Doris Milner -- a Celebration

 

Today, in nearly freezing rain at 6,587 feet,  some 100 friends and family of the late Doris Milner -- plus staunch supporters of protecting U.S. wilderness -- gather under a tent on the Nez Perce Pass bordering Montana and Idaho to listen to speakers honor new signage commemorating Doris's wilderness fight. Her sign (seen here on a sunnier day)...

 ...joins that of the late Idaho Sen. Frank Church.

Speakers bring up the September, 2004, NPR interview with Doris on that year's 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act.  She was a housewife, as speakers keep saying, and yet she knew how to talk to important people on all sides of an issue and won the respect -- sometimes grudging -- of U.S. Senators and Congressmen. She had seen bulldozing near the now-protected Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, she told NPR, adding, "All I knew was I was mad. That's all I knew — and I was going to do something about it." Doris petitioned Congress and in 1980, after 17 years of fighting, that land was added to the wilderness.

Doris was a longtime friend, along with her husband Kelsey, of my husband Alex and his family. I met her in the 1990s on one of several trips here. I knew her mostly as a great vegetable gardener, a fierce cook and a bright woman with a wicked sense of humor. We'd delight in sitting out on her large back deck of an evening, eating, drinking and talking politics.

Below, at her new sign, are her children and her friends from the U.S. Forest Service, the Montana Wilderness Association and Trout Unlimited.

From left: Doris's son Kelsey Milner; retired Forest Supervisor Orville Daniels; current Forest Supervisor Julie King; Northern Regional Forester Leslie Weldon; West Fork District Ranger Dave Campbell; Trout Unlimited's Marshall Bloom; Doris's son Scott Milner; Montana Wilderness Association's John Gatchell; Doris's son Eric Milner and daughter Jean Eaton. Kelsey, by the way, delivers an impassioned speech under one of the flowery Missouri Botanical Garden umbrellas that I bring along for protection (we sit under the tent). He catches lots of good-natured ribbing from some members of this manly Montana group. I ask if he wants to keep the umbrella as a remembrance. He says he does.

Here's just a part of Kelsey's speech:

"It is good to know that motivated individuals can make a difference – particularly these days in the face of an economy in sad shape, a far right ideology in power, and mounting evidence that our human behavior is damaging our global environment. It is easy to give up. But we must not. When our mother entered the wilderness fray in the 1960’s, things were tough then as well. There were only a few, passionate voices calling for protection of wild lands.  The whole 'ecological consciousness' movement was just beginning, and resource exploitation was the rule. But the voices our mother joined had truth on their side, and they possessed the courage of their convictions. Through the truth, they tapped into the public’s innate, common-sense understanding that conservation is a wise action, and through their courage and perseverance they brought that collective vision to fruition via our democratic process.

"Wilderness: Great story isn’t it? It needs to be repeated today, tomorrow, and the day after that!"

In the end, we all shuttle down to a flat campground area for slightly warmer temperatures and a lovely late lunch catered by Trapper Creek Job Corps kids ($6 per person for pulled pork, spicy red beans, several salads, soft drinks and cookies). What a bargain. Quite a day.

Again, as I posted earlier, the Doris Milner-NPR interview is at:
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=3885261&m=3885262


And a site for learning the importance of wilderness also features a magnificent slide show, at:
http://wilderness.org/content/celebrating-45-years-wilderness

Btw, the woman, below, is my new hero: a strong, female African-American moving up the ranks in a male-dominated organization (the Forest Service), in a white-male-centric state (Montana).  And Leslie Weldon credits Doris Milner as her mentor!