WILD10, The 10^th World Wilderness Congress , Salamanca, Spain, 4-10 October 2013!

The WILD10 process is well underway in Europe. The Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (newly reconstituted) is the national host,  having provided some of the start-up funds allowing the WILD10 Executive Committee to continue  the collaborative process  that started in 2011 to identify practical objectives, create partnerships and design a process to achieve them, and implement a program for the Congress itself.

WHY Europe? — The return of wild nature to Europe is nothing short of spectacular.  With over 50 million hectares of abandoned farmlands (and increasing), forests and natural  corridors are re-emerging across the continent.  Populations of wildlife have rebounded and are on the move, with wolves now roaming from Italy to the Netherlands , from Germany to Belgium.  Ancient species of ungulates (bison, cattle and horses) are being reintroduced to wildland areas.

In addition, there is a growing political mandate for wilderness, with the European Parliament passing a resolution (by a wide margin) in 2009 to protect the continent’s remaining wilderness and restore  wildlands where possible.  There is also a vibrant and expanding NGO sector playing a role as partner/collaborators in WILD10, such as Rewilding Europe working to restore large wild and natural landscapes (over 100,000 ha) and associated rural economies across the continent;  Wild Europe focusing on wilderness policy; PanParks on certification of sizable, core wilderness areas within National Parks; our close (Wilderness Network) partner Wilderness Foundation (UK) providing wilderness experience programs for under-served youth and communities; and many more.

Stay tuned to this space where, within the coming months, we will announce the launch of the WILD10 website with details on the rapidly building program and how you can participate in the global social media campaign to promote wild nature by being on-site in Salamanca in 2013 and/or participating in the extensive virtual, on-line Congress, WILD10 en vivo!

Location: Vail Mountain School: 3000 Booth Falls Road, Vail, CO 81657
Time: 6:30 pm Reception, 7:00 pm Lecture
Tickets: $35, or $25 for VS donors

Wildlife, like people, must move in order to meet their daily needs. Yet oftentimes our transportation systems stand in the way of wildlife. Colorado’s Interstate 70 (I-70) between
Golden and Glenwood Springs presents the biggest obstacle to wildlife movement in our region.

For over a decade, the Colorado Department of Transportation has been working on plans to relieve congestion along I-70. This planning effort has provided a unique opportunity to find ways to restore connections between wildlife habitat on the north and south side of the highway. One innovative tool to move wildlife safely throughout their territory is an elevated wildlife bridge over the interstate. In this panel discussion, Theodore P. Zoli, Nina-Marie Lister and Harvey Locke will share their respective expertise on the importance of wildlife movement to ecosystem health and innovations that can affordably and beautifully redesign public infrastructure to accommodate both wildlife and growing human communities.

Theodore P. Zoli is a structural engineer who is leading the design of elegant and enduring bridges around the world and making major technological advances to protect transportation infrastructure in the event of natural and man-made disasters.

Nina-Marie Lister is Visiting Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. She was the Professional Advisor to the ARC International Design Competition, which developed innovative designs for a wildlife crossing structure in Colorado.

Harvey Locke is a conservationist, writer and photographer. He is a recognized global leader in the field of parks, wilderness and large landscape conservation and has extensive experience with the development and effectiveness of wildlife crossing structures over highways.

>>Visit the official Vail Symposium event page

>>See what one of our Directors had to say about the event!

You’re Invited!

Please join us to support & celebrate wild nature at The WILD Foundation’s holiday fundraiser on December 2, 2011.

Enjoy a glass of wine or pint of beer, hearty hors d’oeuvres, place a bid in our quaint silent auction, and mingle with our Board of Directors, Trustees, Staff, and Volunteers. Learn more about WILD’s international conservation programs and how you can get involved.

Where: Chautauqua Community House, Grand Assembly Room
900 Baseline Road, Boulder

When: December 2, 2011, 6-9pm

Why: Because wild nature worldwide needs your support.

