Framing Wilderness: Populism and Cultural Heritage as Organizing Principles.

We examine efforts to broaden support for wilderness preservation in the southeastern United States. Three closely linked Alabama organizations—Wild Alabama, WildLaw, and the Alabama Wilderness Alliance—have adopted a way of framing wilderness issues in Alabama that draws on a deeply rooted populist distrust of corporate and governmental elites as well as a sense of cultural connection to the land. Framing wilderness in this emotionally resonating manner, they have attracted public support for wilderness protection and fostered the emergence of new social movement organizations in this arena. We discuss the impact of this alternative wilderness frame for shaping policy in the southeastern United States and how it relates to similar wilderness frames applied in nonindustrialized nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]