Page 58 - Flathead Beacon // 1.22.13

58 | JANUARY 29, 2014
FLATHEADBEACON.COM

OUTDOORS

Preserving

Wild Empire

the

Longtime wilderness advocate encourages present

generation to explore the great outdoors in order to

conserve it for future generations
BY DILLON TABISH
OTO
K PH
STOC
TER
SHUT

ick Potts can share a lot of stories about “They were like zombies,” Potts recalled get.

the Bob Marshall Wilderness. One in recently, describing them as dispirited and “They were reborn. The wilderness re-
particular from nearly 13 years ago
overcome with grief after witnessing “the stored their spirit, healed their soul,” he
sticks in his mind.
most unimaginable horror.”
said. “That’s what wilderness does for us.”
It was October 2001 and Potts was
Potts dropped them of at the doorstep of This year marks the 50th anniversary
helping a friend near Seeley Lake who the wilderness and bid farewell as the group of the watershed legislation that preserved
was leading a 10-day excursion into the disappeared into 1.5 million acres of for- sections of public land in their natural state.
wild interior of the “Bob.” The men tak- est, away from the civilized world and into a On Sept. 3, 1964, President Lyndon

ing the trip were emergency room doc- place where the earth and its community of Johnson signed the Wilderness Act into law
tors from New York City and had spent life were untrammeled by man.
“for the permanent good of the whole peo-
the weeks leading up to their trip ex- Ten days later, Potts met the doctors as ple.” The landmark legislation, solely a prod-
periencing the tragedy of 9/11 from
they emerged from the mountains. He saw uct of the American mind, identiied the im-
the front lines.
something in their eyes that he’ll never for-
portance of conserving unspoiled land in

FOR ALL THE

REASONS

WE LOVE

LIVING IN THE

FLATHEAD
VALLEY

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