Wilderness Is A Resource Which Can Shrink

When I Call To Mind My Earliest Impressions, I Wonder Whether The Process Ordinarily Referred To As Growing Up Is Not Actually A Process Of Growing Down; Whether Experience, So Much Touted Among Adults As The Thing Children Lack, Is Not Actually A Progressive Dilution Of The Essentials By The Trivialities Of Living.

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.

Conservation Is A Positive Exercise Of Skill And Insight, Not Merely A Negative Exercise Of Abstinence And Caution.

Every Farm Woodland, In Addition To Yielding Lumber, Fuel And Posts, Should Provide Its Owner A Liberal Education. This Crop Of Wisdom Never Fails, But It Is Not Always Harvested.

One Of The Penalties Of An Ecological Education Is That One Lives Alone In A World Of Wounds. Much Of The Damage Inflicted On Land Is Quite Invisible To Laymen. An Ecologist Must Either Harden His Shell And Make Believe That The Consequences Of Science Are None Of His Business, Or He Must Be The Doctor Who Sees The Marks Of Death In A Community That Believes Itself Well And Does Not Want To Be Told Otherwise.