Melanie here! I just got back from ten glorious days in Eastern Oregon…so, so magical! I got to see incredible wilderness, which is one of the things that makes this state so amazing. BUT. I was appalled to find that even in some of the most remote places, we’ve basically fundamentally altered and screwed up the environment. Example? Hell’s Canyon, devastatingly majestic (seriously, vertiginous. You feel about the size of a ladybug when you see it) is dammed, which seems really wrong in this way that I can’t explain—a place that phenomenal should be kind of holy. I feel like it’s so freaking important that there are some places on which we try to have minimal impact, and we allow the place to be what it was before we were there, and what it will be after we annihilate ourselves. Float planes on Waldo Lake? Are you kidding? Ugh.