Suggested donation of $25 can be made online or at the door.

RSVP to The WILD Foundation by Friday, November 25th 303.442.8811 x 10 or melanie@wild.org

WILD’s work for wilderness worldwide is only possible with
the support of passionate individuals like you.

*Please consider the environment by carpooling with friends or taking public transportation! Parking is limited once inside Chautauqua.

Muir was one of four finalists selected for the 2011 Ernst and Young World Entrepreneur Awards Programme in the Social entrepreneur category. He was at the ceremony to receive the award.
“This award will help us to build on what has already been established with regards to the Umzi Wethu program as well as our other social investment programs. We will have access to the Schwab Foundation’s global network, providing unprecedented opportunities to engage global decision makers,” says Muir.

“I believe that our main strength as a foundation is the integration of social intervention and environmental sustainability. We are not just a conservation-oriented organization. The Wilderness Foundation recognizes that the sustainability of South Africa’s wild lands and wilderness is intrinsically dependent on its social and economic sustainability.”

According to Ajen Sita, CEO for Africa at Ernst and Young, the company has been recognizing successful entrepreneurs through the program for the past 14 years. “We are humbled to be associated with and award these individuals who are making a remarkable difference to our economy and the societies which we operate and live in. We congratulate all finalists for their exceptional performance.”

The Umzi Wethu program transforms vulnerable youth, affected by poverty and HIV/Aids with a skills development and job placement into highly employable young adults with sustainable futures. Since 2006 a total of 107 students have graduated- 64 being Hospitality students and 43 Game Ranging students. The job retention rate of Umzi graduates is about 85% and placement rate is 94%, with 85% currently employed despite the challenge of an ecotourism industry set back by the recent global financial crisis. This is particularly significant as 50% of all our students are HIV/AIDS orphans who are especially affected by the effects of HIV/AIDS and violence that accompanies the deep poverty of communities from which they come. In addition 10% of graduates have advanced to junior and middle management positions in eco-tourism industries and five have been enabled to pursue tertiary education.

>>Read the Ernst & Young press release

This award is particularly special because of the wilderness champion for which it is named.  Robert Marshall (1901-1939), a renowned writer and activist, was head of recreation management with the Forest Service for several years and introduced the concept of a formal, federal designation for wilderness lands.  The award acknowledges wilderness champions who continue in Bob Marshall’s footsteps in the modern day.

The award specifically recognizes WILD for:

• Initiating and facilitating the development of the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation for Wilderness Conservation, signed at WILD9, the 9th World Wilderness Congress (Mexico, 2009).   This MOU is the first formal agreement between countries on wilderness conservation and resulted in the establishment of an active North American Intergovernmental Committee on Cooperation for Wilderness and Protected Areas (NAWPA Committee) comprised of the heads of land management agencies in the United States, Mexico and Canada.  WILD facilitates the Working Groups that carry out decisions made by the agency heads, who recently extended coverage of the MOU to include all protected areas under the jurisdiction of their agencies.  (http://www.wild.org/main/how-wild-works/policy-research/mou-on-wilderness)
• Leadership in developing, managing and publishing the International Journal of Wilderness. WILD launched the Journal in 1995 and continues to publish this choice tool for wilderness advocates and managers.  (http://ijw.org)
• Dedication to wilderness stewardship through managing three of the four editions of the Wilderness Management textbook, the most comprehensive and up-to-date information available on wilderness management, history, philosophy and policy. (http://www.wild.org/wild-store/wilderness-management)
• Exceptional history working to perpetuate quality wilderness for present and future generations through the World Wilderness Congress (WWC).  Started in 1974, the WWC is WILD’s flagship program.  Having now convened nine times in seven different countries, the WWC is the world’s longest running public environmental forum and has a long history of practical conservation results.   One is the Global Wilderness Forum for Government Agencies, in which the USDA Forest Service takes a lead organizational role (http://www.wild.org/main/world-wilderness-congress).

