marlin55388 wrote on Jul 30^th, 2009 at 10:23pm:
He reinforced it a few times in that thread. The home page of this site celebrates the concept - "Wilderness Still" with the loon call for reinforcement. I'm well aware that the BW/Q has been mostly logged over, mined or at least sampled, thought of as a game reserve... but what keeps it 'wilderness' IMHO for now, is it's still more useful to promote it that way. There isn't that much of it left, especially so accessible. You want wilderness? Take a hike into Iran. 'Hey, we didn't know there was a line and stuff just happens'.

There are some city streets that are too wild for me. Comes with being old and cranky -- of course, I was cranky before I was old.

Tim

Sat phones will ban themselves...all they need is a litttle more time. Break a leg in the Bob's and your bear foder...I wonder if a bear has bad breath, curious because that would probably be the last thing one would smell... I  like these concepts of wilderness...no sat phones, no help, and no people...but I am confronted with those desires and the knowledge that probably the only way that one can really do this know is in the far north...and most likely very early and late in the season and on obscure rivers. Hey has any one ever paddle siberia, china,or the middle east during their rainy season?

I think this pretty clearly defines the what is and is not wilderness:
(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

Sorry, I couldn't resist.  

If you look at each exterme, non-wilderness is where there are lots of people and things are highly altered by the presence of those people.  

On the other end, pure wilderness would have no people, and no one to even look and say "hey, that wilderness over there."  It might even be nearly impossible to access.  This would also mean that no one would know or care about that wilderness, except in a philosophical sense, since they'd never been there or seen it.

I think of the BW/Q as "accessible near-wilderness."  "Accessible" because many people can get to it if desired.  Not pure but "near" in this sense: if left alone for a fairly short period of time (a generation or so), it would largely seem to be pure wilderness to a new visitor (until they find the occasional concrete dam, logging artifacts or cabin remains, etc.)
-Tom

Couple fo real good definitions here. I plan to steal them. Ely Chamber of Commerce interviewed me a few years back and I told the chap, "It's a place where you can be alone and not be lonely." Any of you want to steal that, do it.

Tim