I have devoted much of my life and work to wilderness: as an idea, a place, and more. This page brings together my work on this subject.

Some of my wilderness related work includes:

• Wilderness Resident for the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies in 2026
• Wilderness Fellow (Researcher/Writer) for the Society for Wilderness Stewardship / US Forest Service in Montana in 2017
• Wilderness Researcher near Gates of the Arctic National Park
• Wilderness Researcher in Iceland as a Fulbright Scholar from 2023-24
• My masters thesis in Philosophy included a focus on wilderness as did my PhD dissertation in Environmental Studies
• Several years of seasonal wilderness work for the National Park Service in Denali, Gates of the Arctic, and Olympic parks

Much of my photography focuses on wilderness

My expedition highlights include Crossing Iceland in 2024, Lhotse in 2019, Greenland in 2021, the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in 2022 and 2025, the three highest volcanoes in Ecuador in 2013, and thousands of miles in Alaska.

Web Writings on wilderness (publications below)
Wilderness Exploration as a Philosophical Act: A Brief Memoir
Visions of Energy and Wilderness in a Changing Iceland
Wilderness in a Nutshell
Toyota’s Long-Running “Keep it Wild” Ad Campaign is an Insult to the Wild
Thoughts on a Recent Finding: Ancient Fires Drove Large Mammals Extinct, Study Suggests
Navigating Wilderness and Cyberspace: Holding Onto Reality in Outdoor Recreation
A Wilder Planet?
Cairns: A Photo-essay from Four Countries 
A Week in Bandelier
Beyond Forever

Various wilderness related writings are scattered across this website

PEER REVIEWED OR EDITED ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS________________________________________________

• The Universal Values of Wilderness? | 2026 (forthcoming) | USDA Forest Service Proceedings: Global Gathering of Knowledge, Wisdom, and Ways of Knowing | Author
• The Need for a Digital Wilderness Act | 2026 | AI & Society | Author

• The Unappreciated Significance and Source of Meaning in Wild Landscapes: An Arctic Case | 2024 | Environmental Values | Author
• Changing Climate, Changing Policy: Subsistence Use and Wilderness Values in Gates of the Arctic National Park | 2017 | George Wright Society: Connections Across People, Place, and Time | Author Chris Dunn
  
• The Moral and Ecological Rationales for Roadless Areas: An Icelandic Case Study | 2025 | In Progress | Author

I am presently turning this presentation into a paper: A Critique of the Incompatibility Critique of Wilderness

Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Character Narrative
December 2017 | USFS Document | Author Chris Dunn
I completed these two alongside the Absaroka-Beartooth Narrative: Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness Character Narrative + Lee Metcalf Wilderness Character Narrative.