A couple weeks ago in my class discussion section we talked about the physical and mental constructions of wilderness. The ideas were mainly drawn from William Cronon's The Trouble With Wilderness essay. His paper challenges the modern view of what "Wilderness" actually is and seems to argue that it is actually an idea rather than a physical space. When humans go to the wild they are looking for the sublime, they are looking to connect with the wilderness around them. Cronon poses the question in his paper, what makes nature wilderness and how come the trees in our backyards aren't considered wilderness?
The article really got me thinking during discussion. Is it really possible that wilderness could be more of an idea than a physical space? If so, how can we connect with it and how does this interaction relate back to Cronon's idea of wilderness?
In order to investigate this I first had to find a method of connecting with the wilderness around me. I remembered Justin, my GSI, commenting on how he felt that when people tried feeding squirrels in the diag they might have been trying to connect with wilderness. I thought I would give it a shot.
For those of you who are unaware, the University of Michigan has actually had quite a history with its furry friends in the diag. Students at the university have been feeding these guys since 1913. Don't believe me? Take a look at the picture below!
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| Will Caine, a UofM student, feeds a campus squirrel |
This activity has become so popular that there is actually a squirrel feeding club here on campus. The club was formed in 2002 by students Jason Colman and Justin Hyatt. With only five members attending their first meeting the club quickly grew to having over 400 members by 2004. They meet every Sunday at 4pm to feed squirrels and enjoy nature. Pulling directly from their website the Squirrel Club's mission statement is as follows, "We are dedicated to the feeding and welfare of the squirrels on campus, and we publicize this goal through awesome T-Shirts too."
Following in my predecessors footsteps, I was going to see if it was possible to connect with the wilderness by feeding a North American Squirrel.
The next morning, I grabbed some peanuts and headed off the concrete pathway into nature. Snooping around right next to a tree lay my target, a nice plump squirrel. I cautiously approached the little critter, peanut in hand. He stared at me, sniffed, and slowly slinked over. After thirty seconds of deliberation, the little guy grabbed the nut from my hand, staring at me the whole time, and scurried off. Success!
Looking back on the experience, I'd like to discuss how this relates to Cronon's article.
Before I get started, I'd like to address that there are many complexities that can be drawn from this situation. It would be impossible for me to fairly tackle each one in a blog post like this as there have been whole academic careers dedicated to the study of Cronon's thoughts. I'd like to mainly address what Cronon's argument is and how it impacts our lives.
Cronon basically argues that wilderness can be thought of as an idea with two parts - sublime and frontier. The sublime refers to the religiousness and spirituality that is often attached to wilderness. The frontier describes the ruggedness and wildness of the nature around us. This idea itself can be applied to the nature in our everyday lives rather than a physical space dedicated as "wilderness".
When I fed the squirrel a peanut, I actually did feel somewhat connected with the wilderness around me. It was a pretty unique experience. According to Cronon, these everyday interactions with wilderness are the sort of thing that we need to begin opening our mind to. In his article he states,
Wilderness gets us into trouble only if we imagine that this experience of wonder and otherness is limited to the remote corners of the planet, or that it somehow depends on pristine landscapes we ourselves do not inhabit. Nothing could be more misleading. the tree in the garden is in reality no less other, no less worthy of our wonder and respect, than the tree in an ancient forest that has never known an ax or a saw.My experience with the squirrel showed me that wilderness is in fact more of an idea than an actual physical space. I was surrounded by an urban setting, yet I still felt a natural connection with another living thing. Cronon argues that in order to appreciate wilderness in our everyday life like this, we need to start seeing the wonder in the small things around us. There is no need to venture into a wild forest to feed a squirrel because the squirrel in the diag is just as "wild" as the squirrel in the forest.
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| Isn't he cute? |
This is because when we don't view the trees in our city as wilderness we are essentially stating that wilderness is limited to certain geographical areas that we must preserve, instead of viewing the entirety of the world as something that must be preserved.
