"Take a Hike" Stewardship Project Established to Defend the Values of U.S. Public Lands
Hiker & Photographer Spearheads Public Lands Stewardship Initiatives
SPOKANE, Wash., Oct. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hiker, photographer, and public lands advocate Dunc Hazard is determined to defend the values of the wild places he hikes. According to Dunc: "Stewardship is the recognition of our collective responsibility to retain the quality and abundance of air, land, water, and biodiversity. Good stewardship involves managing our collective natural capital, in a way that conserves all of its values."
Dunc says he established his inaugural stewardship project, aptly named "Take a Hike," because he felt compelled to step up, and make an extra effort to protect our collective public lands in the United States. He maintains that the values of public lands ownership, require protection "not only for the generation of Americans here now, but also for all future generations that will come after us."
Public Lands Stewardship Initiatives Dunc's Undertaken with the "Take a Hike" Project Include:
- Release of 77 art prints envisioning the multiple values of U.S. public lands
- Hiking all 77 individual locations on public lands, which inspired the artwork
- Recording trail data at all 77 locations hiked
- Maintaining a log that documents the ecological condition of each location hiked
- Removal of any trash or litter found while hiking, to keep public lands beautiful
- Blogging about the personal experiences at each location hiked
- Matching 77 quotations to 77 art prints, to capture the values of public lands stewardship
- Publication of a book about the values of U.S. public lands in 2023
- Dissemination of ongoing threats to public lands with an open-ended commitment to advocacy
- Donating a percentage of art sales to Ravenwood Outdoor Learning Center, a non-profit based in Montana dedicated to connecting people with nature, community, and self
For complete details on the "Take a Hike" Stewardship Project, please visit Dunc's blog at stateofdiscovery.com.
Dunc reveals that he's spent much of his time over the last several years hiking the United States public land system, and the thing he notices the most is "how valuable our public lands are… And they're not only valuable to us as a people, they're also valuable on an intrinsic level, or valuable in their own right." Dunc later defined intrinsic value, as a value which is "independent of human needs or uses."
Dunc also asserted: "Maintaining public lands as regions of land and water collectively owned by all U.S. citizens, provides our people with an amazing diversity of social, cultural, ecological, and economic benefits. But even beyond the values which directly benefit us as humans, protecting some lands in a natural and undisturbed state, free from private development, also maintains the natural processes inherent to mother nature. And the value of mother nature is impossible to quantify, because mother nature is priceless."
To learn more about the ongoing threats to public lands, including from the Trump Administration, please visit Dunc's advocacy website at voteforpubliclands.com. Dunc maintains that "voting for Donald Trump is akin to urinating on an electric fence. Even though it might sound entertaining, it's probably better if you just don't do it."
Dunc Hazard is a hiker, artist, photographer, and conservationist, from Montana. Currently based in Spokane, Washington, Dunc plans to release his tenth, and final, "Take a Hike" project art series on November 3rd, 2020. Dunc titled his final art series "Wild and Free" and says all series artwork was inspired by public lands from our National Parks, Wildernesses, or Wilderness Study Areas in the United States.
Contact:
Dunc Hazard
Artist and Photographer
406-823-0702
[email protected]
Advocacy: voteforpubliclands.com
Blog: stateofdiscovery.com
SOURCE Dunc Hazard
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