Wilderness Defense Page of Roger J. Wendell

www.RogerWendell.com
Roger J. Wendell
Defending 3.8 Billion Years of Organic Evolution^SM
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Wilderness Defense!
(1987 - 2002)

"We need wilderness because we are wild animals. Every man needs a place where he can go to go crazy in peace. Every Boy Scout troop deserves a forest to get lost, miserable, and starving in. Even the maddest murderer of the sweetest wife should get a chance for a run to the sanctuary of the hills. If only for the sport of it. For the terror, freedom, and delerium..."

- Edward Abbey, from The Journey Home

Founded in 1987 by Doug Bloom, Donna Mills, and Roger J. Wendell, Wilderness Defense! was organized as a charitable, educational, and scientific organization. For a variety of reasons, in 2002, it was decided that the group would go into hiatus. However, the spirit of Wilderness Defense! lives on in all of us with its goals providing guidance in each of our separate paths. Specifically, the group's goals, as detailed in the original articles of incorporation, were always;
"To preserve and protect the natural environment and its accompanying geology, hydrology and biota - including wilderness, wildlife, paleontological and archaeological antiquities. Also, to encourage recycling, energy and resource conservation in addition to combating pollution, over development, overpopulation and urban sprawl."

Throughout its existence, Wilderness Defense! consisted of a small group of concerned citizens that held a deep love for the Earth and the life that it supports. Although our resources were limited, our enthusiasm remained high! And, as Margaret Mead once said; "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

At Wilderness Defense!, we believe that the 4 Billion year history of life on this planet is more wonderful and beautiful than anything that humans could ever invent or imagine. Therefore, it is our hope that the peoples of the world can learn to work together in preserving the natural wonder of this special planet. Some of the things we can do include reducing our own population level (including the United States, the world's THIRD most populated country), preserving all of our remaining natural areas, recycling and reusing materials whenever possible, developing and using renewable energy sources, and learning to respect not only human life, but all other life as well. With luck, and a little time, humankind can learn to live at peace with both itself, and this world - truly the natural paradise this planet was intended to be...

The Passing of the American West:*

  29 Federal dams on the Columbia River
  60 Million Bison reduced to 20,000 wild specimens
  1 Billion Prairie Dogs now down to 2% of their original range
  100 million Pronghorn Antelope decimated from the loss of prairie
  Missouri River shortened 127 miles and a third as wide due to channeling
  400 Million acres of native prairie, since the time of Lewis and Clark, reduced to a fragment
  Elk, Bear, Wolves, Lions, Sheep, and other creatures at a fraction of their pre-contact populations

*The American East isn't doing too well either. In his 1998 hiking book, "A Walk in the Woods," author Bill Bryson noted that "The Appalachians are the home of one of the world's great hardwood forests - the expansive relic of the richest, most diversified sweep of woodland ever to grace the temperate world - and that forest is in trouble. If the global temperature rises by 4ºC over the next fifty years, as is evidently possible, the whole of the Appalachian wilderness below New England could become savanna. Already trees are dying in frightening numbers."

The United Nations' 2000-2001 World Resources report Says:

  Half of the world's wetlands were lost last century
  9 Percent of the world's tree species are at risk of extinction
  Tropical deforestation exceeds 130,000 square kilometers per year
  Logging and conversion have shrunk the world's forests by as much as half
  About 30 percent of the world's original forests have been converted to agriculture
  Dams, diversions and canals fragment almost 60 percent of the world's largest rivers
  Twenty percent of the world's freshwater species are extinct, threatened or endangered
  Soil degradation has affected two-thirds of the world's agricultural lands in the last 50 years

Click on these two "thumbnail" images for a larger view...

Earth Day:
(Also see my Earth Day page...)

In addition to all the work we did on issues like Two Forks Dam, the Denver Airport, and E-470 we also participated in Earth Day events whenever time permitted. Here's a copy of our 1991 application for Denver's Earth Day...

Natural Conservatives' Wilderness Organization:

In my 20s, during the 1980s, I created the Natural Conservatives' Wilderness Organization (NCWO). Although it later evolved into Wilderness Defense!, NCWO gave me good experience in not only starting an organization, but focusing my efforts on issues related to saving wilderness, wildlife, and biodiversity...

- Roger J. Wendell, July 2005