Remembering Dave Foreman
We are deeply saddened to report that Dave Foreman passed away last night peacefully, at home. The founder of The Rewilding Institute who coined the now ubiquitous name for a global movement to protect and restore wild nature, Rewilding.
Words to describe this loss to friends, family, and the conservation movement are hard to come by at the moment. We will soon be running updates on memorials and the outpouring of memories friends are sharing with us.
In the meantime, the brilliant wordsmith Gary Lawless wrote this beautiful poem for Dave:
Uncle Dave on the Noatak River, Alaska© Nancy Morton
muses come in all shapes –
for Dave
you have to feel it in your heart
put your heart on the
line and say
no, no.
you stand in front of the machine.
you chain yourself to the tree, the gate.
you bid on leases.
you go to court.
you go to jail.
your heart tells you
what to do.
you stand between the destroyers,
and the not to be destroyed.
you stand
and your heart sings
with the wild.
Gary Lawless
9/20/22
Episode 96: Saying Goodbye To Dave Foreman And Keeping His Fight For Nature Alive
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We are deeply saddened to report that Dave Foreman passed away this evening peacefully, at home. The founder of The Rewilding Institute who coined the now ubiquitous name for a movement to protect and restore wild nature, Rewilding. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/l2WNAk0COY
— Rewilding Institute (@Rewilding) September 20, 2022
One of my heroes.
R. I. P. Dave Foreman. https://t.co/2Bh8Wwzb3J— Carole King (@Carole_King) September 26, 2022
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Great interview with Dave shared on Facebook:
Dave Foreman: Do Something from Resource Renewal Institute on Vimeo.
Dave’s great talk with TRI Executive Director John Davis is part of Born To Rewild:
Episode 1: Dave Foreman On The History and Definition of Rewilding
#38 Around the Campfire; Five Little Birds and Their Lessons
Director of Digital Outreach (D.O.D.O.) for The Rewilding Institute
Host and Producer of the Rewilding Earth Podcast
Jack started Rewilding work as Executive Director of Sky Island Alliance in the mid-1990’s, organizing the Sky Island Wildlands Network design, ripping up illegal roads on forest service lands, installing wolf acclimatization pens on Ted Turner’s Ladder Ranch & conducting howling surveys to help make way for the final stage of the Lobo reintroduction program in the Southwest.
Through the years, Jack has worked with Dave Foreman and the Rewilding Gang to further Rewilding initiatives and education.
So sorry to hear of Dave Foreman’s passing. The poem by my friend Gary Lawless says it all,
Protecting our environment will be more crucial than ever and we must and will continue the work Dave started .R.I.P. Dave.
I loved hearing Dave speak at Mountainfilm. His was always a clear and passionate voice for the environment. Talking to him personally was always thoughtful and heartfelt.
One of the few strong voices in the environmental movement about the threats
of human overpopulation and willing to take on the political and environmental
establishment. His efforts for rewinding and migratory corridors is so important,
I am hoping we can continue his efforts with a new generation of leaders to honor
him
Uncle Dave always supported us here at Pathways: Wildlife Corridors of NM, from the beginning, and for ever after we will be encouraged by his words and deeds – honoring and protecting Nature for Nature’s sake.
Decades ago I met Dave Foreman and Ron Kezar someplace in the wilds of western New Mexico. Ron Kezar, Bill Hauser and I climbed Mt. Brewer in Sequoia National Park. I think this was before Dave, Ron and others started Earth First!
I don’t remember anything specific about our conversations except that Ron, Dave and I share our passion for protecting wilderness and battling unwise development projects.
I have been a member of the Sierra Club for 52 years. I have visited 125 national parks and wilderness areas.
I have assembled a “Clean Energy Inventions” exhibit […]. I am looking for people to help me publicize self-charged electric vehicles.
While hiking in the high Guadalupe Mountains with Dave Foreman and my husband in 197along Lonesome Ridge at what should have been wilderness in those days, we were talking about the possibility of underground wilderness to protect the underground resources of the many caves in the Guads. Dave took a knife and cut out a piece of agave stalk without damaging the plant and offered us a bite into it. It tasted like a combination of apple and pineapple. I have not forgotten the pleasure of walking with Dave and learning more about the culture of this Southwest landscape, which was new to me at the time. Later, we worked together with a team trying to develop a newsletter for New Mexico’s wilderness movement. A few years later, Dave went to Washington to work for The Wilderness Society and we lost touch with him. Twenty years went by and I briefly ran into Dave as director of the Rewilding Institute and then twenty more years when he spoke at the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act in the spring of 2014. I introduced myself with my maiden name as being a co-leader of the Rio Grande Valley Broadband, Great Old Broads for Wilderness. He said it was his favorite wilderness group because they do things to advocate for and educate about wilderness, and have fun in the wilderness. We will miss Dave as a member and part of our activist group.