My name is Karsten Heuer, sitting here at Flints Park - the beautiful Flints Park.
And my job lately is called Resource Management Specialist.
Wildland Resource Management Specialist, I guess.
Okay, I'm Frank Burstrom and the department I work in is Resource Conservation.
My name is Dillon Watt and I work for Trail Crew in Banff National Park.
Wilderness I guess is a bit of a tricky thing to define.
To me, I suppose it's more of an experience rather than a place with defined boundaries.
It's an experience where you feel that you're fitting into your role
in the way the natural system is going and you feel quite a bit of freedom.
Sometimes it's a whole day of feeling that: "wow I'm very isolated where I'm working right now"
or sometimes it's just a few moments somewhere
and you catch a glimpse around and realize you're in an amazing place.
To me that makes me feel like I'm in the wilderness.
We have what we call zoning that we set out for National Parks and it's a way that we manage our parks system.
And what the zoning does is define which areas we consider wildland zones or wilderness areas
compared to those areas like in the Bow Valley which are high use areas.
It's a way of managing a park.
I don't think we could look at it as a defined line that,
you know, you step across and say "that's wilderness and that's not."
Just as you get further and further away from townsite, further away from human occupation,
it becomes more and more of what we would consider a wilderness area.
Wilderness isn't a place you can draw on a map, I think it's really an attitutde.
It's an approach as to how you think.
Certainly when we're we're back in a place like this
and we're on a 8-day trip where we've seen just a handful of people,
that I think we may say: "oh yeah, this is wilderness"
and it is and it's the sort of in-your-face wilderness.
But wilderness also is for a kid the dragonflies preying on mosquitoes in their backyard
in the middle of an urban neighborhood.
It's the weeds growing up through the cracks in the sidewalk,
the things that kind of belong in that place that would happen if we sorta just left things to their own.
That's what wilderness and wildness is.
There was one night, we were working Trail Crew, we were in the backcountry,
in the Bryant Valley and it was a beautiful, beautiful week.
We were getting lots of our work done.
Going down through Peters Creek in the north end of the park and it's raining cats and dogs,
you got your slicker on, you're soggy you're wet, you're cold, you're tired.
and it was one of those perfect evening with the sun going down, soft light on the mountains.
and you just for a moment say, "Well I'm gonna sit down and have a smoke and a bite to eat" and...
Just as it was getting dark, we could hear two bull elk bugling at eachother from across the valley.
You smell that fresh rain, you hear the rain rattling off your hat and the stream going by.
and eventually them meeting up and their antlers clashing together over the valley as the sun set.
It's kinda like, "This is kinda nice".
It doesn't matter that it's cold. It doesn't matter that you're uncomfortable
After a hard day's work, those kind of moments definitely stick out in particular to me.
It's like, "This is home. This feel good. I should be here."
I think a huge value in these places,
is, it's almost sort of a spiritual or a mental value or a balance point,
for the rest of humanity, for all of humanity.
Even if you'll never get to these places,
just knowing that they exist is hugely important for human mental health.
When we're feeling stressed and completely overwhelmed in the middle of the city
and you've had a harrowing day at work and you come home
and the kids are screaming and the car broke down,
the furnace is acting up and you're ready to shoot yourself
and then you remember, "Wow, there are these areas...this is just a small part of the world.
The world is actually a big beautiful place. Get a grip of yourself.
This isn't what life is. Life is a beautiful celebration of big, wild places."
Just knowing that that exists, that grizzly bears roam these alpine meadows,
that deer and wolves are moving through these valleys,
that birds are nesting in these willow thickets.
And just that life has so much power and persistence.
All have a calming effect that allow you to remember who you are, what you are and how you fit in.
Alright, let's pack up!