Transcriber: hilal ışık Reviewer: David DeRuwe
I’d like to share a personal journey with you,
a journey that may be familiar to some of you,
a journey of enlightenment, and a journey that brought a confession,
a personal confession.
My journey starts here in Eagle Vail, Colorado,
my first Christmas in Eagle Vail,
and I was witnessing a herd of elk, wandering across my front yard.
It was in the late 1970s when I built my first wilderness hideaway
there in Eagle Vail,
a home that sat up on a ridge,
looking out onto a beautiful valley two miles west of the Vail Ski Resort.
Incredible growth and development, followed that first Christmas.
This is Eagle Vail Valley now.
There are now 12 golf courses stretching down that valley,
and as you can see, business centers and shopping centers
replace the beautiful grasslands where the elk once calved and grazed.
And in the background you can see the renowned
Beaver Creek ski area that opened in 1980
and now shares over 1800 acres of wilderness with the natural wildlife.
After that first Christmas, I never saw another elk.
There were great financial benefits, though, to this growth and development.
My magazine publishing business in Vail prospered,
as does the rental and the sale of my home,
and the rental to those who wanted to experience the magic of the mountains.
But these financial benefits
ate at the core of my original dream of mountain living.
So reluctantly, I sold my home in Eagle Vail,
and started visiting Big Sky, Montana in 2007
with my son, Preston, who was nine at the time.
I was on a quest.
My goal was to find a home in a location
that I could pass along to my son, Preston,
that would provide the unique experience of the natural wilderness
and all of the wonders that came with it.
I learned to find out that I was inspired by biophilia psychology.
Eric Fromm, noted social psychologist in 1973,
describes biophilia as a desire to interact
or associate with other forms of life in nature,
a tendency to seek a connection and commune with nature.
Well, I shared this feeling and this newfound feeling with my children,
and they said, “Dad,
you’re getting a little woo-woowy on us here, buddy.
So the next thing we know you’re going to be hugging bears.”
And I turned to them and I said, “Let me tell you something, kids,
I’m getting a little older and I’ll be as woo-woowy as I want.”
(Laughter)
At first, Big Sky looked and felt like the place,
and my feelings were reinforced by this picture of my son, Preston,
catching his first Montana brown trout out of the Firehole River
in Yellowstone National Park.
Oh, Preston, he was hooked.
You could see - he caught the fish,
and he was running down the river, going “Dad, Dad! Look at this fish.”
Well, I looked at the fish and I could see that the fish was saying,
“How could I be so stupid as to be caught by this kid?”
Well, I’d be happy to report
that the fish did survive this rather embarrassing situation,
and he's now back in the river,
probably looking out for stupid little kids like this
to avoid getting caught again.
(Laughter)
Well, this picture marked the beginning of our summer sojourns to Big Sky.
For one month every summer,
Preston and I would share unforgettable wilderness adventures,
experiencing the wonders of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem.
Now, this is an area that represents over 34,000 square miles of wilderness.
That’s an area as big as the state of South Carolina,
and many times referred to as the “American Serengeti.”
Well, in addition to sharing these wilderness adventures with my son,
I decided to join some local organizations
to help further the importance of sensitive development
and hoped to avoid the calamities that engulfed my first wilderness hideaway.
Well, as time went on and growth and development continued in Big Sky,
I began to notice a conundrum,
a conundrum that faced the families,
the business people, and those who bought second homes in Big Sky.
The financial benefits of this growth and development
were weighing against the negative impact
that this growth and development was having on the natural wildlife,
the natural wildlife,
that which drew me and many others to Big Sky in the first place.
So after seven summers,
I reluctantly didn’t buy land or a home in Big Sky,
and started to realize
that in fact that would have been a very good investment.
But investment was not my goal; I didn’t look for financial profit.
I was trying to find that natural legacy that I could pass on to Preston.
And I came to realize,
and this is my confession,
that I should be looking at my own impact on that legacy,
so in 2011, I acted upon that reflection,
and I, along with many others,
began to support the Yellowstone Forever Lake Trout Removal Project
in hopes of seeing the return of the indigenous Montana cutthroat trout
left imperiled by man’s introduction of the lake trout in Yellowstone Lake.
Now, this was rather a daunting task,
given the fact that Yellowstone Lake is some 136 square miles of wilderness.
But actions combined with patience and persistence -
we had prevailed.
Even old Preston got into the act
in letting the lake trout know it was time for them to go.
So now what we’re seeing is an increase
in the cutthroat trout in Yellowstone Lake.
and in the streams and the rivers that feed the lake.
But what is really exciting
about the success of this project is that we’re also seeing a ripple effect
from the return of the cutthroat trout in the streams and rivers.
We’re now seeing animals
who have been dependent upon the cutthroat for the food source.
Bears are now returning to the rivers and streams,
bears that had been turned to cattle and to elk as a food source.
Eagles and osprey are now returning,
as well as many other animal species whose natural feeding habits
had been disrupted by the dramatic reduction of the cutthroat trout.
Now, this is just one example that highlights the positive ripple effect
that can return the natural balance to the wilderness,
the natural balance - that which has sustained
the evolutionary growth of the wilderness for centuries.
So now I’m supporting another project
that focuses on bringing back this natural balance,
and that effort is in the form of a book entitled, what do you think?
“Ripple Effects.”
Now “Ripple Effects,” authored by Todd Wilkinson,
president of Mountain Journal.
Todd provides some suggestions
that not only improves the status of the targeted species,
but also provides a ripple effect that will prove the well-being of many.
Now, there are certain factors that are pertinent to the success of this effort,
two of which I would like to share with you this evening:
The first one is really quite obvious if you step back and think about it.
Animal species really only have two main motivations.
First one is eating.
Second one is reproducing.
Let me give you an example:
This is Grizzly Bear 399 in Grand Teton National Park
with her four little cubs in 2020.
Now, think about it.
399, she doesn’t have to worry about a mortgage, credit card bills, or rent.
She doesn’t have to worry about college tuition
for these four little fur balls that are following her around.
Now, 399 and all the other animal species
really only have to worry about two things:
feeding and breeding.
And we,
we are getting in the way.
So when we’re looking about trying to bring back this natural balance,
maybe we ought to look at it from an animal’s perspective
who only wants to feed and breed.
So what I’m suggesting is
perhaps we ought to give the animal speciesa seat at the table.
Now, no, I’m not getting woo-woowy again.
This is a symbolic statement.
A seat at the table.
A seat at the table where the solutions are being discussed
and the goals are being set,
goals that, yes, may be a little bit inconvenient to us
and perhaps pushing us a little bit of our comfort zone,
but realizing that nature and the wilderness
are far greater than ourselves.
The wilderness was here way before we got here;
it’s going to be here way after we are gone.
Biophilia is a desired lifestyle.
This starts with loving the way that you live
and then allowing that love to transform you
into becoming a protector, a steward of wildlife and wild places.
My mission is simple.
I just want to be able to leave to my son, Preston,
a legacy in which he will be able to enjoy the same incredible adventures
that he and I were able to enjoy when we were here.
Preston and I really would just like to leave the wilderness
a little bit better than how we found it.
So I guess my question to you this evening is,
What ripple effect would you like to leave for future generations?
Thank you.
(Applause)