The Wind That Makes Music In November

For Unnumbered Centuries Of Human History The Wilderness Has Given Way. The Priority Of Industry Has Become Dogma. Are We As Yet Sufficiently Enlightened To Realize That We Must Now Challenge That Dogma, Or Do Without Our Wilderness? Do We Realize That Industry, Which Has Been Our Good Servant, Might Make A Poor Master?

Harmony With Land Is Like Harmony With A Friend; You Cannot Cherish His Right Hand And Chop Off His Left. That Is To Say, You Cannot Love Game And Hate Predators; You Cannot Conserve The Waters And Waste The Ranges; You Cannot Build The Forest And Mine The Farm. The Land Is One Organism.

Thus Far We Have Considered The Problem Of Conservation Of Land Purely As An Economic Issue. A False Front Of Exclusively Economic Determinism Is So Habitual To Americans In Discussing Public Questions That One Must Speak In The Language Of Compound Interest To Get A Hearing.

A Land Ethic...reflects The Existence Of An Ecological Conscience, And This In Turn Reflects A Conviction Of Individual Responsibility For The Health Of The Land. Health Is The Capacity Of The Land For Self-renewal. Conservation Is Our Effort To Understand And Preserve This Capacity.

No Important Change In Ethics Was Ever Accomplished Without An Internal Chage In Our Intellectual Emphasis, Loyalties, Affections, And Convictions.