Bass talk shows history of a lifelong activist

After a brief introduction, Rick Bass walked up to the podium and turned to his audience, taking a long look at the white board. Disconnected words, circles inside circles, arrows, lines and a quote had been scribbled all over the board from the previous class.

“Gosh,” he said in his coarse southern accent. “I wish I could still be a student like y’all.”

In a way, Bass is still a student. Though he has already accomplished a great deal in his 53 years, he still says he has a lot left to learn and to do until his work is complete. While critics have dubbed Bass a “nature writer,” he calls himself an environmental activist. One would think it would be tough to lead this double life — activist by day, writer by night. For Bass, however, these two worlds intersect in a simple passion for wilderness. By writing about the beauty and wonder of nature, Bass passes on his own passion for wilderness to his readers, making them care about the nature he holds so dear.

Bass took an early interest in the natural world. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, and earning his Bachelors of Science in geology from Utah State University, Bass spent much of his early life working as a petroleum geologist in the South and Southwest.

“It was like being in a war,” he said.

His mission was to search for the buried treasure — oil — and though it was cutthroat and perhaps seen as unethical to some, Bass, “wouldn’t trade [the experience] for the world.”

Though Bass was born and raised in the South, his oil stint made him yearn for the world out West. So Bass gave up oil and moved to Missoula, Montana, where he began to explore the Yaak Valley’s wilderness, both on foot and in his writing. Bass had never seen anything like the Yaak and he thought people should know about it.

But Bass soon realized that the Yaak wilderness was slowly disappearing. Heavy logging devastated entire forests. With no choice but to protect his adopted home, Bass decided to fight.

There had never been an environmental activist in Montana quite like Bass. The logging industry ruled the local culture; the treasuries were funded by how much timber they could cut; logging mills dictated the accounting system. No one had ever stood up to the logging authority until Bass.

“What the opposition needed was a smack in the mouth,” he said. “They were bullies and they never expected me to fight back.”

What Bass brought to Montana was the power of language and the power of the idea. He wrote fictional stories about the Yaak wilderness, its innate beauty and the unique unknown. Though he never specifically spoke about his activism in his stories, it demonstrated his love and advocacy of the wilderness. Writing stories was one form of environmental advocacy but for Bass, that was simply not enough.

After only a few years in Montana, Bass began the conservation campaign in local and state governments. Forming the Yaak Valley Forest Council, his first step was overcoming the locals’ distrust and fear; to the loggers of Montana, Bass was a threat to their industry and their economy, and they would do whatever it took to keep Bass out of power.

“To make real change, you must have a champion of the heart,” Bass said. “The legislation must be heart based.”

Bass threw his whole heart into breaking down the local logging culture and making the people of Montana see what their industry was doing to the precious wilderness.

In the final few minutes of his lecture, Bass compared his legislative efforts to hunting: “To get a good shot at the animal, you have to put in the miles, the hours, the bad weather — all those obstacles, just for one shot,” just like he gets only one shot for a bill that would permanently protect the last remaining roadless cores in Yaak Valley, which total nearly 180,000 acres.

Bass is still working towards this opportunity. His efforts have a come a long way in 20 years. There is now a conservation educator in Montana schools and the people are learning about how to protect their home at a young age.

Still, Bass said, “It’s a hard gig. You must navigate through the territory of despair.”

“Most environmental activists are in your face with their views or opinions, but Bass weaves his environmental advocacy into his stories in such a subtle way that you can’t not be persuaded,” said Tara Doyle ’11

“I found his personal story about the politics of environmental activism eye-opening and somewhat alarming,” said Assistant Professor of English & American Literatures Dan Brayton. “It’s interesting to see a writer wear two different hats — a creative hat and an advocacy hat  — and wear them so well.”