July 2003
“Matt” Bennett became attracted to the policy side of forestry as a student at the University of Tennessee. That interest became more focused in the early ’90’s when the Spotted Owl and Endangered Species Act controversies thrust forest management to the forefront of the country’s environmental debate. Like many with formal training in forest management, he was struck by how the rhetoric coming from environmental groups at the time seemed to fly in the face of sound forestry. Determined to understand why, he began to read and study all the environmental literature he could from the Earth First! Journal to books about Deep Ecology, eco-feminism, and eco-spirituality.
At first he found it hard to see how it all tied together. However, when he discovered The Wildlands Project (TWP) and its sister publication Wild Earth, it became obvious that environmental groups were beginning to form a consensus on how they wanted the future to look. He reached the conclusion that, in its boldest vision, TWP calls for setting aside a minimum of 50 percent of the North American continent in wilderness or “Wildlands” allowing for little or no human impact.
Since that time, Mr. Bennett has traveled extensively, speaking to people about TWP. In addition, thousands have accessed his web site www.wildlandsprojectrevealed.org to learn more about TWP.
| Back to: | |
|
|