Thinking Wilderness is an online thinkers in residency program and year-long event series in Questa, New Mexico, featuring diverse voices and creative works on Wilderness inspired by the succinct and poetic definition of wilderness found in the United States 1964 Wilderness Act:

A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.

From local voices to national figures, the project invites “Wilderness Thinkers” to reflect, debate and creatively respond to the concept of Wilderness.

The project hales from Questa, New Mexico, a place surrounded by natural beauty and wild lands. Flanked by two Wilderness Areas (Latir and Wheeler Peak Wilderness Areas), one Wilderness Study Area (The Columbine Hondo WSA), and the new Rio Grande del Norte National Monument (which also has two unofficial Wilderness Study Areas within it – Ute and San Antonio Mountains), Questa is an ideal place to launch and curate this project. (See the Events page for local Thinking Wilderness events in Questa and the surrounding area.) Our goal is for the ripples to spread, from Questa, statewide, nationally and internationally. Wilderness is not owned; we are only stewards and like Wilderness, the thinkers in residence project is for everyone.

All Wilderness Thinkers’ reflections and creations will be archived on this site. There is no limit to how many people can participate and Thinkers can be from anywhere. The only requirement is that submissions reflect Wilderness in some way. From all “Thinker” nominations and submissions we receive, fifty-two people will be chosen to become Featured Thinkers in Residence and their works will be posted in the Featured Thinkers Gallery and distributed online from September 3, 2014 – September 3, 2015 with the work of one new “Thinker” posted each week.

Project Collaborators: LEAP is the project founder and is working closely with the following collaborators to make the project a success: Questa Visitor Center, OCHO Event & Art Space, Carson National Forest and Bureau of Land Management’s Taos Field Office.