Paul Thomas Richards Should Congress Abandon 100 Years of Public Lands Protection to Open a Pandora’s Box of Special Loopholes, Corporate Subsidies, and Dictated Management that Statutorily Excludes the Public?
By: Dr. Stewart M. Brandborg, Executive Director (retired),
The Wilderness Society
I am a fourth-generation Montanan who grew up in a U.S. Forest Service family. Guy Brandborg, my father, served as Supervisor of the Bitterroot National Forest from 1935 to 1955.
I still fondly remember Gifford Pinchot, during one of his last western trips, visiting with my father in front of our fireplace. And, I still marvel at Bob Marshall’s one-day hike from White Cap Creek on the Selway River, up and over the Great Divide of the Bitterroot Mountains, and then down Boulder Creek just in time to join my family around the dining room table for supper.
After earning my Bachelors degree in Wildlife Technology in 1949 and my Masters degree in Forestry and Wildlife Management in 1951, I worked over 12 years as a wildlife biologist with the Forest Service and state wildlife agencies in Montana and Idaho. I then served as Assistant Conservation Director with the National Wildlife Federation in Washington, D.C.
I was associated over 20 years with The Wilderness Society, including 12 years as its executive director, from 1964 to 1976. I was privileged to advocate for the protection of our public lands legacy, presenting the case for wild land preservation across the Nation.
During my tenure, Congress passed landmark public lands legislation, including the Wilderness Act of 1964, creating our National Wilderness Preservation System. Since passage of the Wilderness Act, Congress has protected 110 million acres of publicly-owned wild lands as Wilderness.
We also laid the groundwork for the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which, when ultimately enacted in 1980, protected as Wilderness over 56 million acres of public wild lands within our National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges, and National Forest system.
For more than 70 years, I have been involved with public lands issues.
With this background, it is with deep personal concern that I share reservations about Senator Jon Tester’s “Logging and Recreation Bill,” S. 1470.
This measure, if enacted, poses a serious threat to our National Forests. The Forest Service itself has determined the bill’s mandatory logging quotas to be unachievable, unsustainable, and unaffordable.
Senator Tester’s ill-advised bill was conceived in private and written by five logging corporations and a few conservation “collaborators.”
Deliberations purposefully excluded major players – the Forest Service, local county governments, watershed and irrigation interests, local and state land, wildlife, and wilderness interests, and a broad segment of other user groups – who have concern for the long-term protection of our National Forests.
The Tester Logging Bill undermines laws and administrative procedures that have served well to protect our Nation’s public estate. These laws and regulations require use of scientific management and public processes open to all citizens.
Objective review of the Tester Logging Bill brings these questions to mind:
1. Are Congressionally-dictated quotas for logging sub-marginal and uneconomic timber in the long-term interest of our National Forests and adjacent communities?
2. Does unsustainable industrial-scale logging of nonproductive federal lands offer the best employment for workers, when compared to sustainable forest and watershed restoration programs?
3. Instead of subsidizing roading and logging of fragile forestlands lacking commercial timber, could we better place our priorities upon the plentiful jobs provided by stream bank restorations, culvert maintenance, road obliterations and reclamations, habitat restorations, tree plantings, and selective thinning within designated community protection zones?
4. Should Congress abandon over 100 years of federal resource protection laws, set in place through bipartisan actions of 50 Congresses, and begin dispensing our National Forests to any interest group that gains the ear of any Representative or Senator?
5. Is it wise to set this calamitous precedent from which any member of Congress could dictate the exploitation of public lands, thereby severing our National Forest system into 535 separate Congressional fiefdoms?
6. Do we really want to open this Pandora’s Box of special loopholes, corporate subsidies, and dictated federal lands management that statutorily excludes the public?
In years past, Congress responded to overwhelming public sentiment to protect our National Forests from raids of special interest groups.
Now, we, the people of the United States, must again raise our voices to oppose this reckless attempt to break apart our National Forest system!
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Editor’s Notes:
This Op-Ed is derived from Dr. Stewart M. Brandborg’s extensive analysis of the Tester Logging Bill, published under the heading “Former Wilderness Society Chief Opposes Tester Wild Lands Logging Bill,” and available by clicking HERE.
