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Andrew Olive
September 21, 2015
Professor Kilcup
ENG 380
When the Dust on the Road Settles
Dont worry, [the engineers] said, [the] road will be built. Im worried, I said. Look, the
party chief explained, you need this road. (Abbey)
When the Dust on the Road Settles is a critique of Edward Abbeys negative feelings towards
the development occurring in Americas national parks in Desert Solitaire. Abbey sees the
construction of new roads into Arches National park during the 1960s as a nuisance that will ruin
the beauty of nature. I believe with proper guidance and understanding the newcomers that will
eventually converge onto the park because of its newfound accessibility, can properly appreciate
the natural beauty without it being under the threat of destruction. When people that visit the
parks understand their personal impact on nature more people will come to understand the
importance of biodiversity and environmental conservation efforts.

Edward Abbey views Americas national parks and wilderness as something that should be so
difficult that few can experience and the building of new roads in his own 33,000 acre terrace
(Abbey 52), worries him. Even though Abbey warns us that more people visiting national parks
will be a problem, a civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the
original [Is] betraying the principle of civilization itself (Abbey 169). I believe that he should
not be worried about the prospect of new roads into the national parks. Although the new roads
would cause concern about their impacts on wildlife, the extensive knowledge and awareness

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that twenty-first century America has about our impact on the environment would prevent us
from doing further damage that Abbey fears will happen with the building of new roads. The fact
more citizens can experience the wonders of Americas wilderness allows them to see why
ecological conservation is essential for protecting our environment.
Abbeys fear is not misplaced during his time of the 1960s where the environmental
protection movement was only just beginning to gain traction (DiTommaso). Where the rapid
industrialization took place after the end of World War II, pollution became an issue. Even
outside of the United States, industrialization began to take its toll; in 1962 the increasing
numbers of factories and power plants led to the death of 750 London residents due to poor air
quality (DiTommaso). The effects of rapid industrialization were felt in the United States, where
in 1969, an oil spill off the coast of California from an offshore drilling platform motivated then
U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson to organize a country wide environmental teach-in, which
became the first observance of Earth Day (DiTommaso). Although, arguably, the worst thing
that Abbey was worried about is the rapid dependence on foreign oil during this time that was a
result of Urban Sprawl in industrialized countries. Along with increasing the amount of water,
air, and soil pollution, the automobiles clogging up the freeways and byways of America fueled
Abbeys concern, where he argued a man on foot, on horseback or on a bicycle will see more,
feel more, enjoy more in one mile than the motorized tourists can in a hundred miles (67). Even
though Abbey had some reason of concern for the safety of the national parks during his time the
generation produced by the Baby Boomers had a growing concern for environmental protection.
This concern has bleed out quite well into the 21st century with the emergence of other
environmental protection and sustainability questions. Most notably was the 1992 UN

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Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro1 that resulted in an
increasingly complex and rich body of international environmental law and policy (Hunter).
Along with setting up global guidelines for sustainable development, they also stepped into
establish two legally binding treaties: the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the
Convention on Biological Diversity (Hunter). These treaties ensured that the entire globe was
now actively engaging in carving out a sustainable and environmentally sound future for every
nation on earth. The progression of the world has outpaced Abbeys fear that people will never
know the importance of the wilderness in relation to their everyday lives.
There is a state park located not too far from where I grew up: Raven Rock State park. What
I remember most about the park is the fact that I did not visit it very much. A few years ago I was
not what you would call a nature person. But Raven Rock is natural beauty that many people
who do not consider themselves well-trained outdoor-sy people can experience. The Campbell
Creek Loop Trail and the Raven Rock Loop Trial take visitors through the main scenic points
that the park has to offer (North Carolina State Parks). Whether it is the silent splendor of the
dust and heat that roll across the deserts of Utah and Arizona or the quiet song of Appalachian
woods where the wind dances between pine needles, nature is something that must be
experienced first-hand. Edward Abbey would wholeheartedly agree with me in the sense that
nature cannot be truly experienced until you have physical contact. There is nothing wrong with
the relative ease of access that these moderately difficult trails have to offer. Which is what
Abbey is concerned with because of the advent of industrial tourism. He writes that wilderness
preservation, like a hundred other good causes, will be forgottenin a completely urbanized,
1 This conference that ran for eleven days produced Agenda 21 which is a comprehensive plan
of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations
System, Governments and Major groups in every area in which human impacts on the
environment (Hunter).

