Land and Water Under Siege, For the Love of the Land

I'm beginning to be like Marni, with posts swimming around in my head waiting to be written down. This one's been in the works for a few weeks. I don't think it's cohesive even yet, so I'll just consider it a rough, rough draft. Preparation for publication sometime down the road.

Some places are just worth saving.

Sometimes, just sometimes, it's worth it to look at history to see what lessons we might already have learned before we relearn the mistakes we've already made.

Local people with passion are usually the ones who start a movement to save land that is beautiful, transcendent, irreplaceable. Grassroots efforts started the saving of nearly every National Park in existence today. These energies of small groups were almost always kindled by one soul. One person with a passion for a superb tract of land. Local people must take the initial responsibility to land that is in their proximity. If I do not fight for the Michigan land and water, can I expect that someone from New Hampshire or Georgia or Idaho is more likely to do so?

Nearly every park was fought against at the local level as well. Claims on the monetary value of lumber, metals, bird feathers, buffalo hides brought out the opposition. The people do sometimes come around to see that the saving of some land is a good thing in the end. Not always.

Once a dam is made, a mine is drilled, a forest is hewn, change takes place that is not always reversible. If it is reversible, it can take decades for the land to return something akin to it's original state. Even then, species that existed before may be forever lost.

We may not be able to calculate the total loss. Though the Gulf is most affected by the massive oil spill, who is to say what indirect effects may be seen where you live. The consequences of our actions as a whole people may not be seen clearly for centuries.

As much as my own budget cannot handle higher gas prices, higher metals prices, higher paper products prices, etc., etc. I would be willing to find the ways to cut back and pay the higher costs while new solutions are being innovated. I would vote to do so. I am willing to find the ways I make waste and commit to cut back over time.

Please consider sharing about your favorite piece of land or water, wherever it is found, Park or not. If you choose a Park, do you know the history of the place? How was it set aside and who sacrificed that your particular favorite land was saved? Please consider placing yourself in the shoes of those in the Gulf Coast oil crisis. How would you respond if you were local? If you are not local, what actions can you take locally to avoid feeling helpless when you see pictures of birds dripping with tar and pristine marshland filled with globs of oil? When you think about your children and grandchildren, what do you want for them in terms of the land? How will you work to leave those gifts for them?



Dedicated to John Muir, for all he did, wrote and said in behalf of the National Parks and wild places

"I used to envy the father of our race, dwelling as he did in contact with the new-made fields and plants of Eden; but I do so no more, because I have discovered that I also live in "creation's dawn." The morning stars still sing together, and the world, not yet half made, becomes more beautiful every day."