Dr. Brandborg encourages other media to publish and post this Op-Ed. To obtain permission or further information, contact Dr. Brandborg at: 647 Foley Lane; Hamilton, MT 59840; Ph: 406-375-1122.
Many more details about the Tester Logging Bill, also known as the Tester Wildlands Logging Bill, are available throughout AlterNet’s Dispatches from the Wildlands and at the Web site of the Last, Best Place Wildlands Campaign.
Dr. Brandborg is the recipient of the “Robert Marshall Award,” The Wilderness Society’s most prestigious honor. He currently lives in western Montana’s Bitterroot Valley with his wife, Anna Vee.
Dr. Stewart M. Brandborg, Executive Director (retired), The Wilderness Society
Dispatches from the Wildlands™
©2010, Dr. Stewart M. Brandborg and Paul Richards
Paul Thomas Richards Legendary American Folksinger, Backcountry Traveler,
and Wilderness Advocate
James “Walkin’ Jim” Stoltz
Returns to Earth
Legendary American folksinger, backcountry traveler, and wilderness advocate James “Walkin’ Jim” Stoltz passed late Friday night, September 3, 2010, at St. Peter’s Hospital in Helena, Montana.
Stoltz, age 57, a veteran performer for 35 years with 12 CDs, one DVD and several books to his credit, earned his nickname “Walkin’ Jim,” by hiking more than 28,000 miles through wild country in North America. Packing a guitar and penning extraordinary lyrics along the trails, Walkin’ Jim’s always-humble-yet-strikingly-powerful songs voiced enormous respect and appreciation for the Earth, its wild places, and the wild critters that he carefully studied and truly adored.
A one-of-a-kind performer known for his powerful baritone timbre, stunning photography, humorous and elucidative stories, inspirational poetry, literally awesome lyrics, and emotion-packed vocals, Walkin’ Jim Stoltz toured extensively throughout North America for more than 35 years. His last public performance in Montana, where he lived, was on March 6, 2010, in Missoula, where he played a benefit concert and celebration for the Last, Best Place Wildlands Campaign and Wilderness Watch.
In addition to being a co-founder of the Last, Best Place Wildlands Campaign, Walkin’ Jim Stoltz co-founded Musicians United to Sustain the Environment (MUSE) to raise funds for designating unprotected public roadless wildlands as official Wilderness, award grants to grassroots conservation organizations, and to “utilize music to promote environmental awareness and protection of wild lands, wild waters, and wild lives. We are particularly interested in efforts to protect endangered or threatened species, protection of our nation’s waters, and preserving and restoring wildland habitats. Environmental education for our young — the soon-to-be stewards of our natural heritage – is also very important to us,” Walkin’ Jim wrote when he founded the group with Craig Wagner in 1998. Walkin’ Jim staffed Musicians United to Sustain the Environment until his death.
Musicians United to Sustain the Environment (MUSE) features such luminaries as Dakota Sid Clifford, Craig Wagner, Joanne Rand, Magpie, Libby Roderick, Paul Winter, Dana Lyons, Susan Grace, Karen Goldberg, Alice Di Micele, Walkin’ Jim Stoltz, David Elias, Joyce Rouse, Peter and Lou Berryman, Lydia Adams Davis, John McCutcheon, Larry Long, Country Joe McDonald, Casey Neill, Jez Lowe, Kate Bennett, Katherine Archer, Keith Hammer, Leah Wolfsong, Pete Seeger, Steve Schuch, Kat Eggleston, Bill Oliver, Tom Vincent, Betty and the Baby Boomers, Dean Stevens, Cindy Kallet, Tom Paxton, Tish Hinojosa, Gordon Bok, Emma’s Revolution, Bob Zentz, Josh White, Jr., and Paul Todd.
Grassroots conservation groups that have received grants from MUSE include: Hells Canyon Preservation Council, Friends of the Clearwater, Northwoods Wilderness Recovery, Swan View Coalition, Center for Environmental Equity, Friends of the Bitterroot, Northwest Ecosystem Alliance (now called Conservation Northwest), Native Forest Network, Wild Things Unlimited, Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project, Predator Conservation Alliance (now called Keystone Conservation), American Wildlands, RESTORE The North Woods, Big Sky Wildcare, Natural Resources Council of Maine, Oregon Natural Desert Association, Conservation Leader’s Network, Western Watersheds Project, Endangered Species Coalition, The Heartwood Forest Council, and Forever Wild.