>>Read the entire press release

The Tuareg nomads of Mali have a saying: “We live with the elephants, and the elephants live with us.” The Dogon, Fulani, and Tuareg peoples share land with the last remaining herds of desert elephants. For hundreds of years, the elephants have followed a 300-mile circular path in Mali, West Africa, the longest migration route of any elephant in the world. Once a year, they must pass through the Elephants’ Doorway in the cliffs on their way to find water. But what happens when that doorway is blocked? The local people are determined to continue their peaceful coexistence with the elephants, and they communicate with each other—over the radio and under the palaver tree—to solve these kinds of problems. Small changes can make a big difference!

Helen Cowcher shows that, when everyone works together, it’s possible to preserve the delicate balance of life in the desert and protect these magnificent desert elephants.

Advance Praise for Desert Elephants:
“Desert Elephants is a valuable and urgent book. It is a seminal contribution that will help save this unique elephant population”
–Dr. Mike Chase, founder & director of Elephants Without Borders

“Desert Elephants presents this potentially complicated ecological case study in the most simple and delightful terms. It’s a pleasure to experience this book–we will certainly use it in our work.”
–Vance G. Martin, president of The WILD Foundation

“Helen Cowcher captures the great beauty, harmony, and wisdom embodied in the extraordinary coexistence of elephants and people.”
–Joyce Poole, Ph.D., Director of ElephantVoices

>>Buy Helen Cowcher’s Desert Elephants book

>>Visit our Publications and Gear store

>>Learn more about the Mali Elephant Project

In the press announcement about the stamp, Kelly Sigmon (VP of Channel Access) commented: “This stamp marks the fourth semipostal issued by the Postal Service. These types of stamps provide an extremely convenient way for the American public to contribute to help protect threatened and vanishing species. We look forward to working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Multinational Species Coalition to make this stamp a success.”

The Multinational Species Coalition, a coalition created to advocate for the Multinational Species Conservation Funds, is committed to bringing greater attention to this stamp and the funds it was designed to support.  WILD is a member of the coalition and receives support from the African Elephant Conservation Fund  - one of the five funds supported by the proceeds of the stamp.  The other funds are: the Asian Elephant Conservation Fund, Great Ape Conservation Fund, Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Fund and Marine Turtle Conservation Fund.  11 cents from each stamp (which costs 11 cents more than regular postage), will be donated to the fund.

Other members of the coalition are:

• African Wildlife Foundation
• International Elephant Foundation
• American Bird Conservancy
• International Rhino Foundation
• American Veterinary Medical Association
• Jane Goodall Institute
• Association of Zoos and Aquariums
• National Audubon Society
• Bonobo Conservation Initiative
• National Wildlife Federation
• Born Free USA
• The Nature Conservancy
• Cheetah Conservation Fund
• Ocean Conservancy
• Chelonian Research Foundation
• Safari Club International Foundation
• Conservation International
• Sea Turtle Conservancy
• Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International
• Sierra Club
• Defenders of Wildlife
• The WILD Foundation
• Fauna & Flora International
• Wildlife Alliance
• Feld Entertainment, Inc.
• Wildlife Conservation Society
• Humane Society of the United States / International
• Wildlife Management Institute
• International Crane Foundation
• World Wildlife Fund
• International Fund for Animal Welfare

Purchase stamps >

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Harvest Moon” poem tells of what the Harvest Moon represents – a celebration of seasons and a marking of the passage of time using nature as a guide:

It is the Harvest Moon! On gilded vanes
And roofs of villages, on woodland crests
And their aerial neighborhoods of nests
Deserted, on the curtained window-panes
Of rooms where children sleep, on country lanes
And harvest-fields, its mystic splendor rests!
Gone are the birds that were our summer guests,
With the last sheaves return the laboring wains!
All things are symbols: the external shows
Of Nature have their image in the mind,
As flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves;
The song-birds leave us at the summer’s close,
Only the empty nests are left behind,
And pipings of the quail among the sheaves.

