Roads. That’s the thing that’ll mess up a perfectly good wilderness.
Back when the United States was being settled, a wilderness was a forbidding place; dangerous and mystical, a savage kingdom of wild animals and fairy tale creatures. Its rugged mountains, mucky bogs, tangled thickets, torrential rivers and harsh weather resisted human intrusion. The wilderness lay outside cities, towns and farms, menacing beyond the firelight, threatening travelers passing through it on modest byways.
But that was then.
Today, we no longer fear nature. We have conquered it with our heavy-duty, wilderness-conquering machines. The modern wilderness is merely the places where the tracks of civilization have not yet been laid. We do not pass through the wilderness to get from one civilized outpost to another; we pass through civilized territory, and the wilderness lies on the outskirts in confined areas.
“Think about where you are at this very moment, reading these words. Think about the land beneath your feet, under your seat, and right outside your window. Chances are that your current location is like much of the rest of our planet today – dramatically altered and under the direct control of human beings, utterly unrecognizable in terms of its prehistoric qualities.” – quoted from US Forest Service website
For the last twenty-five years, the federal government’s Roadless Rule has kept humans from tracking up 45 million acres of wilderness across the United States, including 16,000 acres in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. These lands are in danger following a June 23, 2025 announcement by the Secretary of Agriculture of the government’s plans to rescind the rule.
To resist human intrusion these days, a wilderness must be designated as such by the government. Achieving this designation is the goal of Keep the U.P. Wild, a coalition working to protect areas of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, including Norwich Plains, Ehlco, Trap Hills and the Sturgeon River Gorge.
Funny thing about wilderness designations: an area has to somehow be left alone by humans long enough to grow sufficient “wilderness character” to qualify as a natural environment worth preserving.
The advocates of Keep the U.P. Wild say these areas of the Upper Peninsula have done that. Together, they comprise more than 50,000 acres of pristine or recovering forests, much of which has lain untouched since development stopped in the 1980s.
Ecological systems substantially untouched by civilization
Unrestricted and unblemished by modern human control or modification
Free of permanent improvements and the noise and clutter of modern human habitation
Provides for solitude or primitive and unconfined recreation
Including ecological, geological, scientific, educational, scenic or historic
Information courtesy US National Park Service
Photos by Daniel Lincoln, Harrison Fitts, Gary Meulemans, Phil Robson, Patti Black, Priscilla Du Preez, Mika Luoma, Patrick Federi, Ian, Luiz Cent, Ed 259 and Ram