In 2006, beset by cancer, Walkin’ Jim Stoltz organized a 45-state outreach tour with other musicians and authors (many from MUSE), and worked with hundreds of community organizations to support clean water and to protect all public roadless wildlands and their dependent wildlife species. In tribute, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency honored Stoltz with its “Outstanding Achievement Award” for his advocacy for nature and Wilderness across America.
Walkin’ Jim Stoltz was featured on radio and television shows and syndicated programs throughout North America, including National Public Radio in the United States and CBC/Radio-Canada.
CDs, DVDs, Books, Gift Cards, Free Songs, Chords, and Lyrics:
Click HERE to listen to full versions of some of Walkin’ Jim’s songs about North American Wildlands.
Click HERE to download up to 14 free songs, straight from the heart of Walkin’ Jim.
Click HERE for one-minute-long clips from many more Walkin’ Jim songs.
Click HERE for lyrics and chords of Walkin’ Jim’s songs.
Children are encouraged to visit “Walkin’ Jim’s Kid’s Corner” by clicking HERE. Click HERE to read TRUE animal stories written by Walkin’ Jim’s many kid fans. Click HERE for the CD that Walkin’ Jim wrote especially for kids (includes the classics: Manfred the Mopey Moose, Slugs and Bugs, It Ain’t Easy Being An Ol’ Grizzly Bear, Pika, Pika , and Wild Things Need Wild Places).
After you are tantalized by the above, click HERE to purchase Walkin’ Jim’s CDs, DVDs, Books, and Gift Cards.
Other Information and Resources:
Wildlands advocates recently dedicated The Walkin’ Jim Hiking Trail, close to Arizona’s Hells Canyon Wilderness and the Center for Biological Diversity featured Walkin’ Jim on its Web site.
Visit Walkin’ Jim’s “Keeping it Wild” Web page in which Jim helps Americans take action to protect their endangered public roadless wildlands legacy.
Walkin’ Jim Stoltz was a co-author and dedicated proponent of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) , the “wildest bill on Capitol Hill,” which, when enacted, will designate 24 million acres of our roadless public wildlands legacy in Montana, Idaho, northwestern Wyoming, eastern Washington, and eastern Oregon as Wilderness.
The Northern Rockies Ecosystem is the LAST remaining functioning ecosystem in the lower 49 states where all native species still reside!
The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA), now co-sponsored by more than 100 members of the U.S. House of Representatives (for list, click HERE) and tirelessly promoted by Idaho resident and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Carole King, will protect essential habitats for many at-risk species that characterize the Wild Nature of the northern Rockies, such as the gray wolf, bull trout, cutthroat trout (Montana’s official state fish), otter, mountain goat, mountain sheep, elk, arctic grayling, northern goshawk, boreal owl, pileated woodpecker, ferruginous hawk, Montana vole, sage thrasher, wild bison, peregrine falcon, bald eagle, pine marten, fisher, lynx, wolverine, grizzly bear (Montana’s official state animal), and, perhaps Walkin’ Jim’s favorite animal, the pika, an extremely rare species, now endangered by global climate change, that lives only at high altitude rocky mountainsides.
(Many are the parents who have been driven to varying states of joy and madness by their kids’ singing Jim’s “Pika, Pika” song, from his much-loved “A Kid for the Wild” CD, over and over and over and over again.)
In the proud tradition of Montana’s famous conservationist and U.S. Senator, the late Lee Metcalf; NREPA will protect the public’s wildlands, wild animals, big game, pristine watersheds, and fisheries that make living in Montana and the Northern Rockies such a special and rare privilege.
To honor his legacy, Walkin’ Jim’s many friends and fans are already lobbying to name one of the first Wilderness Areas to be created by NREPA the “Walkin’ Jim Wilderness Area.” They contend it doesn’t really matter whether the future “Walkin’ Jim Wilderness Area” is in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, or Oregon as, since Walkin’ Jim hiked through public roadless wildlands in all five states that comprise the Northern Rockies Ecosystem. Although Montana was his home base, Walkin’ Jim was equally loyal to all North American roadless areas, no matter in what state or province they were located.
