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I have been a member of Great Old Broads for Wilderness for more than 10 years. Not only do they embody many of my core values, including wild place protection, humor, hiking, and helping, but people who are attracted to the Great Old Broads are some of the most fascinating and productive wilderness advocates I have ever met. Their organization is very well run and the staff is knowledgeable and helpful. I look forward to many more years as a Great Old Broad for Wilderness. The organization is currently expanding its range and training leaders for new chapters throughout the nation.

I've been an active, participating Great Old Broad twenty years since the beginning (1990). My favorite Broad's experience was in 1995 when Orin Hatch announced to America that for no other reason, we need roads in the wilderness for the aged and infirm. In response, the Broads organized a month walk across Utah, from Moab to St George, to let the world know otherwise. Each day we walked in precious wilderness without roads. Much of this land was wild public BLM land, magnificent but without permanent protection. Experiencing this cause and rare beauty changed my life forever. We changed other lives forever by bringing attention to these wild places. Local media responded and we attracted PBS crews, both radio and TV, at several locations. Most years I participate with the Broads at a carefully chosen sensitive wild site -- our purpose is to educate ourselves, perform service projects in wild places, take the word to the world that these lands need permanent protection, from the grass-roots up AND TO HAVE FUN WHILE WE'RE DOING IT. Following the WALK ACROSS UTAH, I worked for five years with the Escalante,Utah BLM and cattle ranchers monitorina long-term grazing issues on wild lands that cry for protection. Each year I participate in our Broad's on-line auction, our major fundraiser -- last weekend I hosted a trailhead breakfast at my mountain home in Sonoma Valley and led an all day hike in now-protected wilderness. Linda Liscom

The presentations included historians from the nearby national park presenting costumed cameos of various Spanish settlers and native Americans. The speakers included Forest Service representatives and members of environmental organizations who had differing views on making the lands we hiked Wilderness. Our service project for the Forest Service included picking up trash and mending barbed wire fences, and while we were working in the hot noon-day sun seeing groups of undocumented workers carrying their gallon jugs of water moving from their space under a tree where they were waiting for transport and running across the road to a canyon trying to escape. Our hikes included those to the top of a ridge staked out by environmental heroes and near the motion-activated camera which had recently captured photos of two different highly endangered jaguars extant on the US side of the border. The variety of experiences and meaningful interchange among the Broads and Bros there were both informative and life-enriching.

My experiences with the Broadwalks where we go to an area, learn about the environmental issues from the locals, and participate in a service project have been wonderful.

As a senior woman I have canoed rivers such as the Green and Colorado and explored remote canyons that I would never have seen without Broads. I have learned how to assess the health of riparian areas so vital to western ecology. Best of all I have been able to help keep wild public lands wild and have fun doing it.