| Summary: | This thesis places the values shared by recreational hikers, backpackers, kayakers, and
others within the British Columbia Forest Debate in the second half of the twentieth
century. Using the 1985-86 Wilderness Advisory Committee as a case study, it argues that
the interpretation of the concept of “wilderness” expressed by these outdoor enthusiasts
can only be understood through the study of North American consumer culture. They
valued “wilderness” as a commodity, not unlike the ways that forest and mining companies
did, yet also expressed environmentalist concerns about protecting “wilderness” areas from
resource exploitation and overdevelopment.
|
|---|