Observations, Memorials, Tributes, Wakes, Celebrations, and Funeral:
Walkin’ Jim’s family and supportive friends assembled in Helena, Montana, during the first ten days of September 2010. A celebration of Jim’s life was held on Wednesday, September 8, 2010, at the Big Sky Ranch, near the town of Unionville, just southwest of Helena.
For the latest news about this observation, funeral details, memorial funds, tributes, and, possibly sometime in 2011, a celebration of Walkin’ Jim’s life, go to the Walkin’ Jim Web site or click HERE.
To converse and share stories with Walkin’ Jim Stoltz’s friends, family, and fans, go to: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Walkin-Jim-Stoltz/113598525318345?v=desc or: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Walkin-Jim-Stoltz/113598525318345?v=stream.
During his prolonged medical care, Walkin’ Jim incurred high bills. Please help Jim’s family defray these extensive medical bills! Click HERE, to make tax-deductible memorial tributes with your credit card to Walkin’ Jim’s Medical Fund. Or, please snail-mail your tax-deductible contributions, accompanied with brief notes explaining your checks are meant to help pay down Walkin’ Jim’s medical expenses, to Musicians United to Sustain the Environment at:
M.U.S.E.
P.O. Box 1512
Helena, MT 59624
Should you require further information, please call Musicians United to Sustain the Environment (MUSE) at 406-449-6252, or please click HERE to e-mail MUSE. THANK YOU!
Personal Note About A Dear, Dear Friend:
Walkin’ Jim’s life was his ministry. Jim walked the talk and he certainly walked the walk!
Jim consistently lived his life with grace and kindness. Jim reached so many people with his wonderfully creative, courageous, positive, gracious and loving energy! Watching him enthrall elementary school kids about with his stories, tall tales, and intimate knowledge about Wild country and its wild inhabitants is an experience never to be forgotten.
Walkin’ Jim will always be a vital wellspring for humans trying their best to live in symbiosis with Earth. Although we may feel pain with Walkin’ Jim’s passing, his legacy—already pure and luminous—will only grow more compelling, as subsequent generations take up Walkin’ Jim’s vocation and become vigorous spokespersons, musicians, poets, writers, lyricists, guitar players, harmonica players, and singers for our pubic roadless wildlands and Wilderness.
Walkin’ Jim Stoltz will always remain our steadfast and true friend. We hold dear so many treasured memories from our time spent with Walkin’ Jim! His sincere, bone-crushing hugs will be forever felt. Our hearts will be continually warmed, every time we experience the Wild that Jim so loved, every time we defend our priceless public wildlands legacy to which Jim devoted his life, every time we ponder Jim’s brilliant poetry and lyrics, every time we hum or sing Jim’s catchy tunes, and every time we again listen to his marvelous voice and heartfelt songs.
Health Complications:
Walkin’ Jim Stoltz had a successful kidney transplant, donated by John Giacalone, on March 16, 2004. In the fall of 2007, Walkin’ Jim learned that he had cancer in his tonsil chords and lymph nodes of his neck. Jim underwent surgery, followed by chemotherapy and radiation treatments. The winter of 2007-2008 was a tough one, as expenses piled up and medical bills consumed most of Jim’s financial resources.
In the summer of 2008, with his characteristic indomitability, Walkin’ Jim underwent his own self-prescribed “Wilderness Therapy” and walked 460 miles through the mountains of Idaho and Montana. In 2009, Jim walked an incredible 500-mile loop through the remote mountain ranges of eastern Nevada.
In 2009 and early 2010, Walkin’ Jim toured unwaveringly with his ever-popular “Forever Wild” show, combining live music, story-telling, and poetry with stunning, multi-image slideshows to create a stirring celebration of the natural world.
Photos, taken by Janet Zimmerman and others, from Walkin’ Jim’s March 6, 2010, benefit concert and celebration in Missoula, Montana, for the Last, Best Place Wildlands Campaign and Wilderness Watch are available upon request.
Walkin’ Jim’s aplomb was such that most of those attending his final Montana concert were unaware of his throat cancer, ensuing surgery, and extensive chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
After Walkin’ Jim returned from his spring 2010 concert tour, doctors in Seattle and Billings found that his cancer has spread. Jim’s bills for hospitals, doctors, tests, high-cost pharmaceuticals, and medical-related travel grew exponentially.
