I would like to coin a new word: roadlessness. It appears most commonly as an adjective, simply as roadless, in its use within conservation circles, such as in "roadless wilderness areas." The first roadless wilderness area was established in 1924 by the U.S. Forest Service in southwest New Mexico. As a U.S. Forest Service employee, Aldo Leopold was instrumental in the development of the concept and its initial implementation. My purpose in coining this new word is to be able to speak of roadlessness as an essential component of wilderness and not simply as a descriptive characteristic or quality of a wilderness tract within which all motorized travel is not permitted. The core element of roadlessness is the complete absence of motorized vehicles of any number, size, and configuration. Pristine wilderness areas are not without roads in their own right, such as game trails, the migratory routes of prehistoric and native peoples, and the very lay of the land itself.

A Google search for roadlessness results in a few hits, most of which are for various on-line dictionaries. The term appears to have been used in a few U.S. Forest Service publications. My claim to coinage may have been premature. If that be so, I make a claim to encourage its common usage and expanded meaning. One Google hit was Tom Turner's 2009 book, Roadless Rules, where Roadlessness is the title of one chapter, and curiously, the word appears no where else in the entire chapter.

The local library provided me with a copy of the collected works of a Canadian outdoor writer, Andy Russell. The book is titled Wild Country, The Best of Andy Russell. I was struck by an observation made by the editor in the introduction which cited a pivotal event in the life of Russell, that is, the establishment of roads within Canada's public lands and the Province of Alberta, in particular. Road building on public lands in the 1950's was an occasion for Andy Russell to rethink his lifestyle and enterprises and to significantly alter both. After I read this brief reference to the very opposite of roadlessness, I found myself thinking of works and authors where I have previously encountered discussions of the intrusiveness of roads in public lands. As I pulled a few volumes off my book shelf and reviewed the notes of other reads, I was struck by the timeframe during which this concept entered the outdoor and conservation literature. It was early in the 20th century. I suspect that it coincides with the rise of automobile ownership within the general population.

I offer the following list of authors by way of history and background and as my inspiration to coin a new word and/or encourage its common usage.
     Edwin Dahlberg, 1882 - 1971
     Aldo Leopold, 1887 - 1948
     Sigurd Olson, 1899 - 1982
     Eric Morse, 1904 - 1986
     Andy Russell, 1915 - 2005
     Mark Spragg, 1952
     Philip Connors, 1972 (?)
Looking at these birth years, I am struck with how quickly the automobile was seen as posing a critical impact on wilderness. The majority of these folks were contemporaries of one another, although I doubt that they all were personal acquaintances of one another. (My brief list is in no way intended to be complete, by any means or measure.)

I will grant you there may well have been and continue to be considerable nostalgia for the old ways among this group of folks, but there was also a keen insight into where things were headed and how important it was to let some places just be--places where man travels afoot, on horseback, or by paddle and portage.  Roadlessness is essential to the preservation of the ecosystem--the natural community of flora and fauna within their particular geography. These are places that move in geological epochs and evolutionary eras, where we get to experience our own vulnerability and ever so short season on this earth. Where else do we learn that we have more in common with annual grasses and flowering plants than with perennials and even less with that which sustains itself and all else?