The mission statement of the Wildlands Project states that "…we live for the day when Grizzlies in Chihuahua have an unbroken connection to Grizzlies in Alaska; when Gray Wolf populations are continuous from New Mexico to Greenland; when vast unbroken forests and flowing plains again thrive and support pre-Columbian populations of plants and animals;…" This sounds warm and fuzzy but what would it mean for the humans in the area?

Davis says about the Wildlands Project publication, "Wild Earth exists in part to remind conservationists that in the long run all lands and waters should be left to the whims of Nature." Davis says that serious conservationists cannot accept development for human needs which he calls "sacrifice zones". Davis prophesies the complete and final demise of human civilization when he states that, "the premise that we ought to save the full range of biodiversity leads logically to the conclusion that humanizing of landscapes must stop now and be reversed." By "full range" Davis means the natural bios as it existed in Pre-Columbian America. This is the premise that most environmental groups are committed to.

Davis concludes his harangue with this revealing statement: "Does all the foregoing mean that Wild Earth and The Wildlands Project advocate the end of industrial civilization? Most assuredly. Everything civilized must go."

Davis unwittingly reveals the dirty secret about the public face these groups put on to elicit public support for their radical view of the future. "..no one need advocate dismantling industrial civilization in order to join with The Wildlands Project. One need only favor the perpetuation of the full range of biodiversity and natural processes. (If you like bears, eagles, scurfpeas, and pearly mussels, join.)", he says. Join even though you don’t support the outcome we have planned for you. Join and add your voice to ours and let us worry about the future. Join because you have warm, fuzzy feelings about wild creatures and leave the driving to us.

Dr. Reed Noss who is associated with the Wildlands Project as well as the University of Oregon and other radical environmental groups describes the corridor that would be needed to assure viability of the grizzly bear in Montana. "If the population of grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is to be connected to other populations, which seems to be necessary to assure population viability, then wide corridors with resident grizzlies must connect Yellowstone with the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (about 200 miles away) and the wildlands of central Idaho. …corridor for grizzly bears should be at least 44.25 km (27.5 miles) wide." In further describing the corridor, he states, "Because Road densities above about 0.5 miles of road per square mile of habitat may be a threat to grizzlies (Bader 1991), road closures would be required to make inter-regional corridors safe ."

The proposed corridor would have to run somewhere between the southern end of the Scapegoat Wilderness north of Lincoln, Mt to Yellowstone Park south of Bozeman. It would cross hundreds of roads not to mention pipelines and large regional power lines and thousands of acres of private land. If these people have there way, do you think they would allow I-90 to run slam through the middle of their grizzly bear corridor? Of course not. It would either be closed and torn up for the width of the corridor plus a buffer zone on each side as would most of the rest of the roads in the area or it would tunnel under the entire width of the corridor. East- west travel would be restricted to one or two narrow, dangerous slow speed roads with no services. This would be the best we could hope for since even high altitude overflight of these areas is considered harmful.

What the radical environmentalists of the Wildlands Project want are " Vast landscapes without roads, dams, motorized vehicles, powerlines, overflights, or other artifacts of civilization.." Noss, who is generally more restrained than Davis states the goal thus: "I suggest that at least half of the land area of the 48 conterminous states should be encompassed in core reserves and inner corridor zones (essentially extensions of core reserves) within the next few decades." Core reserves equals wilderness.

Typical environmentalist that he is, Noss is not satisfied with half as we find out further on in this article. "I would offer a more ambitious long-term goal, pending human population reduction, that at least 95 percent of a region be managed as wilderness and surrounding multiple-use wildlands." Of course Noss envisions himself and his colleagues roaming the 95% in some scientific/management capacity. They would set themselves up as kings of the forest with all the wealth and authority of the federal government at their command. The rest of us will be forcibly confined in the remaining 5%. Thankfully, there will be fewer of us to share that urban desert of poverty, crime and hopelessness. The loggers have already been told by government officials and radical environmentalists alike that they must adapt to the new social realities. Sooner or later we all follow that road if these people win this battle.

Don’t think that Dr. Noss is some lightweight, hemp smoking, tree hugger whose opinion can be easily dismissed. He has a Ph.D. in Wildlife Ecology, a long list of awards and professional appointments to boards and committees. He has written hundreds of articles and books. Noss has worked as a naturalist/conservation biologist for 28 years for various universities, federal and state agencies, including the EPA, and environmental groups. These credentials don’t make him right - just respected. We don’t dare turn over control of our lives to educated fools no matter how many degrees they may have.

But that is exactly what we will do if we let Noss and his colleagues set the agenda for this century.

Dr. Reed Noss: PHD "scientist", author, co-founder of Wildlands Project