In years past, Walkin’ Jim chose to raise funds to help pay for his kidney transplant through the National Transplant Assistance Fund (NTAF). Thanks to the generosity of Jim’s many friends and fans, those transplant-related expenses have largely been addressed.
Resolving Current Medical Expenses and Bills:
Now, Walkin’ Jim’s family urgently needs Jim’s friends and fans to again help defray extensive medical bills; these costs incurred from Jim’s cancer treatments.
Ways You Can Help:
1. Please click HERE, to make tax-deductible donations with your credit card to Walkin’ Jim’s Medical Fund. Or, snail-mail your tax-deductible contributions to: Musicians United to Sustain the Environment; M.U.S.E.; P.O. Box 1512; Helena, MT 59624. Should you require further information, please call MUSE at 406-449-6252, or please click HERE to e-mail MUSE.
2. Please click HERE to purchase Walkin’ Jim’s CDs, DVDs, Books, and Gift Cards. In addition to enriching your life and spreading Jim’s message to friends, family, and loved ones; your buying Jim’s CDs, DVDs, books, and gift cards will help his family resolve Jim’s high medical bills.
3. Walkin’ Jim’s family may designate other nonprofit organizations to receive donations, tributes, memorials, and contributions to continue Walkin’ Jim’s legacy. Click HERE to keep informed concerning Jim’s family’s decisions and please contribute generously in Jim’s name.
4. If you want to learn more about the general mission of the National Transplant Assistance Fund (NTAF), that helped Walkin’ Jim in the past, click HERE. Through 26 years of service, NTAF has helped more than 4,000 patients raise $64 million for uninsured medical expenses. If you want to contribute to NTAF in Walkin’ Jim’s name, please click HERE. (Please note: These contributions will NOT help pay Walkin’ Jim’s current cancer treatment bills–They will go directly into NTAF’s general fund to help pay medical bills for OTHER uninsured transplant patients who need transplants.) If you want to keep posted about NTAF, subscribe to the organization’s bi-monthly e-mail newsletter, by clicking HERE.
His Spirit is Still on the Run:
As I write this, I listen to Walkin’ Jim’s seminal “Spirit is Still on the Run,” the original classic vinyl album, complete with Jim’s kind personal note inscribed when he gave me the album 26 years ago. The album’s incredible title track describes a young person’s plaintive queries—“What Happened?”
Spirit Is Still On The Run
By Walkin’ Jim Stoltz
Daddy, what ever happened to the old buffalo,
I know they don’t roam here no more,
Because at school today, they say they’ve gone away,
But no one ever says just what for.
Well now listen my son, I’ll tell you how the West was won,
How the herds fell to the big needle guns,
But, the ghosts of them herds still pound o’er the earth,
And, their Spirit is still on the run.
(Chorus̶ —Upton Elementary School children singing in unison with Walkin’ Jim):
Yes, their spirit is still on the run, it’s the American dream movin’ on,
Their memory is free, left to you and to me, and the Spirit is still on the run.
Daddy, what ever happened to the ol’ grizzly bear,
I know he once roamed the west wide,
But at school today they say he’s pushed back to stay,
In the mountains where he has to hide.
Well, now listen my son, I’ll tell you about these proud ones,
Where they stalk, all others walk small,
But man to his shame, can’t stand the untamed,
And there’s some that wouldn’t have him at all.
(Chorus̶ —Upton Elementary School children singing in unison with Walkin’ Jim):
Yes, their spirit is still on the run, it’s the American dream movin’ on,
Their memory is free, left to you and to me, and the Spirit is still on the run.
Daddy, what ever happened to the big piney forests,
And the prairies that stretched out like seas,
Because the schoolbooks they say, these were all in the way,
When the settlers come a-swarmin’ like bees,
Now, listen my son, yes, all these have gone,
It’s sad, but it’s not been in vain
Their life’s blood was bought and with the Spirit it brought,
A whole country was born into fame.
(Bridge):
And all that have died or been swept to the side,
They still give us hope every one,
They give us dreams of the free, what has been and can be,
And their Spirit is still on the run.
