness in increasingly narrow terms. Advertising, particularly for beer, has focused our notion of wilderness as a sort of North Woods paradise. ("The Land of Sky Blue Waters" has given way to the Hamm's man and his fun-loving bear.)