"The Savage Wilderness" | Reviewed by Bill Schwab

Does wilderness exist? What is wilderness? Cal Flyn seeks answers to these probing questions as she travels worldwide “to some of the world’s wildest and most invigorating landscapes.” She also draws on anthropology, history, philosophy, and psychology to answer these questions.

With exceptional skill, Flyn takes the reader on an extensive journey of discovery. From the desert to the mountaintop, from volcanic eruptions to the deep sea, from the rainforest of the Amazon to the ice sheets in Antarctica, Flyn examines the many facets of how humans understand wilderness. Her primary aim is to highlight the contradictions inherent in today’s conversations about nature conservation. Three contradictions especially drew my attention.

The first one is the myth of pristine nature. The Scottish journalist argues that there is no pure wilderness anymore: “there is only land occupied by misunderstood and disregarded peoples; land that creates an impression of untouched nature, the perception of wilderness.” She maintains that almost everywhere, land has been modified: “one man’s wilderness has almost invariably turned out to be another man’s garden.”  To think there are places untouched by humans is naïve, a myth to be exposed.

The second conflicted issue she discusses about nature conservation is the tension between conservation and social justice. For example, the author writes about the Brazilian government’s eviction of little-contacted forest peoples, the Yanomamis, from their homeland to “tiny reservations” because ethnographers have depicted them as primitive savages. “Far from being unpeopled,” Flyn writes, “wilderness was simply the home of people unlike oneself.” Wilderness protection is laden with racism, Flyn argues. “Conservation refugees are, in some sense, human sacrifices to nature. And like most sacrifices, they have been offered without consultation or agreement.” Basically, there is a clash between how we value human life versus the lives of other animals. She asks: “When push comes to shove, who gets elbowed off the ark?”

The third conflicted issue in nature conservation circles that Flyn examines is the loud rhetoric about letting nature take its course again, even though humans are commonly involved in restoration projects. Rewilding often involves active management, whether planting trees on clear-cut hillsides, reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone, or eradicating bush honeysuckle.

All these efforts involve human intervention. Flyn is not opposed to rewilding but cautions: “In sculpting the landscape into a vision of what we call ‘wild’ we risk adding only one more layer of artifice. Past experiments in refining nature have so often backfired, creating crises where before there were only problems.” Her question to rewilders is: “What do we risk through interference, and what might we gain from restraint?”

Although she expresses strong opinions, Flyn is open to opposing viewpoints; however, she is seldom swayed. Instead, she uses the differences of opinion to illustrate how many conservation topics are more complicated than they initially appear.

Does wilderness exist? What is wilderness? Flyn’s answers are not straightforward because “Wilderness is an enchanting delusion, a bewildering confrontation with the non-human, and ultimately a beautiful ideal whose mystical, transcendent qualities retain the power to inspire us to save our planet.”

“The Savage Landscape” is an extraordinary exploration of wilderness and its meaning. It offers not only a log of Flyn’s physical excursions to spellbinding places but also challenges readers to take personal inward journeys to explore their values and ethics concerning nature conservation. Though she provides expected deep research and facts, Flyn also presents ethical challenges, keen insights, and transfixing examples seldom found in nature conservation books. I found it to be a contemplative read.

About the author: Cal Flyn is the Distinguished Writer in Residence at Wesleyan University and has written for many publications, including National Geographic, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal. Flyn won the John Burroughs Medal for distinguished nature writing and natural history books and received the $20,000 E. M. Forster Award, presented by the American Academy of Arts and Letters to a writer from the United Kingdom or Ireland.

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