About ICOSA:
ICOSA works to facilitate dynamic cooperation, partnerships and assistance among individuals, businesses, communities, governmental bodies and educational organizations to help foster growth and change. Through the sharing of collaboratively-based stories as well as highlighting the “connectors” within those stories and within the community, our hope is that our readers are moved to begin to work together to address and solve a given problem. We also look to students to learn how to work more collaboratively and to make a difference – both professionally and personally – by using these stories to track movement of community members and “connectors” in action.

they slid
like sponges,
like too many thumbs.
I knew this, and what I wanted

was to draw my hands back
from the water – what I wanted
was to be willing
to be afraid.

But I stayed there,
I crouched on the stone wall
while the sea poured its harsh song
through the sluices,

while I waited for the gritty lightning
of their touch, while I stared
down through the tide’s leaving
where sometimes I could see them –

their stubborn flesh
lounging on my knuckles.
What good does it do
to lie all day in the sun

loving what is easy?
It never grew easy,
but at last I grew peaceful:
all summer

my fear diminished
as they bloomed through the water
like flowers, like flecks
of an uncertain dream,

while I lay on the rocks, reaching
into the darkness, learning
little by little to love
our only world.

~ Mary Oliver ~

Since it started in 2007 the BBC Wildlife Fund has supported 87 projects worldwide for threatened species and their habitats. It has also been able to profile the importance of international conservation very effectively – one aspect of which has involved increasing focus on wilderness attributes.

Its closure is part of a wider rationalization within the BBC, but will yield very small savings, and is widely regarded as a tragic waste of opportunity. The implications go well beyond the Fund itself if a major international icon such as the BBC is seen to turn its back on practical support for international conservation.

One initiative is underway to save the BBC Wildlife Fund:

An online petition – a LOT of support is needed to convince the BBC to retain its Wildlife Fund, but it is achievable.  Please sign this by 4 August…keep BBC wild in action as well as in words and images!

At WILD9, the 9th World Wilderness Congress (Mexico, 2009), we further explored the connection between humans and wild nature through a cultural experiment of applying the most ancient art — body adornment — to the plight of endangered species and spaces.

I eagerly embraced this idea conceived by Patricio Robles Gil, artist and conservationist and our partner in WILD9, and we set about to make it happen. During more than a year of great challenges to conceive, finance, and produce this body painting/nature conservation process the end result was often unsure and, like most creative masterpieces, never fully conceived until it actually occurred. It was a quietly classy, stunning event.

In keeping with the 35 year tradition of the World Wilderness Congress, “body painting” during the WILD9 process clearly demonstrated that our conservation message and mission is most effective when it uses inspiration, beauty, and uniqueness to communicate the human connection to wild nature. The 1600 conservation delegates from 50 nations understood by personal experience and internal exploration — not through being told directly– that the nature conservation movement should and must expand its own self image and style, and dare to communicate the conservation message in new and different ways…always and continuously, and with beauty and hope.

No one can convey the impact of this experiment better that Patricio, who recently presented it on his website, and produced a superb and short video that tells the story.

“Being a conservation photographer is not just about visualizing the issues or following interesting story lines. These are important, of course, but make no mistake, the real work of the conservation photographer begins after the last click of the shutter has been made. It is what happens with the images afterwards that matters most. Making wonderful pictures is important; being accomplished story-tellers is a must; following journalistic guidelines should be an automatic part of of our workflow, but what we do with our images to make sure conservation action takes place, is what defines our unique brand of photography,” Cristina Mittermeier, Founder of iLCP (Source: EcoLocalizer)

“Conservation photography goes beyond iconic beauty shots of nature, connecting us with these places and their struggles for survival, ” Morgan Heim, multimedia photojournalist (Source: The Nature Files)

So, you might ask….How does one become a conservation photographer?  The best way is probably to follow one around for a while to learn from their every move.  That’s why Eric Moore and his team at the Telluride Photography Festival put together a unique workshop on conservation photography with iLCP fellow Garth Lenz and local environmental organizations.

