"'We can’t restore the river because it would require taking out the dam, but we can understand how the dam impacts ecosystems, then try to understand how to best manage it,' [Anya] says. 'You can’t always manage for restoration, but you can try to manage for a healthy ecosystem.' Healthy is a tricky, subjective goal. Jack believes that for the future of healthy rivers, and to hold onto some modicum of pristineness, we should try to keep the Green as wild as we can. The dams have broken the rivers, that’s inarguable, but they’re there. So now, he says, it’s important to try to manage the rivers in as natural a way as possible and to gather as much data as possible to try to figure out what natural looks like. It’s a combination of looking realistically at the ecosystem and working smartly within the bounds of what we need to exist." — Heather Hansman Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West
"I’d had this idea that I could push myself physically through anything if I was tough and smart and rugged, and that the push would show me something about myself and my place on the river. That being able to do things alone was a sign of strength, not fear. I’d thought I could conquer the landscape and fully understand the problem of water use. But none of that is true. The tough part is connection, looking across lines and knowing when to push the lever on what you think is right." — Heather Hansman Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West
"Keep close to Nature’s heart, yourself; and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." — John Muir via Samuel Hall Young Alaska Days With John Muir
"I’m increasingly interested in making myself a sheet of paper, in forfeiting my privileged status as author and allowing stacked stones, mud mortar, surrounding geology, encompassing weather...to do the writing." — Leath Tonino Adventure Journal, "The Wild and the Old Places Do Not Need You"
"So we are left with a stark choice: allow climate disruption to change everything about our world, or change pretty much everything about our economy to avoid that fate." — Naomi Klein This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
"All that the sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild." — John Muir "The Scenery of California"
"Rational (or conscious) thought always lags behind the emotional reaction." — Laurence Gonzales Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why
"Fear puts me in my place. It gives me the humility to see things as they are." — Laurence Gonzales Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why
"In a true survival situation, you are by definition looking death in the face, and if you can’t find something droll and even something wondrous and inspiring in it, you are already in a world of hurt." — Laurence Gonzales Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why
"The first rule is: Face reality. Good survivors aren’t immune to fear. They know what’s happening, and it does 'scare the living shit out of' them. It’s all a question of what you do next." — Laurence Gonzales Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why
"We realize that every day is a gift. To become who we are and share what we do is a gift. To help one another is a gift." — Lonnie Kauk Alpinist Magazine, Issue 66, "Magic Line"
"The more intensely we want something, the more reasons we will likely find that make it okay." — Jill Fredston Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches
"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself." — Edward Abbey Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness
"This is the most beautiful place on Earth. There are many such places. Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary." — Edward Abbey Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness
"There are still plenty of wild places where one can lose oneself as opposed to getting lost, and just be in a place that you feel perfect in at that moment." — John Hessler
"We all have a place, a city park, a mountain trail, a desert flower, a perfect beach break. Some place that brings us outside. Outside our work, outside our lives, outside ourselves. We might share them with others, but they feel like they are just for us. Most often, they are not. These places, as natural and beautiful and untouched as they seem, are larger than us. To exist, these places require effort. So understand the places you love. Learn who works to protect them, and who makes decisions on their behalf. Give your efforts to these places, and truly get outside." — Amy Morrison Stay Wild Magazine, Spring 2015, insert
"When my companion finally turns and walks into the meadow toward the road, I linger. I am not ready to render myself back into a human being, not ready to return to a car and an asphalt highway. I want to stay just a moment longer. I peer into the forest, where every bit of darkness and light has a face, a set of eyes looking out at me. Nothing emerges. I feel the tug at my back, my friend walking away, and I turn to catch up and become human again." — Craig Childs The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild
"When the aromatic savour of the pine goes searching into the deepest recesses of my lungs, I know it is life that is entering." — Nan Shepherd The Living Mountain
"There are some places so beautiful they can make a grown man break down and weep." — Edward Abbey The Monkey Wrench Gang
"Let the stillness reach a hollowed-out place inside your body—its resonance, loud in its own quietness, expansive in the way of wild. … Do you believe amid the thrum of modern life the sound of any inner silence might become a fable told only under the cover of stars, fading light-years away?" — Sarah Audsley Alpinist Magazine, Issue 65, "An Astonishing Plentitude"