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completely industrialized, ever more crowded environment (Abbey 65). The information about
the natural wonders of the park are displayed quite readily at the head of the trails and parking
areas (North). The visitors to the park are also relatively conscious about the trash they produce
while walking through the trails. In my own outing, there was almost no garbage on the entire
trail and the parking lot where visitors could park and walk was at a minimum fair distance from
the trail. There was almost no way someone visiting the park could easily use a motorized
vehicle to go down any path beyond the parking area which readily encouraged visitors to
experience nature how it was meant to be: on their own two feet. The new roads that are built in
national parks should be viewed as way for more people to experience the wilderness which will
allow them to see why ecological conservation is important.
Abbey argues that industrial tourism is a threat to the national parks and that the chief
victims of the system are the motorized tourists (Abbey 64). New roads into the natural parks
would allow more people to drive through and begin choking up the wide open spaces that
wilderness allows. Even though the new roads into state and national parks would disturb the
natural wildlife to some degree, the measures and restrictions on the extent of construction could
limit the amount of disturbance that affects wildlife. The Wilderness Act of 1964 ensured that
federally owned land that is designated as wilderness, was established as a National
Wilderness Preservation System. Under this system, these areas would be for the use and
enjoyment as wilderness, to so as to provide for the protection of these areasin such a manner
as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness. (National Park
Service U.S. Department of the Interior) There are federal regulations to ensure that the parks
that Abbey loves will be protected from the beast that he fears: industrial tourism. Along with
limiting the roads that can be built through national parks under the Wilderness Act, these parks

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generally do not allow motorized equipment, motor vehicles, mechanical transport, temporary
roads, permanent structures or installations in an effort to limit the intrusion by humans
(National). The regulations that have been put into place to curb the industrial tourists have
made significant impact on the building of new roads into National Parks, Parkways, and State
parks. A study of the National Park Service road system indicated that of the 106 U.S. National
Park Service management units2 that 49% of these NP units contain less than 34 km (21 miles) or
roads (Ament, Clevenger and Yu). Additionally, it should be noted that 73.6 percent of NP units
responded that there are Not [plans] to build new roads (Ament, Clevenger and Yu) compared
to 20.8 percent that will and 8.5 percent that are uncertain about plans to build new roads
(Ament, Clevenger and Yu). Even though the prospects of new roads being built in and around
Americas national Parks is very unlikely, there is an overwhelming concern that the traffic for
the National Parks will increase. A bump in human and motorized traffic will most certainly lead
to negative effects for wildlife and the environment in and around the national parks.
The top five biggest concerns with the intrusion of higher traffic are: road mortality, habitat
fragmentation, human habituation-wildlife feeding, habitat intrusion, and habitat loss (Ament,
Clevenger and Yu). All of these issues could lead to a disturbance in the natural order that the
environment has crafted over millions of years of evolution. Some of Abbeys argument is
centered on how the increase in motor traffic will affect the livelihood of wildlife and the natural
environment. Habitat fragmentation is at the highest of potential risks (Ament, Clevenger and

2 These surveys were issued by the Western Transportation Institute College of Engineering at
Montana State University. Of the 388 recognized NP units, only 196 had public access roads.
While only 106 questionnaires (54% response rate) were returned, public transportation for 79%
of the respondents did not exist, which would drive up the need for visitors to provide their own
means of transportation which would require Abbey to step in and offer some provocative
suggestions of what those visitors can do.

