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Dan Heilig
Executive Director,
Wyoming Outdoor Council |
When you’re
out in the woods carrying all your belongings on your
back, conservation is a lesson that comes very quickly.
At least that’s what Dan Heilig believes launched
him into a successful career as a champion for conservation. “When
you’re out there for 30 days on a NOLS course,” he
says, “you learn conservation very quickly. Thirty
days really adds up.”
Heilig believes NOLS prepares you for just about
any expedition in life. His tenure working to protect
Wyoming’s wildlands has been quite a journey.
A native of New Jersey, Heilig’s first experience on a wilderness expedition
led him deep into Wyoming’s Wind River mountains with NOLS in 1979. He
went on to become a NOLS Instructor, working a variety of mountaineering courses
and even leading the first NOLS ascent of Acongagua in South America.
But it wasn’t until attending law school at the University of Wyoming in
1987 that Heilig realized what it took to protect some of the wilderness classrooms
he was teaching in. “I wasn’t an activist while at NOLS,” he
says, “I was just enjoying the land. At law school I discovered what it
takes to protect places. And I figured I owed something back, that I needed to
make a contribution.”
Heilig’s law degree led him to the Wyoming Outdoor Council (WOC), Wyoming’s
largest statewide conservation organization. For almost 13 years — seven
as staff attorney and five as executive director — Heilig has helped WOC
launch its successful citizen-action campaigns, public-policy initiatives and
legal actions.
Along the way, says Heilig, there have been “lots of highs, and plenty
of lows.” Some of the highs include victories he has helped win in the
tough battle to protect Wyoming’s wildlife, wildlands and quality of life
from increasing pressure from the oil and gas industry and other threats. Many
of the areas Heilig has worked so hard for, in fact, are NOLS classrooms.
Heilig is also proud of the strategic relationships
he has built with a wide variety of citizens in
the state, who he says are uniting around common
threats to their landscape. “The [oil and gas] issue is bringing us back together
because it can alter the land so dramatically and quickly,” he says.
In August, Heilig will step down from his leadership
position at WOC to pursue another goal in the spirit
of writer Edward Abbey, who said, “It is not
enough to fight for natural land and the West; it is even more important to enjoy
it. While you can. While it’s still there.” As Heilig prepares to
leave for new adventures that include a return journey to South America, the
state of Wyoming won’t be far from his mind. “Wyoming will always
have a draw for me,” he says. “The state’s at a cross roads,
but people are starting to join together. We need to decide for ourselves what
our future is.”
Always on the look-out for NOLS metaphors, Heilig
feels good about where he’s
leaving WOC — just like the lessons of Leave No Trace, where you leave
a place better than you found it. “See?” he smiles, “It all
goes back to NOLS.”
And that contribution Heilig felt he owed to Wyoming’s wildlands after
law school? “After 13 years,” he says, “I’m zeroing out
the balance sheet.”
– Kerry Brophy
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