Wilderness Areas Are First Of All A

Wilderness Areas Are First Of All A Series Of Sanctuaries For The Primitive Arts Of Wilderness Travel, Especially Canoeing And Packing.

Our Grandfathers Were Less Well-housed, Well-fed, Well-clothed Than We Are. The Strivings By Which They Bettered Their Lot Are Also Those Which Deprived Us Of [passenger] Pigeons. Perhaps We Now Grieve Because We Are Not Sure, In Our Hearts, That We Have Gained By The Exchange. The Gadgets Of Industry Bring Us More Comforts Than The Pigeons Did, But Do They Add As Much To The Glory Of The Spring?

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?

He Who Hopes For Spring With Upturned Eye Never Sees So Small A Thing As Draba. He Who Despairs Of Spring With Downcast Eye Steps On It, Unknowing. He Who Searches For Spring With His Knees In The Mud Finds It, In Abundance.

The Government Tells Us We Need Flood Control And Comes To Straighten The Creek In Our Pasture. The Engineer On The Job Tells Us The Creek Is Now Able To Carry Off More Flood Water, But In The Process We Have Lost Our Old Willows Where The Owl Hooted On A Winter Night And Under Which The Cows Switched Flies In The Noon Shade. We Lost The Little Marshy Spot Where Our Fringed Gentians Bloomed.