« Sharing Space with Wild Critters; Being Together in One, Living Community »

Juanita, my spouse, Tyler, our grandson, and I packed up our camping gear before sunrise the day we left the Grand Tetons and headed for nearby Yellowstone National Park. For us, tent-camping increases our intimacy with wildness. Even the “inconveniences” of camping help us experience more deeply our interdependence within Nature. In Yellowstone, we shared living space with bison, wolves, grizzlies, black bears, birds, and insects. We saw and felt steam from Earth’s magma where it pierces the ground, forming geysers and springs. We witnessed the wild water and falls, treacherously beautiful, and flowing out of control with snowmelt after a winter with 200% normal snowpack. Many moments reminded us that we were in spaces where we were not in charge. We were welcome, but, clearly, we needed to learn the etiquette of relationships with the species and forces inhabiting these wild spaces.

Driving into Yellowstone early that morning, we headed toward the Norris Campground in search of a tent site. Suddenly, we had to brake to a dead stop. The road ahead was filled with a queue of stopped vehicles. What was going on? The question was quickly answered when a brawny bison ambled toward us in the lane of oncoming traffic. It’s four legs seemed much too thin to hold up the great beast moseying along on them. There it was: an American icon of the Plains heading our way, and bringing to a halt a technological icon of our culture, the automobile.

During the next week we had many more bison moments. Marvelous beasts! So stunning, beautiful, and smelly; so dangerous when approached. What an opportunity we missed in U.S. westward expansion when we slaughtered vast herds of them rather than seeking interdependence! 

Most often, when we saw bison in Yellowstone, they seemed unable to hurry (although they can run up to 35 miles per hour). They wandered through our campground daily and even into our tent site. Though the park service routinely warns visitors to get no closer than 25 yards, in the campsite they sometimes wandered nearer. In those instances, we did not need to move away; just to remain calm, give quiet respect, and show no movement of aggression. As long as we acknowledged their dominance, our subservience, all went well. Yet every year people are gored in Yellowstone because they violated a bison’s space. Bison can whirl suddenly and attack. 

We soon learned the attitude practiced by the park service. The animals live at Yellowstone permanently while we humans come and go. Humans may manage the park, and visitors may come throughout the year, but, in the park, we are the not the dominator species that we practice being outside the park. Yellowstone continually works at understanding interdependence and practicing it. Speed limits top at 45 mph throughout the park so that traffic can yield to the bison, grizzlies, wolves, and other mountain mammals. It’s a really slow speed given the vast distances of the park. But even at that speed, animals get hit too often. 

Other campground rules also brought home to us how we were sharing space with the animals. We were required to clear our campground table of all foods, drinks, and cooking gear after every use. We were to lock it all up in our car. We did this every night after dinner and again every morning following breakfast. Only our tent occupied the campsite all the time. To be sure, such chores were inconvenient. But they were a wonderful, strong reminder that we were not the boss. We were guests for a short stay, sharing space with other species and learning a bit about living interdependently with them.

Sharing space with wildlife as collaborating partners in Earth’s community of life gets us into the OneEarth mindset of wilderness. How different this is from the more typical attitude characteristic of the MultiEarth paradigm where Homo sapiens expect preferential treatment, even regarding wilderness. There’s a widespread attitude among us that we have an inherent right not only to protect ourselves from wild creatures and plants but to determine where they may live and how. Most of the time that dominance assures we can benefit economically from our position of power.

[Excerpted from my forthcoming book, From Egos to Eden: Our Heroic Journey to Keep Earth Livable.]