Wilderness Writings and Adventures

Published: April 13, 2021

Student leaders embarked this past weekend on Walkabout 2015, the 10-day hike in the Smoky Mountains that traditionally caps off summer break and launches a new school year. This years group, 62 members strong, includes resident chaplains, members of GCs student association and GC staff. The trip marks the Colleges eighteenth Walkabout.

Organizers frame Walkabout as an opportunity for spiritual renewal. This experience sets the tone for our residence life and student government leaders for the school year, explains Ross Baker, director of housing. Baker describes being still in the wilderness as invitation for personal reflection and transformation.

This years Walkabout comes just three days after The Meadville Tribune published a book review of The Wilderness Writings of Howard Zahniser (University of Washington Press, 2014). Zahniser, a kindred spirit to todays hikers, graduated from Greenville College in 1928. He went on to author The Wilderness Act that protects more than 100 million acres in 762 wilderness areas in 44 states today.

The collection of 30 essays, compiled by Zahnisers biographer Mark Harvey, provides a window into the uncommon focus and tireless advocacy Zahniser demonstrated on his mission to secure passage of the act.

Reviewer Kirk Johnson, executive director for Friends of Allegheny Wilderness, called the compilation an invaluable encapsulation of Zahnisers life work that deserves prominent placement on bookshelves next to wilderness classics like Rachel Carsons Silent Spring and Aldo Leopolds A Sand County Almanac.

Howard Zahniser deserves higher regard and increased recognition not only in the pantheon of great American conservationists, but in the pantheon of great Americans, writes Johnson.

Last fall, Greenville College President Ivan Filby announced a multi-year strategy that calls the College to extend its heritage to new generations of students. Part of Zahnisers legacy is the continued value his alma mater places on the transformative nature of the wilderness experience.

Without the distractions of modern contrivances, this years Walkabouteers may share Zahnisers understanding that to know wilderness is to know a profound humility, to recognize ones littleness, to sense dependence and interdependence, indebtedness and responsibility.

GC Alumnus Snyder Named Conversation Educator of the Year

Alive and Thriving, GCs Unique Wilderness Heritage

Keeping the Wild in the Wilderness The Nation Celebrates Zahnisers Work

Photo of Howard Zahniser courtesy of Adirondack Research Library of Union College, and Protect the Adirondacks! Inc.

TheMeadville Tribunereview of The Wilderness Writings of Howard Zahniser is available on the Friends of Allegheny Wilderness website).

GCs Fund for Educational Excellence fuels experiences for students that enrich, empower and endure. Click here to give.