The role of wilderness in my life

The role that wilderness, as Marshall defines it, in my life is not nearly as extreme as that of those living in Alaska. I do not live solely off of what the land provides me, and climate change does not directly affect how I travel around on a daily basis or how available my food source is. Although it does not directly affect my everyday life, that does not mean that it is not important to me. We may not live in wilderness, but our environment does dictate the way we live our lives in southern Louisiana. Instead of snow days, we have hurricane days built into our school year. Our city is famous for street cars and above ground cemeteries because we can not put stuff underground because we are under sea level. Sea food is our major food source. And although we do not live in our wilderness, our wetlands are a very important part of our ecosystem. It supports much of our wildlife and is a major source for our seafood. I have always thought of true wilderness as somewhere that people didn’t live, but the truth is that it still affects our way of life. To me wilderness puts our world into perspective. Standing in undeveloped woods or on the side of a mountain makes you realize how big the world is outside of the cities and communities we live in, and how much we have had to destroy to develop the lives we live