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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 14, 2007
Contact:
Paul Hughes, (415) 974-4201; paul@forestsforever.org
Marc Lecard, (415) 974-4202; marc@forestsforever.org
Redrawing
the map of the wild
Redefining Wilderness Symposium unites thinkers and doers
A gathering
of academics, conservationists, public-lands managers, recreation
industry professionals and local community members will come together
at the Redefining Wilderness Symposium, to be held in the San Francisco
State University Student Center on April 5 and 6.
The organizers of the symposium hope to find new ways of looking
at the natural world, and new ways that thinkers, teachers, students,
professionals, managers and ordinary citizens can work with each
other to protect, restore, and come to understand the concept and
reality of wilderness.
“What we’re trying to do is to have a truly organic
and creative dialogue around our concept of wilderness in the public
sphere, the academic sphere, and the professional world,”
said Mike Yoshioka of Bay Area Wilderness Training, one of the sponsors
of the symposium. “We want to identify areas of overlap, areas
of conflict, and reconcile them, so that out of this we can develop
an effective language matrix for wilderness that gives us much more
of a politically and socially powerful tool.”
A wide range of speakers drawn from academia, government and private
industry will address the definitions of “wilderness”
and attempt to redraw the boundaries between our day-to-day experience
and the natural world, and between different groups and individuals
who work in, with and about wild nature.
The ultimate aim of the symposium is to reframe the very idea of
wilderness, and make new connections among people concerned with
it: biologists, conservationists, land managers, child psychologists,
philosophers and linguists, as well as members of the community.
The symposium will feature panel discussions of topics such as “The
Living Wilderness” “Toward a Philosophy of Wilderness,”
and “The Who and How of Wilderness Use.”
Paul Hughes, executive director of Forests Forever, will participate
in a panel discussion of “Wilderness and the Politics of Land
Management.”
In addition to the panel discussions and addresses, there will be
workshops in wilderness first aid, backcountry skills, wilderness
education and activism. Musical performances and art exhibits will
be offered throughout the symposium, and there will be student paper
and poster presentations.
“The cool thing about this symposium,” says Yoshioka,
“is that there is no predetermined specific outcome. It’s
like when you go out backpacking into the wilderness; you go in
there knowing you’re going to explore and discover.”
Organizations sponsoring the symposium are: Bay Area Wilderness
Training (www.bawt.org); Eco-Students
of SFSU; Californians for Western Wilderness (www.caluwild.org);
Forests Forever Foundation (www.forestsforever.org);
Pacific Leadership Institute (www.pliprograms.org);
and Hostelling International, Golden Gate Council (www.norcalhostels.org).
For a full schedule of panels, participants and workshops, visit
the Bay Area Wilderness Training website at http://www.bawt.org/symposium,
or call Mike Yoshioka at (530) 277-5940.
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