Oral Presentations and Performances: Session III
Project Type
Presentation
Project Funding and Affiliations
Wilderness Institute, University of Montana
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Andrea Stephens
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Franke College of Forestry & Conservation - Wilderness Institute
Additional Mentor
Steven Krutek (steven.krutek@mso.umt.edu)
Abstract / Artist's Statement
I spent autumn of 2025 interning with the Great Burn Conservation Alliance as a Heart Lake Ambassador, keeping a field journal to document the land as I saw it. The Great Burn Proposed Wilderness lies straddled across the border of northwestern Montana and northern Idaho, a swath of roadless area at the center of the Great Fire of 1910. Today, the landscape is a thriving ecosystem spanning across the rocky slopes of the northern Bitterroots.
Over the course of the late summer and early fall, I fell in love with the area and I wanted to immerse myself in all that it had to offer. The area is steeped in fascinating natural and social history, and this book attempts to unpack that history using my field journal as the central thread of the story.
Building on my own experiences in the Burn, I discuss the conservation movement and the idea of Wilderness. Drawing on Roderick Nash, Sigurd Olson, and other wilderness authors and philosophers, I describe my own experiences and how they fall into the greater context of a land that remains threatened after a presidential veto kept it from achieving Wilderness status.
Ultimately, this book presents the history of the Great Burn Proposed Wilderness in a partial and personal way; given everything that I have seen and felt during my time on the land, I argue that the Great Burn should be protected through official Wilderness designation using my own writing, photographs, and artwork to support my claim.
Category
Visual and Performing Arts (including Creative Writing)
A Narrative History of the Great Burn Proposed Wilderness
UC 329
I spent autumn of 2025 interning with the Great Burn Conservation Alliance as a Heart Lake Ambassador, keeping a field journal to document the land as I saw it. The Great Burn Proposed Wilderness lies straddled across the border of northwestern Montana and northern Idaho, a swath of roadless area at the center of the Great Fire of 1910. Today, the landscape is a thriving ecosystem spanning across the rocky slopes of the northern Bitterroots.
Over the course of the late summer and early fall, I fell in love with the area and I wanted to immerse myself in all that it had to offer. The area is steeped in fascinating natural and social history, and this book attempts to unpack that history using my field journal as the central thread of the story.
Building on my own experiences in the Burn, I discuss the conservation movement and the idea of Wilderness. Drawing on Roderick Nash, Sigurd Olson, and other wilderness authors and philosophers, I describe my own experiences and how they fall into the greater context of a land that remains threatened after a presidential veto kept it from achieving Wilderness status.
Ultimately, this book presents the history of the Great Burn Proposed Wilderness in a partial and personal way; given everything that I have seen and felt during my time on the land, I argue that the Great Burn should be protected through official Wilderness designation using my own writing, photographs, and artwork to support my claim.