to a great friend and protector of wilderness Ernie Dickerman 1910-1998 |
A Wilderness for ErnieIn 1986 Virginians for Wilderness proposed a 65000 acre Shenandoah Wilderness for the George Washington National Forest. Although this wilderness was never designated, it received considerable publicity in the media and was supported by the Wilderness Society. We now suggest that this proposed wilderness be renamed the Ernie Dickerman Wilderness.This would be the largest national forest wilderness east of the Mississippi. It would also have many features of outstanding ecological significance, such as old-growth forest and many rare and disjunct species ( Wild Earth 1, (3), 1991 ). It would provide remote habitat and solitude that is rare in the East. The location is near Ernie's home place where he died and one of the few places where such a large wilderness could be created. During late years Ernie worked hard to preserve large parts of it. Ernie was a charter member of the Wilderness Society, and several of the Society's founders, namely Bob Marshall and Aldo Leopold, have had large western wilderness areas named after them. Ernie deserves no less to commemorate his achievements. We ask everyone to support the Ernie Dickerman Wilderness.
Bob Mueller |
Forests of the Central Appalachians Project - samples of areas inventoried and methodology. Occasional updates.
Homestead - Robert F. Mueller's log of several years' worth of homesteading back in the late 1970s.
Big Wilderness in the East - Proposing the Shenandoah Wilderness, mostly in northern Augusta County, Virginia.
Valley and Ridge: A Vision of the Land - The mountain forests, still recovering from turn-of-the-century lumbering devastation, are again building toward the extended old growth deciduous-conifer ecosystem whose potential for wildlife and indigenous biologic diversity can only be guessed at from sketchy historical records.
Appalachian Clearcutters Flunk Siliviculture - Why clearcutting doesn't serve the ecological purpose it is claimed by its advocates to serve.
Of Pipedreams, Science and the Wilderness - It's called "nanotechnology." This was revealed in an interview of MIT zealots on National Public Radio on June 24 of this year. The prefix "nano" means "very small" and in this case refers to ordering manipulations on the atomic scale. (From Earth First!, February 2, 1987, page 27)
Wilderness Proposals - The George Washington National Forest - Central Appalachian Wilderness in Perspective - Management of the George Washington National Forest is in a state of flux, as it is in the National Forest System as a whole. In the evolving mental climate of the administrators, the true function of big wilderness-as the imperative for biodiversity and the evolutionary process-is still only faintly grasped. (from Wild Earth Vol.1 (3), pp
62-67) .
Forest Ecology in Brief - A digest of forest ecology basics for novices or children.
Free Range Science on the World Wide Web - an editorial.
Energy in a Real World - An approach to energy that arises out of Nature itself and which defines the limits of compatible energy interactions with that Nature.
The Wilderness Bill for the Jefferson National Forest - do your part to show your support.
Mountain Top Removal and Valley Filling - the greatest threat to all we hold dear in Appalachia.
Wilderness - the Global
Connection - When we come to consider the global wilderness as its
own justification our welfare automatically follows, because we
always have been and will be part of that wilderness as long as we
survive as a species.
Ecological Preserves for the Eastern Mountains - The acreage devoted to ecosystem preservation
is far less in the East than in the West, even when the proportion of public
lands in the two regions are compared. Let's do something about it. (republished, June 2003)
The Monongahela National Forest - An overview of the possibility for large wildernesses in this National Forest in West Virginia., (republished, Feb. 2003)
About the Proposed Ernie Dickerman Wilderness, July 2001
Report to our supporters, April 1999
An amusing response from the Virginia Division of Natural Heritage.
Emergency! Blackwater Canyon is to be logged! do what you can to stop them.
A flyer about what is wrong with the logging practice called clearcutting.
Documentation of abuses and violations perpetrated by the United States Forest Service at their proposed Elk Mountain Timber Sale in the Monongahela National Forest.
Correspondence documenting Forest Service Data Manipulation perpetrated by the United States Forest Service for their proposed Burner Mountain/Mountain Lick Timber Sales in the Monongahela National Forest.
Correspondence documenting Forest Service Data Manipulation perpetrated by the United States Forest Service for the Whitetop Opportunity Area in the Jefferson National Forest.
Friends of Wetlands -
one of the few grassroots groups devoted to the protection of wetlands in general. A good combination of science and political savvy.
Patagonia -
a visionary and public-spirited company, assists small
grass-roots citizen groups in the struggle for a livable planet.
POCLAD - Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy -
"Instigating democratic conversations and actions that contest the authority of corporations to govern."
Save America's Forests -
To stop the downward spiral taking place within America's public lands, we must become Citizens in Action. We must push Congress to protect our wild treasures.
Links of Like Minds
Environmental Ethicists Links
Also, see RF Mueller's personal poetry page.