The Get Wild Festival, celebrated Saturday at the Civic Center, drew attention to the act that helped protect 9.1 million acres of wilderness lands.
Several exhibitors at the festival focused on educating visitors about the Wilderness Act and how they can make an impact for the better on their environment.
Sarah Lujan, president for the student-run organization Lobo Strategies for Ecological Education, Diversity and Sustainability (SEEDS for short) focused on the use of field guides at the event.
It is important for people hiking to identify what they are looking at, she said. Field guides are vital to hiking because they inform the hiker on what to expect and the wildlife that lives there. The Wilderness Act is the best way to preserve the land and the wildlife because they restrict human activities on the land, she said.
“Even your presence, walking around, can change how the animals act around you and how they interact with their environment,” Lujan said.
Lobo SEEDS is working to get involved in local schools and offer short, educational presentations on how to approach nature.
Courtney Bierschbach, an educator for the Subaru/Leave No Trace nonprofit organization, led another education exhibit. She travels around the United States to teach people to be more responsible and ethical in the outdoors.
Bierschbach works with her husband to provide free education to anyone interested in learning how to “leave no trace,” she said.
The new trend is moving from backcountry use to front-country use, she said. About 85 percent of recreation happens in front-country, or day-use areas.
“The reason we are here is because of the Wilderness Act,” Bierschbach said. “We have all these great wilderness places and the land managers in charge of them said, ‘look, we’re loving them to death. People don’t know how to take care of them. What can we do?’”
New Mexico offers a great diversity in landscape, she said. There are places in which she can stare out at the open space and then turn around to face the Sandias, which she describes as an incredibly unique experience.
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Much like the Bierschbachs’ exhibit, the U.S. Forest Service had a log-cutting exhibit
Jennifer Sublett, who works with the Forest Service in Española, helped oversee the activity. Participants had the opportunity to use a crosscut saw to cut a 12-14 inch-thick log, which helped illustrate what it takes to maintain trails, she said.
“It’s not as easy as it looks,” Sublett said. “It’s quite an experience for people. It’s work — it’s teamwork.”
The festival also celebrates how technology has evolved over 50 years, she said. It is easier to repair and maintain the trails now than it was before.
Other exhibits focused on wildlife protection, and informed people on their habitats.
Kevin Bixby, executive director for the Southwest Environment Center, said their focus is to further the protection of the Wilderness act by stopping the wildlife killing contests that take place in New Mexico.
Wildlife killing contests happen all around the United States, he said. They want to stop that from happening and restore wilderness lands to a state with native species living naturally.
The wilderness act helps protect more than just land, he said. Animals do not do well in the presence of humans, and through the wilderness act areas like Otero Mesa are safe havens for native animals.
New Mexico has a lot to offer that other states do not, he said. Among the states, New Mexico is fourth in biological diversity — second for birds and third for mammals, he said.
“New Mexico sits at the intersection of major biomes,” Bixby said. “We have a great diversity of landscapes, which means habitats; anything from deserts at 3,000 feet in elevation to mountains at 13,000 ft.”
Included in New Mexico’s diverse landscape is a series of caves in the southern region.
Jason Walz, a cave specialist for the Lincoln National Forest, said the celebration of the act is important because it reminds people of the wilderness lands across the country.
“If you aren’t talking about it, people aren’t going to know about it and they’re not going to appreciate it,” Walz said. “That’s why I am here: to make sure people know about the caves. The caves are holes in the ground; you don’t see them.”
The Lincoln National Forest has several wilderness areas; however, the caves are not included, he said. The forest still treats the caves as a wilderness area in effort to preserve them for later generations.
The caves offer a unique experience that separates the individual from the outside world, he said. The experience is still as impressive as being in a designated wilderness area.
“When I am in the caves, I really feel that sense of adventure,” Walz said. “Everybody has their own unique experience.”
Moriah Carty is the assistant culture editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at cultureassistant@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @MoriahCarty.
