My Name is Angelita Bulletts and I am the Forest Supervisor for the Dixie National Forest,
for the US Forest Service. The fiftieth anniversary of the Wilderness
Act is something that is very important to the Dixie National Forest because we have
four designated Wilderness Areas. The Wilderness Areas on our forest are untrammeled,
they're peaceful, and tranquil. There are many different individuals that have this
special feeling for Wilderness Areas for the Wilderness Areas to go on for future generations.
It's important that those people be able to pass on that knowledge that they have.
There was a time, when in these mountains, these Rocky Mountains, there were people that
we called mountain men. Well those old mountain men, they had to learn
how to survive in the wilderness. Well those days are gone and now what we have to do,
we have to learn how we can live so the wilderness can survive us.
The Creator gave us the most beautiful mountains in the world. And they are all around us.
He is not giving us any more. So if we have areas that are designated to be Wilderness,
the purpose of that is to maintain those lands so they are as pristine as we can keep them.
So that when we go and our children go we can enjoy the mountain the way the Creator
made the mountain. What Wildness Areas are are lands that have
been congressionally designated for their pristine beauty.
Right now we are in the Ashdown Gorge Wilderness Area. It's about 7000 acres and we are at
an elevation of about 10,400 feet or so. It gives us an opportunity to enjoy and see
and experience nature at its best. It is what nature intended it to be. These
trees haven't been cut it hasn't been altered by man, it's been untrammeled. It's
in its natural state, natural setting. It's what Mother Nature intended land to
look like. You won't hear a car drive through Wilderness, you won't see an ATV run down
this trail or a bike down this trail. We can have our solitude here. You know we
have been here a couple of hours now, and we haven't seen another soul. That is the
wander of Wilderness. We get to go out and wander in its wonder.
I think there's many things that are unique about the Box-Death Hollow Wilderness Area.
And I think they all kind of hinge on the fact that this Wilderness Area occupies a
region of the United States that was the last to be mapped in the continental United States.
It is filled with a plethora of natural features so there's plunging canyons like this one
behind us there's mountain ranges there's these huge folds that trend north/south and
so because of this it made travel through this area more challenging which kind of helped
keep people out. So that also enabled it to be designated as
a Wilderness because that frontier character has been preserved. Today people can come
and they can experience an unparalleled level of personal discovery and solitude.
That's almost kind of unsettling at times. I think this is really one of the last places
maybe where you can go in there and you can potentially find places that nobody has ever
been before. And also some natural wonders that maybe nobody
else has ever seen. The Hells Backbone Bridge is right behind
us here that was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933 as a route to connect Escalante
and Boulder. It also provides a place where people who
don't necessarily want to immerse themselves in kind of a rugged survival type experience
they can come and peer in and almost have an idea of what it might be like to discover
a new continent or just you know imagine the possibilities and the potential and have maybe
a tiny measure of those feelings of survival and renewal and hope.
The Cottonwood Forest Wilderness Area is part of the 110 million acre National Wilderness
Preservation System. And it's the newest of the four Wilderness
Areas on the Dixie National Forest. One of the things that is unique to this area is
it's a little piece of Zion. It shares some of those red rock features, with some deep
narrow red rock canyons. It's a transition area here before it transitions
up into the Pine Valley Mountain. Because it's this little red rock cove here and
then you have your transition up into the higher mountain wilderness area.
There's a place on the Pine Valley Mountain that�s called Spirit Creek. The water of
Spirit Creek, is magic. The stories are if you dip your feet in Spirit
Creek, you can walk a thousand miles. But even better than that, if you drink the
water of Spirit Creek, it will course through your veins.
When this happens, your eyes will be opened. And you will see the mountain in a new light.
You will see the mountain, like the cougar sees the mountain, or the elk sees the mountain,
or the bear sees the mountain. You will see the mountain with a new appreciation,
a new understanding. You will start to think of things that you
can do to help preserve and protect the mountain. For my people, that Pine Valley Wilderness
is actually called Mountain Sitting. It's called Kaiva-karu, and that means
"the mountain sits, majestic." So you can see that mountain from many different
directions for miles and miles. And that wilderness is there as designated
Wilderness for future generations.