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what will it take?

By pj finn On January 7, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In featured, opinion, wilderness

This was originally posted on the old buzztail in July 2007.

*                         *                         *

Let’s face it. As a society we are far too comfortable, far too insulated in our cocoons to really be in touch with the wild. Our lives, our living environments, our working environments, all of it, are largely artificial. [...]

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priceless

By pj finn On December 2, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In experiences, featured, hiking/backpacking/outdoors, opinion, wilderness

Some things are too valuable to measure. Priceless is the term — they’re too sacred and profound to demean with a simple dollar figure no matter how high that figure may be. Dollars are a poor measure of life.

How can you put a dollar figure on the experience of waking up to early morning [...]

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Philip Hyde… master photographer at the Lumière Gallery

By pj finn On November 21, 2011 · 1 Comment · In photography, wilderness

Philip Hyde was truly a master landscape photographer. He studied with the likes of Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and Minor White among others. He went on to pioneer the use of color in landscape and wilderness photography. He loved the wilderness, dedicated himself to protecting it, and his intimate and moving photographs were a mainstay [...]

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long live the wilderness

By pj finn On November 19, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In hiking/backpacking/outdoors, wilderness

I still go through the archives from the old version of this blog on occasion to see if I can glean something to revive here on the front page. I have several hundred old posts, but most are dated now — in large part they’re action alerts or political posts that have no current relevance. [...]

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a great book

By pj finn On November 10, 2011 · 2 Comments · In featured, wilderness

by pj finn

Literature on wilderness is always a treasure. Much of it ranks among the best of writing, regardless of subject or genre. That it’s about wild country makes it very special.

I grew up on the lakes of northern Minnesota, not far from the Boundary Waters. One of the greatest voices in wilderness [...]

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Overland Flight

By Greg Russell On November 4, 2011 · 1 Comment · In opinion

by Greg Russell

This essay was originally posted on my blog, Alpenglow Images, October 26, 2011

As we board the homeward bound flight, the sun is setting over the Rocky Mountains, reminding me of my early childhood years living in Denver.  The sunset becomes more intense as the plane is pushed onto the [...]

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The need for wilderness

By Greg Russell On October 21, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In wilderness

by Greg Russell

This essay was originally posted on my blog, Alpenglow Images, August 10, 2011

Its my fourth morning waking up in the desert.  Red dirt fills my pores, and has combined with sweat to form a sort of “desert varnish” over most of my body–a strangely welcome feeling [...]

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the song of the wild

By pj finn On October 1, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In wilderness

by pj finn

Wilderness has a music all it’s own, and if you spend enough time out there you come to recognize it. It’s not a music of scales or time signatures.  You don’t hear it as notes or melodies. You simply feel it in your muscle and sinew and bones and in the beating [...]

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reminiscing

By pj finn On September 23, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In wilderness

It’s kind of funny how certain seasons trigger memories of past travels and experiences in wild country. When fall rolls around, late season canoe trips in the Boundary Waters come to mind. Winter reminds me of snowshoe and ski trips over those same frozen waters. There are too many from [...]

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the moose

By pj finn On September 22, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In wilderness

In my wilderness wanderings I’ve run into quite a few moose. Some pretty close up, some not so close. They are an impressive animal to say the least.

Back when I lived in northern Minnesota I used to spend quite a bit of time at my friend’s cabin near the Boundary Waters. Moose country. Now [...]

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putting the wild first

By pj finn On September 20, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In wilderness

Looking at maps of places like Montana and California, we have what appears to be a lot of wilderness. But is that really true? We have much of what can be called ‘island wilderness’ or ‘rocks and ice wilderness’ but little in the way of connecting corridors or far-reaching ecosystem protection. But what is wilderness, [...]

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game over?

By pj finn On September 19, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In opinion

BrandObama and the State Department seem hell-bent on permitting the Keystone XL pipeline and moving tar sands oil down the length of the US. But:

The leading NASA climate change specialist James Hansen summed up what’s at stake saying: “If the tar sands are thrown into the mix it is essentially game over” for a [...]

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why the wild?

By pj finn On September 16, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In wilderness

Image via Wikipedia

Who knows what’s in store for the next few years as far as wilderness protection is concerned. Efforts to protect our wild lands have always taken a back seat to other concerns, mostly economic. I’m not at all sure that they haven’t now been locked away in the trunk.

[...]

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the road not taken

By pj finn On September 12, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In wilderness

(This is another post from the original archives of buzztail done in the spring of 2008. Other environmental threats have of course come to light since then, notably the Keystone XL pipeline project and proposed tar sands development in the greater Canyonlands.  Nonetheless, I feel this post is still timely and valid. In fact, with [...]

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follow buzztail on twitter

By pj finn On August 18, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In wilderness

For the past few years I have been posting alerts, online petitions, and other ways people can get involved and take action on issues that concern them.

I am now posting them on twitter rather than here on the blog. Please take a moment to follow us there, and feel free to retweet to your [...]

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contribute to tim dechristopher appeal

By pj finn On July 29, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In opinion

I mentioned the other day that Tim DeChristopher was sentenced to two years in federal prison for disrupting an illegal lease auction by the BLM. This sentence is being appealed, and Tim could use some help to cover the legal costs.

This is an outrageous and heavy-handed sentence for a courageous act of civil disobedience, [...]

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← Previous Entries

  • follow buzztail on twitter

  • recommended reading

    Desert Solitaire

    Edward Abbey: A Life

    Slickrock: Endangered Canyons of the Southwest

    Coal River

    Reflections from the North Country (Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage)

  • eddie bauer coupon deals

  • REI deal of the day

  • Get Kelty gear at Wilderness Exchange

    Big savings on Kelty tents, sleeping bags, and packs!


  • the idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders -- Edward Abbey


  • authors

    pj finn --
    the American West

    Greg Russell --
    Riverside CA




  • www.freepress.net

  • montana blogs

    • 4&20 blackbirds
    • Clean Green Sustainable
    • Heartland
    • Left In The West
    • North Fork Preservation Association
    • photomontana.net
    • Piece of Mind
  • watchdogs

    • Alliance for the Wild Rockies
    • Earthjustice
    • ForestEthics
    • Greenpeace USA
    • Honor The Earth
    • Indigenous Environmental Network
    • Oregon Wild
    • Rainforest Action Network
    • Wild Earth Guardians
    • Wild West Institute
    • Yellowstone to Yukon
  • stop tar sands oil

    • Dirty Oil Sands
    • Oil Sands Truth
    • Tar Sands Action

  • stop mountaintop removal

    • Appalachian Voices
    • Coal River Mountain Watch
    • iLoveMountains.org
    • Keeper of the Mountains
  • california blogs

    • Alpenglow Images
    • Path To Well-Being
    • photomontana.net
  • canyon country/utah

    • canyon country zephyr
    • southern utah wilderness alliance
  • hiking/backpacking/outdoors

    • Meanderthals
    • Modern Hiker
    • Out There With Tom
    • the trout underground
    • two-heel drive
"Grand Canyon victory! Ban on new mining: http://t.co/jgwpBqd2" — buzztail7

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    This was originally posted on the old buzztail in July 2007. *                         […]

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