When Bob Wick started his career with the Bureau of Land Management, he knew very little about the American West. He had grown up in the green, humid hills of Pennsylvania in a land of shining creeks, deciduous trees, and leafy understories protecting deep soils. Family camping trips to state parks kindled his love of the outdoors, as did exploring local woods where, with his brothers, Bob built a log cabin “fort” and proclaimed “Wick Mountain.” The public lands, plateaus, deserts, and canyon country of Utah and the West were unknown to him except through National Geographic and books. He wanted to spend time in the West and would soon learn of a world far different from his Appalachian haunts.
Wick worked on his self-taught photography skills. He earned a forestry degree at Pennsylvania State University, yet he had never heard mention of the BLM before it appeared in a...
