misc

Any path can become the path if attended to with care, without preconceptions, informed by knowledge, and open to surprise.

—Chet Raymo, The Path

The upper shoals have a wildness about them—big trees, exposed rock, and falling water. I like to walk down there with the dogs and pretend we live far from town surrounded by nothing but forest. The path along the creek through the floodplain is not ours. It's owned by one of the wealthiest families in the United States. We find what refuge we can among their abundant acres.

Chattooga: Descending into the Myth of Deliverance River (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2004)

"One of the 13 best new books from Southern authors…" — Atlanta Magazine's special "summer reading" issue May 2004

"John Lane's evocative meditation … explores the Chattooga from the viewpoints of both white-water paddler and poet. … Every time he is surprised to find echoes of Dickey's work as he tries to master each tricky intersection of water and rock." —Stuart Ferguson, Wall Street Journal

"John Lane has brought us a haunting review, thirty years later, of how Deliverance, the book and film, have affected the river corridor, its surroundings, and the people who live near its banks, and those who come to ride its keen white edges… John Lane treats the landscapes of the Chattooga River as places that exist not only in the mathematics of hydraulics and geomorphology but also in the aqua incognita of our imaginations. His writing is charged, alive, a little threatening, as he guides us down unexplored waters. His accounts of the people, the politics, the rapids, and the changing environments of the Chattooga flicker insistently like a flashbulb afterimage in the mind long after the book is tucked away. If any author has come close to cracking the code to the enigma of why folks are drawn to the black-rocked dangers and the white magic of fast, free-flowing water, it is John Lane." —Richard Bangs, author of The Lost River and founder of Sobek Expeditions

In late spring of 2005 an editorial in the Old Gold & Black by biology major Brain Green chided Wofford College for not teaching students to be "environmentally literate" in an age when it's so important. Green, the biology department's top graduate, was not heading to medical school. He planned to continue his studies of ecosystems in graduate school. During his four years at Wofford he had also won an award for writing about his ecological study in Mexico, and at the senior awards ceremony shared The Walt Hudgins Award for the graduating senior exhibiting the most creativity. We'd all agree we would be happy with the "Brian Greening" of Wofford.

Thirty-five years earlier in Old Gold & Black's April 24th issue a front page article entitled "Earth Day Plus Three is Saturday" chides "Wally Wofford" for leaving "something to remind him of his Saturday afternoon under the shade tree"-beer cans and litter deposited after the latest fraternity party. This was two days after the first Earth Day, April 22nd 1970.

There was no coverage in the college paper concerning how the Wofford community actually celebrated Earth Day, but then Dean of the College (and several years later president) Joe Lesesne remembers that there was indeed an Earth Day rally at Wofford, and that it happened right out in front of Burwell Campus Center. Mostly what the students demanded was to get the day off. Lesesne says he addressed the crowd, but that he bets few of them remember the advice he offered: "It really doesn't matter whether or not you get Earth Day off from class," he told them. "What really matters is what you'll be doing to address these same environmental problems 30 years from now."

Earth Day's still around, and so is Joe Lesesne. And here we are, over thirty-five years down the road asking questions, discussing methods, serious about starting an environmental studies program. How many science courses should we have? Should interim count toward requirements? Who heads it up and how do we build it without stretching resources? Would the graduates get jobs? Go to graduate school? Would such a program improve the citizenship of students who take the courses? All good and important questions. Lesesne laughs when he now talks about that first Earth Day celebration, says there were some people in that crowd who should be ashamed of what they're doing for a living today. I'm sure there were also some students there that day who are now good environmental citizens. In a formal sense we at Wofford have had little to do with either outcome. Brian Green's 2005 editorial would suggest there hasn't been much progress in the intervening 35 years. This assessment of the college curriculum, its buildings and grounds shows quite the contrary. We are a much "greener" campus than we were 35 years ago.

Is there a need for more, for possibly adding a program in environmental studies to the proliferation of programs, emphasis, and concentrations in the last five years? It's my hope that by chronicling here the historical groundwork-with curriculum, with buildings and grounds, with personal commitment-we might be able to see the need and go into the future with an answer to Brian's call for more literacy in "things environmental." So here goes. There's probably more here than anyone needs to know about the last 35 years, but what follows are green dots in a line that lead to where we stand today.

WHAT IS ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES ANYWAY?

Environmental studies began in the sciences — geology,
biology, meteorology — but it has widened its embrace
to include humanities and social sciences."