(Chorus̶ —Upton Elementary School children singing in unison with Walkin’ Jim):
Yes, their Spirit is still on the run, it’s the American dream movin’ on,
Their memory is free, left to you and to me, and the Spirit is still on the run.
©1984 by Walkin’ Jim Stoltz and Lone Coyote Records
Walkin’ Jim Music, BMI
For those who are not old-timers enamored with bulky turntables and the good ol’ days of vinyl with absolutely gorgeous record jackets that were actually readable, Jim’s “Spirit is Still on the Run” album has been combined with his equally-great “Forever Wild” album into one CD, so you can now buy BOTH albums for only $14 by clicking HERE. In addition to “Spirit is Still on the Run,” this combined CD also includes the Jim’s indispensible sage counsel contained within “I Walk With the Old Ones” and “Follow Your Heart.”
Follow Your Heart:
For an even greater version of “Follow Your Heart,” guaranteed to give you goose bumps, purchase Walkin’ Jim’s “Oh, What A Life” CD, a remarkable live concert recorded before an enraptured audience at Jim’s beloved Lone Mountain Ranch, where, for decades, Jim hosted popular winter sleigh rides and sing-alongs. For an-all-too-brief snippet from this incredible live performance; once again to feel, hear, and touch Jim, click HERE.
Follow Your Heart
By Walkin’ Jim Stoltz
(VERSE):
In this life that we’re all living with all its twists and turns,
It’s so easy to lose our way, forget the lessons that we learned,
But, the road that leads us on will always bring us back,
Once you’ve walked your own trail, and stepped in your own tracks.
(AUDIENCE HELPS JIM SING THE FOLLOWING CHORUS):
Follow your heart, that’s where to begin
Chase down those dreams and go a-dancin’ with the wind
Listen to the love that you find along the way
Let your light shine in, and sing your life away.
(VERSE):
Truth is a word, but it’s so often hard to find,
Searchin’ through the mirrors offered up by time
To face it on your own, and to look it in the eye
Will take all you have to give, but ain’t it worth the try.
(AUDIENCE AGAIN HELPS JIM SING CHORUS):
Follow your heart, that’s where to begin
Chase down those dreams and go a-dancin’ with the wind
Listen to the love that you find along the way
Let your light shine in, and sing your life away.
(VERSE):
Listen to the song of the Earth as she turns,
Bask in the life of the sun as she burns,
Seek out the power in your own minds eye,
Listen to your heart, it’ll teach you by and by.
(AUDIENCE, ONE MORE TIME, HELPS JIM SING CHORUS):
Follow your heart, that’s where to begin
Chase down those dreams and go a-dancin’ with the wind
Listen to the love that you find along the way
Let your light shine in, and sing your life away.
©1997 by Walkin’ Jim Stoltz
Walkin’ Jim Music, BMI
Forever Wild:
In conclusion, there’s little to say that Walkin’ Jim Stoltz hasn’t already beautifully articulated. Perhaps we should conclude with Walkin’ Jim’s best known anthem, “Forever Wild.”
In 1986, we closed each of our touring “Wild West Exposition” pro-wildlands, pro-Wilderness road shows with this sacred composition. Audiences everywhere always joined the cast of the Wild West Exposition in singing the pleas of Walkin’ Jim’s chorus. At song’s end, as Jim’s final guitar chord resonated and then gradually receded into the absolute stillness of entire crowds held breathless, there were no dry eyes.
Forever Wild
By Walkin’ Jim Stoltz
There’s a magic in the air, that I feel when I am there,
It plays straight to my heart, and lays it all a’bare,
It’s in the cry of the eagle and the deer so meek and mild,
It’s in the rise of a mountain, let it stay Forever Wild.
Forever wild, Forever Wild
Let it stay, Forever Wild.
It’s in all that is not tame, and some that can’t be named,
It’s in the fog down in the valley, and the scent of summer rain,
It’s in the scream of a lion when she’s soundin’ like a child,
It’s in the song of a river, let it stay Forever Wild.
Forever wild, Forever Wild
Let it stay, Forever Wild.
Now the Earth it holds the key to all that shall be free,
It’s in the peace of the desert and the wisdom of the trees,
It’s in the grace of a swan’s wing and the grizzly when she’s riled
It’s in all the love I bear it, let it stay Forever Wild.