Last year, I reviewed portfolios for the festival, and one of the questions almost everyone asked me was — how do we collaborate effectively with nonprofits?  The conservation photography workshop with Lenz will give participants hands-on experience with a conservation campaign.  More details below.  If you sign up for the workshop, stick around and say hi!  I’ll be there again reviewing portfolios and enjoying the company of some amazing people.

Join iLCP Fellow Garth Lenz for an in-depth workshop on conservation photography (September 25-28, 2011). Working with a local conservation group, this workshop will give participants an opportunity to be a part of a major campaign and play an important role in producing the images required to achieve success and produce positive change. Drawing on his 20 years experience working with large and small conservation groups throughout the world, and, through individual instruction in the field and group critique sessions, participants will learn how to effectively create a compelling visual narrative for conservation. Instruction will be provided in landscape, threats to the environment, close-up, and people in the environment, all in the context of producing images to educate and inspire advocacy for conservation issues. We will also cover giving presentations, working with ENGO’s, and how to fund projects. Work shot during the workshop will be hung at a unique exhibit at the Photo Festival.

The day comes surely to us all
When Autumn’s years will fall,
And memories serve our best recall.

With mind alive, yet body weak,
We sit immersed in life’s critique,
In rhythm to a rocking creak.

Few ask of you, dear mother earth,
If something bettered from my birth,
That gave a measure to my worth.

Your bounty we do so deface
To measure in our market place,
I blush to gaze upon your face.

Is something better due to me?
Guide, oh earth, my memory,
To lift this nagging agony.

A bumblebee that I set free?
A child I showed to plant a tree
Who championed ecology?

A woods I urged them not to clear?
Did I decline as profiteer
That wild things might not disappear?

Proclaim me not conspirator,
Whose deeds and values you abhor.
Be merciful, inquisitor.

I failed to be your orator,
To speak for things not spoken for,
Or heal your wounds and know you more.

Assembled goods around me now,
All fail to raise despondent brows
Nor validate belated vows.

Life’s worth revealed may surface bleak
From shallow years which now bespeak
This rocking chair’s own somber creak.

Cycling Silk 2011 Trailer from Kate Harris on Vimeo.

• Tuesday 12 April 2011
• 7-9pm
• Unity Church of Boulder
• 2855 Folsom Street, Boulder CO
• $10 donation to benefit The WILD Foundation (you can pay at the door with cash or check or pre-pay online using a visa/mastercard)

Our ancestors saw the world as a living being. This idea has been similarly articulated for our modern age in James Lovelock’s “Gaia Theory.” David Spangler takes it another step, and helps us see Gaia as more than science, and as a renewed type of relationship between each of us and the natural world. “Thinking Like a Planet” is a way to address the growing environmental concerns and our sense of increasing imbalance between human society and nature.

In this talk, David Spangler explores what this means and how we may accomplish it by drawing on his personal experience of the spirit of Gaia and his many years of contact with beings and allies within the spiritual worlds—what he calls the “second ecology” of the earth.

About David Spangler

David Spangler has been a spiritual teacher since 1964. From 1970 to 1973 he was co-director of the Findhorn Foundation Community. He is also a co-founder of the Lorian Association, a spiritual educational foundation, and a director of the Lorian Center for Incarnational Spirituality.

His work involves enabling individuals to develop an incarnational intelligence. He is the author of Blessing: The Art and the Practice; Subtle Worlds: An Explorer’s Field Notes, and Facing the Future. Information about his online courses, books, and workshops can be found at www.Lorian.org.

“When kids are outside everyone’s happier — us and them. Get them started with the Outdoor Baby Network” – Lenore Skenazy author of the book and blog, Free-Range Kids.

