Never to Revisit: Aldo Leopold, eco-grief, and the value of wilderness

Struck by Aldo Leopold’s essay “The Green Lagoons," I became obsessed with understanding just what, exactly, he meant by saying "never to revisit a wilderness." With his enduring reputation as someone committed to the land in all forms, particularly in its wildest states, it didn't make sense that he would really suggest such a thing. But in thinking about my own connections to wild places, I couldn't help admitting that sometimes I felt that way, too: tempted to turn away from changed landscapes and a sense of wildness lost. Was it possible that Leopold wasn't telling us to do or not do anything, but instead professing his own ecological grief?
In this long-form video essay, I explore Leopold's wilderness experiences while inviting folks from different environmental careers to share their connections to wildness and feelings of eco-grief and eco-anxiety. What can we make of Leopold's "never revisiting" wisdom? What role do our own personal experiences of eco-grief play when it comes to wilderness and wildness? And should we revisit - or leave our memories of wilderness untouched?
This video was created as an independent project during my fellowship year with the Aldo Leopold Foundation. All biographical details were fact-checked by Leopold biographer Dr. Curt Meine.
Discussion guide available at this page: www.aldoleopold.org/teach-and...
Watch more of the A Rocha Talks video, "Alone in a World of Wounds: Living with Ecological Grief": • A Rocha Talks - Alone ...
Chapters:
0:00 Opening sequence
1:58 Introduction
5:19 Leopold's wilderness history
13:27 Linking past and present
14:30 Interview - Michelle Doerr
16:33 Interview - Mrill Ingram
20:41 Interview - Ernie Atencio
26:30 Wild places - Michelle
27:32 Wild places - Mrill
28:42 Wild places - Ernie
30:24 If wildness is so special, why the negative emotions?
32:03 Eco-grief - Michelle
33:03 Eco-grief - Ernie
36:12 Eco-grief - Mrill
39:51 Breaking down ecological grief and anxiety
49:22 Why revisit?
54:32 Conclusion and closing sequence
58:03 Credits
End credits music: Cornfield by Serge Pavkin

[@mrrecluse7002]

I grieve like hell the mounting losses in the natural world, and I can't kick it. I'm pushing 74, and I have vivid memories of healthier ecosystems, of countless warblers migrating through the treetops, of masses of butterflies and other winged pollinators, of early morning bird song of much greater variety and quantity, and so much more. I need much more room to express this than I can on a comment board.
The world went into gross "overshoot", as a human tipping point of sorts blew past 3 billion, without looking back.
Whenever I contemplate wilderness, I think of one of my favorite quotes, by Thoreau..."In wildness is the preservation of the world." Our value systems have widely missed this by a moon shot.
I'm just being honest. I'm not a "cruel" person.
Thank you for you well done video.