Forever wild, Forever Wild
Let it stay, Forever Wild.
There are those of my own kind, they’re runnin’ fast, but goin’ blind
And the only thing they worship, is their God, the dollar sign
We must fight* them with our Spirit, with our might, and with our guile
We must show them that the answer: It must be Forever Wild.
Forever wild, Forever Wild
Let it stay, Forever Wild.
Forever wild, Forever Wild
Let it stay, Forever Wild.
By Walkin’ Jim Stoltz on Wild Wind Records
©1986 by Walkin’ Jim Stoltz
Walkin’ Jim Music BMI
* Editor’s Note: In his most recent concerts, Walkin’ Jim substituted the word “teach” for “fight.”
Just How Big Is the Heart of Humankind?
Now it is time for us to pause, take deep breaths, say prayers for our dear friend, lovingly and respectfully listen to Walkin’ Jim’s “Oh, What a Life,” downloadable HERE for free, weep, and gratefully allow this magnificent gentle soul to return to Mother Earth.
Oh, What A Life We Could Live
By Walkin’ Jim Stoltz
There’s an old owl flyin’ free, and he’s callin’ out to me.
What can I tell him as the big trees fall?
And he slips on through the cracks. Oh, I can’t turn my back,
For his kind is our kind, and the writing’s on the wall.
If we could see this world through the eyes of those
Who keep sharing when there’s nothing left to give
If we could walk this land with respect for all
Oh, what a life we could live.
There’s a salmon swimmin’ deep, her destiny to keep,
How can I tell her, she’s the last of her kind?
Oh, a thousand times around, from the sea to the spawning ground,
What a cost! What a loss! To all memory, and all Time!
If we could see this world through the eyes of those
Who keep sharing when there’s nothing left to give
If we could walk this land with respect for all
Oh, what a life we could live.
Oh, what a life we could live.
Oh, what a life we could live.
If we could walk this land with respect for all
Oh, what a life we could live.
(Bridge):
She wolf howling in the night,
She knows there’s a lesson comin’ soon.
Just how big is the heart of humankind?
Won’t you stand back and give her room?
(Audience now joins Walkin’ Jim on chorus)
If we could see this world through the eyes of those
Who keep sharing when there’s nothing left to give
If we could walk this land with respect for all
Oh, what a life we could live.
Oh, what a life we could live.
Oh, what a life we could live.
If we could walk this land with respect for all
Oh, what a life we could live.
(Audience again joins Walkin’ Jim on chorus):
If we could see this world through the eyes of those
Who keep sharing when there’s nothing left to give
If we could walk this land with respect for all
Oh, what a life we could live.
Oh, what a life we could live.
Oh, what a life we could live.
If we could walk this land with respect for all
Oh, what a life we could live.
(Just Walkin’ Jim):
Oh, what a life we could live.
Oh, what a life we could live.
©1997 by Walkin’ Jim Stoltz
Walkin’ Jim Music, BMI
Legendary Folksinger Walkin' Jim Stoltz Happily Returns to Mother Earth
Jim, thank you for being…..
With the deepest possible love and appreciation,
Your Forever Friend,
Paul Richards
30 Brown’s Gulch Road
Boulder, MT 59632
406-225-4235
Dispatches from the Wildlands:
http://blogs.alternet.org/paulrichards/
(All Walkin’ Jim Stoltz’s Copyrights Accompany His Above Lyrics)
Excepting All of Walkin’ Jim’s Copyrights Above, This Memorial
©201o, Paul Richards, Dispatches from the Wildlands™
“In wildness is the preservation of the world.”
Henry David Thoreau
Editor’s Note: This eulogy utilizes colored underlined “hyperlinks” known as “Uniform Resource Locators” or “URLs.” A URL is also known as a “domain name” or an “Internet address.” To fully activate and utilize these URLs, just go to the hyperlink and push down on your “Ctrl” or “Control” button on our keyboard and left click your mouse.
Walkin' Jim at Last Best Place Wildlands Campaign Celebration in Missoula, MT, on March 6, 2010. Brett Haverstick, Larry Campbell, Walkin' Jim Stoltz, and Paul Richards. (Photo by Janet Zimmerman).
