Orion > Current Wisdom

Join Orion on a video hike through a wondrous land with some of our favorite writers. Their effusive expression of "love of place" -- an expression much out of favor in our mobile American culture, a culture in which, it seems, no one actually comes from anywhere -- is itself a wonder.

In the words of Rick Bass:
These roadless areas in the Yaak are public lands: lands owned by you, by me, by these writers, and by all Americans. Lands that, against overwhelming odds, have managed to retain the grace of their initial creation; fourteen last gardens where all the various and intensely interconnected cycles of life are still free to play out at the original pace with which they were first designed by the Creator.

Nothing has ever gone extinct in the Yaak -- not since the time of mastadons and mammoths -- though many of the populations are down to a single or double digit tally, like a reverse kind of Noah's Ark. Five or six wolves; only two known breeding female grizzly bears, rare even among the rare; one occasional woodland caribou.

The Yaak is a vital linchpin, the narrowest bottleneck in a chain of wildness that extends north from the Yellowstone country all the way up toward the Yukon. And not one acre of it is protected. Not one acre.

This American Land is the fourth in a series of video interviews with beloved Orion writers, produced for Orion by filmmaker Haydn Reiss and Magnolia Films.

This American Land
Saving the Roadless Yaak
with
Rick Bass, Richard Nelson,
Robert Michael Pyle,
Janisse Ray, Terry Tempest Williams

Play 28.8k Movie | Play 56k Movie
Download Time: Approx. 70 seconds
Instructions
(it's easy)

In order to view these videos, it is necessary to install a QuickTime player (if you don't already have one, which you probably do). It's easy, quick, and FREE. Just click on the QuickTime icon at top right. The Download page will ask you for your name and e-mail address, but you don't have to supply it to get the QuickTime Player. Just select your platform (Mac or Windows) and hit the Download button.

A word about video & connection speeds:

If you are like most of us, your connection speed is less than desirable. Regardless, you can view either version of the interview - it just may take longer.

The 28.8k version is a lower resolution version with a smaller window. At a 28,800 connection speed, it should begin to play in about 60 seconds. At higher speeds it will play even faster. It will look the same at any speed.

The 56k version is a much higher quality video with a larger viewing window. At a 28,800 connection speed, it will take 5-7 minutes to buffer before it begins to play. At a 56,000 connection speed - or higher - it will play more or less immediately. It too will look the same at any speed.

Timber "clearcuts" in the Yaak Valley

How You Can Help
(buy this book)

Edited by Rick Bass, this volume is a moving testament to love of place. 35 nationally recognized writers contributed to the book, including all of those seen here in the video. A copy of the book was presented to each member of Congress, the president and vice president, and the chief of the U.S. Forest Service. All proceeds from the book will go to the Yaak Valley Forest Council, for preserving the timeless Yaak. Click Here to order.

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