In Wilderness Is the Preservation of the World—Right? Maybe?

“I wish my neighbors were wilder.” — Henry Thoreau

Hanging from the ceiling of the visitors center at Point Reyes National Seashore are plaques bearing famous quotations about the value of the natural world. The one from Thoreau, from his essay “Walking,” reads: “In Wilderness is the preservation of the World.” This, of course, is a mistake. Henry didn’t say “wilderness,” he said “wildness.” But the mistake has become a cliché, suitable for T-shirts and bumper stickers. I think this mistake is like a Freudian slip: It serves a repressive function, the avoidance of conflict, in this case the tension between wilderness as property and wildness as quality. I also think we are all confused about this tension. William Kittredge has been candid enough to admit that “for decades I misread Thoreau. I assumed he was saying wilderness…Maybe I didn’t want Thoreau to have said wildness, I couldn’t figure out what he meant.” I agree. I believe that mistaking wilderness for wildness is one cause of