Environmental stewardship and wilderness protection are core values in outdoor programs and require a participant to tell why natural resources are important to them and to the future of our country. Today, environmental curriculum and nature-based lessons are taught in elementary and secondary schools. Beyond the intellectual learning in classrooms, experience in the wilderness and field research in nature is essential. The mountains particularly have much to teach us. Mountains are sacred places to people of all races, cultures, religions throughout the world. Mountains and glaciers are also a barometer of climate change and a bellwether of environmental trends. Mountains resemble leading indicators in the economic and political battle over climate change. Altering our destructive trajectory will be like moving mountains, and it will save them.
