BeWildReWild-Forum
We hope you will read and enjoy our collection of thoughts on wildness related subjects. Additional essays are not requested. Financial support is not requested. Questions or comments about this website may go to: Roger Ross Gipple at 515-224-4126 or rrossgipple@gmail.com.

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    • A Sense of Direction
      by Dennis Liu

      Iowa is home to over 100 species of dragonflies. They are beautiful aerial predators that help keep the mosquito population in check. Some species migrate long distances. Colorful adults are […]

    • Big River Connectivity is Unique
      by Roger Ross Gipple

      We are grounded in Deep Ecology and the belief that all life has intrinsic value separate from its usefulness to humans. Our primary focus for Reconnecting, Restoring, and Rewilding large […]

    • The Importance of Freedom
      by John Ame

      Freedom is challenging to define but we know when we lose it or when it has been taken from us.  Broadly understood, we are free when not imprisoned or enslaved, […]

    • Coexisting with America’s Native “Song Dog”
      by Camilla H. Fox/ Project Coyote

      Resilience is perhaps the defining feature of the coyote—the trait that has enabled this highly adaptable and sometimes elusive canid to survive and thrive in diverse ecosystems across North America, […]

    • Trailhead
      by John Ame

      I know what I have to do But am afraid to do it. Dominion separates me from the wild and Relinquishing dominion reconnects. But who wants to talk about relinquishing […]

    • Roadkill Nation
      by John Davis, The Rewilding Institute (rewilding.org)

      The killing corridors of our country’s roads After a few thousand miles of riding, you begin to feel the animals’ pain.  They are visible nearly every mile of road, dismembered, […]

    • Every Woods Is the Same
      by Leland Searles

      In many of central Iowa’s woodlands, I have come to expect a greater diversity of animal and plant life than actually presents itself. This wishful thinking underscores an underlying disappointment […]

    • The Wildest Place in the World
      by Mark Edwards

      Featured Image: Iowa – The Land Between Two Rivers (c) Mark Edwards   We are living in the wake of wildness.  We live in the highest extinction rate in 65 […]

    • IOWA: YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
      by Roger Ross Gipple

      What many call Iowa was once one of Earth’s most biodiverse places. More recently it has lost much of that wildness along with considerable precious top soil. Air and water […]

    • Rocks Talk Part 2
      by Mark Edwards

      Here is another facet to my rock story.  I originally wrote a post on a Facebook site called Prehistoric and Historic Iowa.  The site had numerous posting showing large collections […]

    • Rocks Begin To Talk
      by Mark Edwards

      Please bear with me as I explore the relationships between rocks, artifacts and us.  I hesitate to post this as I know even more rocks will be removed and our […]

    • Choosing & Allowing
      by Roger Ross Gipple

      Being wild (self-reliant, spontaneous, self-willed, self-regulating, local, authentic, and free) is possible, even today. One may choose to be wild, but one can not choose for another to be wild. […]

    • Notes from 43.061779N 96.458895W, 1,336 ft. ASL
      by Leland Searles

      South and north Coyote groups singing alternately. The north group sounds like laughing foxes. A Barred Owl some nights. Soybean field over the fence, planted on the contour with contour […]

    • Trust and Science
      by Roger Ross Gipple

      During 2016 and 2017, our beloved 25 year old TRUSTING WILDNESS chart and its accompanying “rewilding through trust” philosophy tried to find a permanent home at “science-based” Wildlands Network. We […]

    • Reconnect-Restore-Rewild
      by Roger Ross Gipple

      Reconnect-Restore-Rewild has long been the rallying cry for many who are passionate about repopulating apex predators and keystone species while adding back a meaningful amount of woodland, wetland, and prairie […]

    • A Day in the Life on the River
      by Pat Schlarbaum

      Wherever we find Bald Eagles, there are wild areas worth protecting.  Recently four eagles were soaring with billowing cumulus clouds in the blue sky heights over southeastern Minnesota. With each […]

    • Wildness & Trust
      by Autumn Rozario Hall

      Trust is a tricky thing- My humble thoughts on wildness. I’m going to take a moment to share some thoughts that been rattling around in my mind. I hear the […]

    • Wilderness, Wildness, and Trust
      by Roger Ross Gipple

      Wilderness is a place and Wildness is a quality. Wilderness is finite and Wildness is infinite. Many of us who profess to love Wilderness are terrified of Wildness. Wilderness is a […]

    • Whose Woods These Are….
      by Leland Searles

      Iowa’s remaining woodlands hold much of our remaining biodiversity. This is because woods are associated with floodplains and steep slopes that are not so useful for either cities and towns […]

    • Bringing Cultural Change
      by Roger Ross Gipple

      What is now called Iowa was previously one of the most biodiverse places in North America. Today it is one of the most biologically altered. From a narrow human perspective […]

    • Burning Buddha Alive
      by Mark Edwards

      Sincerely man, you see no hope? Not in denial of our death. Hope is for the helpless as heaven and hell sit on this hill both betting on tomorrow Coming […]

    • Wild Times
      by Leland Searles

      In the summer of 2012, the Iowa Brood of seventeen-year cicadas emerged. In the mature-oak lawns of Des Moines, Iowa, in the South-of-Grand area, one could find newly surfaced bugs […]

    • Channelization and Its Discontents
      by Leland Searles

      Rivers are central to our lives in ways we don’t often realize. Cities and towns across the Midwest were started along rivers, often at the confluence of a main river […]

    • The Three Questions
      by Joseph Plum

      1. What do you/we mean by wild? Wild is a lightening strike from within a smile. A question whose answer is balanced all the while on your ability to decide […]

    • Beautiful, Stunning, Welcoming
      by Jill Shore

      Wow. This may be the most well-done website I have ever visited. Immediately when my eyes engaged, my emotional response was the sense of “beautiful,” “stunning,” “welcoming.” As I continued […]

    • When we think of wild
      by Courtney Chandrea

      When we think of the wild, in our mind’s eye we see something like this: In a dark jungle, the foliage is choking out the light of the sun. A […]

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“If you listen carefully enough to anything, it will talk to you.”

George Washington Carver