At a popular overlook in Big Bend National Park, the park鈥檚 superintendent Bob Krumenaker gazed at a sweeping view of mountains and miles of desert lowlands.
鈥淭he Window is this notch in the mountains, and water 鈥� when we have water 鈥� flows through that,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a spectacular hike.鈥�
The sprawling Chihuahuan Desert terrain that makes up the park is one of the most pristine parts of Texas. A recently formed group of conservationists and park fans called is pushing for lawmakers to formally declare most of this land as 鈥渨ilderness.鈥�
According to Krumenaker, the designation would effectively ensure that the views at Big Bend are always as stunning as they are now.
鈥淭he wilderness would preserve the things that people tell us they love about this park the most,鈥� he said.
Wilderness areas are the most types of public lands in the U.S., with limits on things like building roads and facilities. Right now, the park鈥檚 staff manages Big Bend like it鈥檚 a wilderness area, but supporters of the wilderness effort say that鈥檚 not enough.
Retired wildlife biologist Raymond Skiles is among those who want lawmakers to guarantee the national park will be protected from overdevelopment in the future. Skiles worked at Big Bend for decades, and said there have been plans in the past that could have dramatically changed the park鈥檚 landscape.
Like in the 1960鈥檚, when lawmakers a on the edge of Big Bend.
鈥淚鈥檝e seen a few of these things that, they鈥檙e rare, did not come to pass, but it wasn鈥檛 because someone didn鈥檛 want it to happen,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd I could just see that could be in the future as well.鈥�
Though an airport or anything on that scale was never built, Skiles and others involved with the Keep Big Bend Wild effort want Congress to declare most of the park a wilderness area to make sure nothing like that ever happens here, especially as more and more people flock to Big Bend. The park had more than 524,000 visitors last year,
Skiles insisted the wilderness designation wouldn鈥檛 have any effect on existing park infrastructure.
鈥淏asically, what is wild now would stay that way,鈥� he said. 鈥淣othing would be taken out, nothing would be rolled back.鈥�
But not everyone鈥檚 convinced.
Just outside the park on a recent Friday evening, the party was getting started at Terlingua鈥檚 Starlight Theatre, a tourist hot-spot. A singer belted her heart out to the crowds of people munching on antelope burgers and throwing back beers. The busy season was in full swing.
鈥淓ven when we thought it was going to be slow, we鈥檙e still cranking,鈥� said Bill Ivey, the Starlight鈥檚 longtime owner.
Ivey is a fixture of the local economy and the board president of the Brewster County Tourism Council, which has so far declined to endorse the wilderness effort.
Ivey鈥檚 not into the wilderness idea, and he wasn鈥檛 a fan when it was
鈥淚 haven鈥檛 budged from being opposed to it, and that stems from a lot of information from way back,鈥� he said.
In the 1970鈥檚, some feared the federal government was trying to make the park less accessible by making it a wilderness area, which they believed would鈥檝e hurt tourism.
Supporters of the revived wilderness effort promise they鈥檙e not trying to make it harder for people to visit Big Bend, but there鈥檚 not yet a detailed nitty-gritty proposal on the table for what the new wilderness plan would look like. Which is a problem for Ivy.
鈥淚f we鈥檙e going to endorse something or agree to something that we don鈥檛 know what it is, and they鈥檙e going to develop it after it goes to Congress, I鈥檓 not comfortable with that,鈥� he said.
Keep Big Bend Wild鈥檚 wilderness effort does have like river guides who run commercial trips in the park.
Supporters want Congress to pass legislation establishing the Big Bend Wilderness by the start of next year. But so far, representatives and senators from Texas haven鈥檛 commented on the idea, so it鈥檚 far from clear if there鈥檚 the political will in Washington, D.C. to make it happen.
at Angelo State University provided archival newspaper articles for this story.
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