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Yu) for wildlife in and around National Parks. The roads that were built or are being built in and
around National parks do pose some potential threat to wildlife. The disruption caused by roads
are far reaching and can account for significant habitat destruction even when the roads are miles
away from the areas being effected. The roads into National Parks have the potential to bring
anyone that wants to into Americas wilderness. The impact these people have on the
environment can and should be mitigated in the best way by the persons own attentiveness to
their actions while they are visiting the National Parks and the people that manage the parks
commitment to preserve the natural environment for future generations to enjoy.
Even though Abby warns us that more people visiting national parks will be a problem, the
fact more citizens can experience the wonders of Americas wilderness allows them to see why
ecological conservation is essential for protecting our environment. Although, Abbeys main
concern about the advent of motorized tourism that would follow from the building of roads into
the national parks, is the experience of the people visiting the parks. The strongest advocate for
protecting nature, is nature itself. Abbeys own description of Arches National Park give fuel to
the flame, where on the first morning of his stay he wakes to see lavender clouds sail like a fleet
of ships across the pale green dawn; each cloud, planed flat on the wind, has a base of fiery gold
(Abbey 4). These are only descriptions of the beauty that he experienced though, the sight must
have been far greater to marvel at in person. Not experiencing nature first-hand can only go so
far for how much a person can appreciate the wonders of the wilderness. The last great escape
from the awful rat-race that modern day America has become can be mitigated by the wide
openness that wilderness allows. In my own experience I did not truly understand the
significance of caring about the environment until I took that short walk in Raven Rock State
Park. While I was there I walked softly to try and take in as many sounds as possible of the

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forest. While I was there I was constantly looking around at the small movements of the leaves
and birds of the trees that were constantly above my head to glimpse what movements could
make their sweet song. While I was there I plunged my hands into a frigid running stream in an
attempt to take hold of what made the wild beautiful and free. My own interest propelled me to
visit the wild but the new construction and its relative ease of access is what made me yearn to
come back.
The 238 million recreational visitors 3 in 2012 to Americas national parks all walked away
with experiences that hopefully led them to view this nations wilderness as something they
should be protecting for future generations to enjoy. The increase of visitors to the national parks
are a blessing in disguise 4 and not a burden that Abby foresaw to turn little campgrounds
consolidated into one master campground that looks, during the busy season, like a suburban
village (55). These newcomers, are seekers of the wild that range from the easy walker too the
rugged mountaineer. All of these people have one thing in common: a love of nature and as the
twenty first century has shown us, the people visiting the parks have some intuition that they
should respect what they are experiencing. The government and the National Park Association
have introduced numerous guidelines in ways in which people that visit these parks can do the
least amount of damage to the environment, but people will still act as they will. Edward Abbey
did have some amount of weight to his worry about the introduction of new roads into the
national parks, but these fears can be best laid to rest. The people of the twenty first century want

3 This figure was taken from the National Park Service website that included the number of
visitors from 2012. This number is an increase of nearly 4 million visitors from 2011.
4 The disguise being the exact problem that Abby was so terrified of: too many people
crowding into modernized national parks will begin to lose their splendor as something that only
few could truly appreciate.

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to see a greener tomorrow and if they have the ready experience of visiting the natural world that
Abbey was so engrossed in, they too might become lovers of the wild.

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Bibliography
Abby, Edward. Desert Solitaire. New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 1971. Text.
Ament, Robert J, et al. An Assesment of Road Impacts on Wildlife Populations in U.S. National
Parks. Technical . Bozeman: Western Transportation Institute College of Engineering
Montana State University , 2007. Document.
DiTommaso, Gina. "Key Environmental Issues in 1970." n.d. Global Footprint Network:
Advancing the Science of Sustainability. Web. 3 November 2015.
Hunter, David. "Global Environmental Protection in the 21st Century." 1 June 1999. Foreign
Policy in Focus. Web. 4 November 2015.
National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior. Frequently Asked Questions. n.d. Web. 2
November 2015.
North Carolina State Parks. Raven Rock State Park. n.d. Web. 1 November 2015.

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