Spending time outside connects us to the natural world, recharges our ‘batteries,’ and connects us to the people we are with. These simple statements are at the core of WILD’s values. People connect more to each other and to the world around them when they spend time in nature. In the past year, we’ve seen a lot of work to show the physical and psychological benefits of spending time in nature, disconnected from the modern gadgets that run our lives.

With the popularity of Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods and more attention to the newly coined “Nature Deficit Disorder“, we’ve seen a rising interest on the part of schools, educators, nonprofits, governments and, of course, parents to encourage children to spend time outside in nature. For example, last year in the US the No Child Left Inside Act was passed in and President Obama declared June Great Outdoor Month to raise children who feel a connection to the earth and who are invested in the joy that the outdoors brings to their lives.

And, there are a growing number of good online resources for parents who want to encourage their children to enjoy time outside. OutdoorBabyNetwork.com is one that I think is on the cutting edge. In partnership with authors, Jen Aist, Nicole Beinstein Strait and Margaret Emerson, parent bloggers Heidi Ahrens and Melynda Coble-Harrison joined forces for this social networking site for families who enjoy the outdoors!

OutdoorBaby was previous a blog site, providing quality stories, gear reviews, and ideas on how to be better prepared to play outdoors. The new site adds a social networking component that allows parents to interact and share stories. OutdoorBaby is for kids and parents of all ages. There are groups (communities) for different activities and areas — today I even say a group of European Outdoor Babies! Keep an eye on this site for sure….

And, just some proof that I still love to play outside with my mom – a picture from our snowshoeing adventure at Brainard Lake, CO (December, 2008).

Although winter is nearly over here in Colorado, we certainly have a few more snow storms to look forward to before the flowers start blooming and spring arrives. One of the truly magical things about a big snow storm is the quiet sparkle that comes right after the snow stops falling from the sky. Amazing!

This year, I’ve spent a lot of time out in the woods, playing in the snow. Quiet (but labor-intensive) winter activities like nordic skiing and snowshoeing allow me to enjoy the snow-covered scenery even on blustery cold days. I often think of Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” It’s a lovely and simple poem that always seems to fit my mood when I’m out in the woods with many miles ahead of me and behind me. I hope you enjoy it too…..

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Check out the latest version of Flathead Wild, produced by Epicocity Project to raise awareness and support for the protection of the Flathead River valley. Flathead Wild was shown this past weekend as part of the Denver Film Festival and will continue to be shown in various locations as part of the Wild & Scenic Film Festival.

The film follows the International League of Conservation Photographers for a R.A.V.E. in the Flathead River Valley in Southwestern British Columbia. The goal of these Rapid Assessment Visual Expeditions is to capture compelling media to support an existing conservation effort. Here, in one of the most pristine river valleys on the planet, a proposed open pit coal mine would disrupt a critical habitat migration corridor and pollute the headwaters of Glacier National Park in the US.

The country’s largest environmental film festival is coming to Denver this weekend! The Wild & Scenic Film Festival kicks off each January in Nevada City, CA and then tours the USA and international locations, with over 115 communities hosting the festival. This weekend (6-7 November 2010) the Center for Native Ecosystems is hosting the only Denver stop of the festival.

Harvey Locke, WILD’s VP for Conservation Strategy, will be introducing Flathead Wild, produced by the Epicocity Project, follows the iLCP Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition (RAVE) to the Flathead River Valley in British Columbia. The team of photographers, scientists, local conservation organizations, and cameramen documented the beauty and the destruction of this area, which is threatened by mountain top removal and methane drilling proposals. The goal of the RAVE was to add value and bring attention to the ongoing conservation efforts of the Flathead River Valley, a project that Locke has been working on for years.

The Wild and Scenic shorts, including Flathead Wild, shows on 6 November (Saturday), starting at 2:30 at the Starz Center.