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| Taking a quick break |
So as far as feeding squirrels goes, it is definitely possible to see Cronon's wilderness idea emerge, but there comes many political implications from doing so. How does my feeding a squirrel affect it's natural diet? How does this change the squirrel population in the diag? Do these changes justify my right to feed squirrels? All are things that must be thought about in order to further our understanding of modern day wilderness preservation according to Cronon.
I'd be curious to hear all of your thoughts on the post? Do you agree with my interpretation of Cronon? What are other modern day implications of environmentalism based on the wilderness idea? Comment below and let me know.
(Credits: Picture of Will Caine was taken by J.D. LaRue, Photo's of Kevin feeding a squirrel were taken by Javier Torres, Quotes of Cronon were taken from The Trouble With Wilderness, Picture of Squirrel was in public domain, Two pictures of the squirrel on the fence were taken by Professor LaVaque-Manty)
Kevin, first of all, great post! I thought your squirrel experiment was a great way to put Cronon's ideas to the test, and I thought your interpretation of Cronon was spot on. It's interesting how society (in general) seems to associate preserving wilderness with specific places, rather viewing the whole world as wilderness that needs to be preserved. I always find it strange how when I visit national or state parks, I see signs and rules about littering, preservation, etc. While these spots are usually especially beautiful, why wouldn't we want our whole world to be treated with such care? When we associate only certain places with being "wild" and worthing of preservation, we risk the preservation of the rest of the world, which can be thought of as just as "wild," because like Cronon says, wilderness is an idea.
ReplyDeleteHey Kevin! I think your post is really good! In my opinion, your interpretation of Cronon is really clear. Cronon puts forth a really interesting twist to the whole idea of wilderness that is so different from our common perception. I believe that before doing the GSI-assigned reading, most of us may view wilderness as a separate entity from Cronon's definition of wilderness that includes constructed buildings and gardens. I think if we were to take Cronon's definition of wilderness, modern environmentalist effort will definitely need to undergo some radical changes to widen our scope to not just include national or state parks, but also the rest of the world. This is definitely a challenge that can only be faced fully when we all share the same definition of what constitutes "wilderness"
ReplyDeleteKevin,
ReplyDeleteThe squirrels here on campus are definitely one of a kind! I think that was something I noticed on my first walk through the diag; how unusual their behavior was. When I first witnessed someone feeding a squirrel I was astounded. I had never seen a human be in such close contact with a squirrel. I mean, for my whole life at least, squirrels have been those annoying animals that continuously ate the food out of my mom's bird feeders. My mom taught me to always knock on the window to scare the little guys off. However, here at Michigan, I don't think the squirrel would be scared off from a loud banging sound. Instead, they would come up to the window like you were trying to invite them in for something to eat.
Whats funny though is how true your post is. As I relate your post to my life I think of all the places I have lived (long story short - I have moved a lot over the years). Each time we go house hunting my mom is always on the look out for a place with a backyard that she considers "nature." She likes to be able to drink her coffee in the morning while listening and watching the birds through the window. On a side note, I think Cronon would be very impressed by my mom's interpretation of nature; the fact that she views the trees in our backyard as nature in itself. Anyway though, I think a lot of students probably are familiar with a backyard full of trees, birds and squirrels. Although I'm not sure if they consider their backyard as nature like my mom does, I can assume that they do not have the same experience at school as they do back home.
As a student in Ann Arbor, it is hard to live in a place that even has a backyard. Most people live in the dorms or high rise apartment buildings. Therefore, it makes sense for them to miss that sort of "nature" feel of their property at home. As a result, it seems that students have taken up this hobby of feeding the squirrels. Although many people may view this as unusual or strange, it has become completely normal here on campus. However, you're definitely right in your relation to Cronon. Why must people feed squirrels in order to feel connected to nature? Why can't people feel this connection by simply walking the streets of Ann Arbor? Similar to my mom, we definitely have this idea engrained into our heads that nature is only something that we interpret as nature. We pinpoint things as nature without recognizing the nature that exists around us. Like my mom believes the trees and the birds of our backyard are nature, students here believe that feeding the squirrels is their connection to nature. Conclusively, we lack to see nature as something that always surrounds us. My mom and the students here at Michigan are a step toward visioning that, however, we must all open our eyes a bit more.