Hike to increase stewardship.  Hiking helps awaken us to realize that if we do not protect the natural world around us, we may lose more than just a few species here and there. 

HIKE FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS

Hiking allows us to see places and animals which others have protected for us.  On a hiking OUTventure we come to truly appreciate the natural world around us.  We transfer this feeling into a desire to protect endangered plants and animals because once we experience them in person we cannot imagine life in the natural world without them.  Man-made scars on the land show us that destruction of that which took hundreds, thousands, or millions of years for nature to create is not reversible.  When we clear cut old growth forests, for instance, they are simply gone.  No one else will ever see those trees, no wildlife will take refuge in those forests.  To walk in these places is to take them into our hearts and we love them fiercely. 

When we hike, we thus increase our own sense of stewardship.  We know in our hearts that what we lose now is lost to all who come after us.  Conservation of wildlife species and their habitats and irreplaceable landscapes and environments is our responsibility.  We take our turn in protecting them so that they will be here for future generations to enjoy, appreciate, and pass on to their children. 

STEWARDSHIP FOR OUR HEALTH

Hiking helps us appreciate the role healthy ecosystems play as the foundation for everything we need to survive.  Clean water and air are what most people think of here, but consider also the need to protect organisms and plants for medicinal uses.  We find that nature often provides us with solutions to disease, but if we don’t ensure the survival of these organisms and plants with potential for medicinal advances we lose the ability to discover their application to medicine.  Further, undisturbed natural habitats create critical barriers between infectious disease and humans so we must protect them as well.  It is simply in the best interest of our health.  If we protect them we protect ourselves. Conservation efforts aimed at reducing habitat destruction is not only good stewardship, it is self preservation.  

STEWARDSHIP BEFORE THEY ARE GONE

Sadly, conservation efforts don’t always work.  Though we may not save some of the incredible landscape features or wildlife creatures we assume will “always be there” to see, our stewardship efforts can buy us some time.  If we can slow their demise perhaps we can discover new ways to help save them.

Take, for example, technology advances which reduce our creation of greenhouse gasses that negatively affect our climate.  Perhaps we’ll discover a way to remove them faster than they are added.  Our use of plastics is another such example.  People are hard at work researching and testing plastic alternatives and methods for replacing our use of plastic and removing plastic pollution. In both cases, we are now facing the ugly truths about how we have been living.  We are causing serious problems for our home planet, and it’s getting worse.

A prime example of our affect on the planet is seen in the disappearing glaciers of Glacier National Park .  Climate change and the destructive influences of man have similarly put wildlife at risk.  Sadly, the time to see and protect them is now, while we still can.  Hike to increase stewardship.  Add your voice and support to conserving and protecting these places and animals before they are gone.