“He is the mountain streams’ own darling, the hummingbird of blooming waters, loving rocky ripple-slopes and sheets of foam as a bee loves flowers, as a lark loves sunshine and meadows… What may be regarded as the separate songs of the ouzel are exceedingly difficult of description, because they are so variable and at the same time so confluent.  Though I have been acquainted with my favorite ten years, and during most of this time have heard him sing nearly every day… The more striking strains are perfect arabesques of melody, composed of a few full, round notes, embroidered with delicate trills which fade and melt in long slender cadences.  In general way his music is that of the streams refined and spiritualized.  The deep booming notes of the falls are in it, the trills of rapids, the gurgling of margin eddies, the low whispering of level reaches, and the sweet tinkle of separate drops oozing from the ends of mosses and falling into tranquil pools.”

LISTEN

Live concerts like this one are performed everyday at our national parks—but unfortunately they are quickly vanishing due to the unprecedented increases in air traffic.  Air traffic will at least double by the year 2025 according to FAA forecasts.

The goal of One Square Inch of Silence is to create the world’s first acoustic sanctuary off limits to all aircraft—thereby initiating a National Quiet Places system—and guarantee present and future generations a true wilderness experience. With your generous support we will accomplish our goal by 2016 Centennial of the National Park Service.

Earth Day, 2012, is the seventh anniversary of One Square Inch of Silence.

Now think about this: how many of the sounds that you heard were the sounds of nature, of the sounds of the earth? Not sounds that are man-made. I would bet that it was difficult to get to those natural sounds, wasn’t it? You may have even had to close your eyes and dig deep into the sonic soundscape to hear them. Or maybe, you didn’t hear any at all. And that is the point of the One Square Inch of Silence. Do you remember what it felt like the last time you were out in nature and the lack of noise, the lack of intrusion into your ears was like a great weight being lifted off your shoulders? Do you remember feeling so much closer to the earth, perhaps in amazement and awe, and perhaps feeling more aware of everything, including yourself? Do you remember hearing the silence between the gentle sounds, a silence that may have had a message or some meaning for you? Do you remember what a relief that was? Do you remember how important that was? We must not let these places of quiet become places that we remember. We must preserve these places so that they will always available, not be a memory, but a sanctuary of quiet for now in an increasingly noisy world. It is really important.

You can make a difference. Tell your friends and family about OSI. Let people know the importance of natural quiet and direct them to our website. Contact me or any of the other four board members with your ideas. And give a voice to silence by donating generously so that we can continue to carry on our valuable mission of creating the world’s first designated quiet place—a place where humans and wildlife alike can remain, undisturbed.

Sincerely,

Samara Kester, Executive Director, OSI

August is the driest and quietest month of the year at One Square Inch of Silence.  The early afternoon nature ambience consisted of the faint whine of winged insects and the murmur of the Hoh River in the distance measured at 32 dBA.  The first Sunday hike of the month was enjoyed Cordy & Tom Brady, Steven & Rick Broom and Gordon Hempton, Executive Director of OSI. Many elk prints were on the ground with only a few boot prints at this remote wilderness location.  One jet intrusion was observed at 1:15 PM, a private jet cruising at high altitude caused a disturbance measured at 37dBA.  This difference of 5 dBA is more than three times the acoustic energy!  Donate to One Square Inch and help us have Olympic National Park become our nation’s first no-flight zone for civilian purposes.

We are proud to introduce Steven Broom, Youth Volunteer Coordinator.  Steven is a student at Adna Middle/High School in Adna, Washington  He has a deep love for the wilderness and is a keen observer of wildlife.  You reach Steven at sbroom@onesquareinch.org Welcome aboard Steven!

Annual Hike

Prior to this event the Board of Directors met for a hike to One Square Inch followed by new business.  Kenya DeBois received the new title of Communications Director. Sean Owen was elected to the Board and named Finance Director.  We also have a dedicated and inspired young man, Steven Broom, a 15 year old high school student from Chehalis, Washington, who is now serves our Youth Volunteer Coordinator.  Jean Waight now serves as Operations Manager.  Welcome, Jean, Sean and Steven.  We look forward to our future together!

One Square Inch continues to attract attention from visitors around the world.  Celebrated globe trotter, Flat Stanley, visited the Stone that marks One Square Inch of Silence in the Hoh Valley with travel arrangements by Pattison Elementary School in Milford, Ohio.

Planning for air tours? We should be banning not planning.

Speak out for silence (email your concerns to Supt. Gustin Karen_Gustin@nps.gov)and give generously to One Square Inch of Silence.

UPDATE at  Newsweek (January 28, 2010): An Unquiet Nation–America’s Vanishing Silent Spaces.

Your support is the voice of silence. Donate.

Quiet eco-tourism is now building a ground swell of interest with One Square Inch of Silence listed as among the world’s most desirable destinations for aural solitude by Forbes Traveler, MSN and Yahoo!

Air travel is the number one destroyer of natural quiet in wilderness areas. As the Holiday Season approaches and air travel peaks, don’t forget to mention to your airline that according to information provided by the Air Transport Association it costs less than a dollar per passenger to avoid flying over a national park’s wilderness area—far less of a cost than weather! Ask your pilot to file a “deviation from flight plan” to avoid national parks and help save silence. This action will help bring this urgent need to the attention of airlines by those people they value most.

Ken Burns, producer of The National Parks—America’s Best Idea, reviews the book, One Square Inch of Silence. “After a while we begin to sense that it is silence that is our greatest teacher. The interval between musical notes. The pauses in a play or speech or conversation. The awe-inspiring cloisters of our civilizations. But it is in nature, as this wonderful gem of a book reveals, that we find the real blessing of silence.”