Last week, on my birthday, we drove up Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park. Like so many of us in Montana, we’ve driven and bicycled that road plenty of times. It’s always gorgeous but this particular drive was especially breathtaking. By early October weather has usually closed the Sun Road at the top so we had never seen the higher elevations in Glacier decked out in such spectacular fall colors. Maybe it was birthday buzz, but we both agreed that it was the most beautiful Going-to-the-Sun drive we’d ever taken.
During the drive, I found myself thinking about E.O. Wilson. Dr. Wilson is a well-known biologist and conservationist who knows about the pull of the outdoors. The Pulitzer Prize winning Dr. Wilson has spent years studying the relationship of humans to nature. Over 30 years ago he introduced the theory of “biophilia” which he described as a genetically based human desire to seek connections with nature and other forms of life. Since then, there’s been plenty of research that confirms the health benefits of being close to nature. One study concluded that in urban neighborhoods, having 10 more trees in a city block is comparable to an increase in annual personal income of $10,000 or being seven years younger!
Last year, in an interview, Dr. Wilson said, “Now we’ve come all the way around and are beginning, especially through studies in brain science … we’re coming to realize that there’s something a lot more complicated and deep and wondrous in the development of the human mind, than what we had imagined even. So there is a new trend and biophilia is part of that, because we know that all other animals … are programmed to go to the right environment …They just know exactly where to go and what to do when they get there. Why should human beings not have at least a strong residue of those environments in which we evolved?”
We all know those “beach” people or “mountain” people – folks who are just drawn to specific natural settings. If Dr. Wilson’s theory is correct, these folks may actually carry genetic programming that links them to those environments.
Every time we go through the gate at Glacier National Park I gain a deeper understanding of Dr. Wilson’s theory. To me, Glacier National Park feels like coming home. It was a gift to get to spend my birthday at Logan Pass, seeing the top of the park literally glowing from the gold trees of autumn. Watching a family of mountain goats in new winter fur; well, that was just the icing on an already memorable cake. But that’s Glacier isn’t it? Such a gift.
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