The purpose of this website begins as a vaguely defined set of ideas and imaginings. First and foremost in this endeavor is my love for natural settings. This began in of all places, New Jersey. My older brother used to have to tolerate me following him around and he would get into all kinds of places. The one's I found most fascinating were his hunting around for insects. There was a small woodlot down at the end of our street where we would play and a large park just a block away in another direction. Not very wild mind you, but where I grew up we could go just about anyplace. Cut through yards, make a fort in the "lots" and go play in the park. Then there was trout fishing. I don't know how he did it, taking four boys and even some others, all of us with our lines constantly tangled, needing bait, hungry or thirsty, and so on. Fishing meant we got to go to some exotic land that seemed far away. An hour or two away by car was like going to Mars. Other things in my youth also caught my attention about the outdoors. My grandfather took us seining in the bay. Eels, crabs, gars, and other interesting creatures would appear in the net as we hauled it onshore. I also played in the ocean, and at times got to watch the sunrise and wonder at the far horizon - water as far as you could see! The ocean got into my soul then. I never spent any real time out in the water in a boat, other than a few fishing trips. Yet the water haunted me in a way I can't explain. Still to this day whenever I see the ocean it calms me down and I feel more centered. It is like I am supposed to be around the large expanse of it all. Eventually I was able to head out west and spend six years in Montana. I had learned that I also loved to be in the forest. On a visit to Montana I found out there are places with big forests that go on for mile after mile. With the mountains added in for good measure, it was like heaven. The Bitterroot Mountains are still wild country, back in the Selway and into Idaho. I spent time fighting forest fires there. The first time I was dropped off in a helicopter in a remote place with a small group of people to fight a fire I was absolutely awed. I had seen the stars before, but not like at the top of this mountain, tens of miles from the nearest house or light. I awoke the next morning at the false dawn. Sitting there watching the sun come up I had found a new ocean. The mountains are now in my soul too. Since then I have traveled to many places, both in the US and in other parts of the world. Yet I have come to love the Selway more than any other place. I have become keenly aware of how fragile and tenuous our hold is on our public lands. I have driven across the country and seen large areas of public land turned into dark landscapes filled with derricks, gas rigs and endless roads. I held my breath just recently when the transitional government tried to sell of land leases for oil and gas rights right next door to Arches National Park. I knew what this could mean, the scene it could create and how not only I would never get to see that part of the world in the same way again but that some would never be able to see and experience what I and so many others had seen. So this site is my part in telling others about our land. Your land, and mine. What I see and experience. Where this land is and what is out there. What has been done to it, what is now being done upon it and even what is not being done. And who is or who is not doing these things. So welcome to your public lands. National Parks National Forests

State Parks
• Red Top State Park

State Forests National Grasslands Wildlife Refuges Marine Sanctuaries