"The
only thing necessary for the triumph of evil," we are told,
"is for good men to do nothing." Some good men are
doing very well; those of them who are in the business of transforming
natural resources into commodities for the commercial world are
planning ahead admirably. The forest products industries and
the Forest Service are looking hard at the year 2000 and to meet
that years needs are rapidly adding to our vast tree-crop lands
by converting the last of our virgin forests. The agencies that
develop water and hydro-power are building the dams now that
will meet the next century's requirements and we are creating
reservoirs where the bottom lands were, and the living space
for wildlife and recreation. Highway engineers, in long range
plans, are trying desperately to pave pasture fast enough for
the new hordes of horses our automotive engineers are placing
under millions of hoods -- 65 million hoods this year, or twice
as many as there were on the road a decade ago.
The conservationist,
however, -- and by conservationist I mean the man (or
part of him) concerned with what natural resources do for his
spirit, not his bank balance -- is not doing so well in making
certain that civilization will retain the wild islands that are
essential in his tamed world. In the race to the future it seems
as if we are riding a detached little red caboose, destined never
quite to catch up, resigned to arriving at that future only to
find that all the land is already staked out for practicable
utilitarian progressive realistic commercial purposes.
We need to
get out of that caboose and ride the engine instead. Or at the
very least to get everybody to ride the caboose and arrive at
the same time. And there is a way to do it.
Early in 1956
the Sierra Club Board of Directors proposed a scenic resources
review -- a full scale conservationist effort to look ahead as
far as the commodity producers are looking. To summarize a summary
of it, the Review would provide that public and private agencies
combine speedily to find what scenic resources are still left,
to make an estimate of the future's need for them, and to devise
ways of protecting them in time. The term scenic resources
is only a short cut; for our purposes it covers local, state,
and national parks, appealing wilderness wherever it is, the
wildlife that brings vitality to these scenes, and the vitality,
resourcefulness, and creative ability that people regain when
they get off the pavement and into the world. A medium-length
definition would be the resources of parks, wilderness, and wildlife
and the recreation derived from them. And now lets shorten it
to SRR.
The SRR affects
you directly, and poignantly affects any one you know who is
Johnny's age. It relates to what we and his contemporaries will
see out of our windows and through our windshields. It has major
bearing on what we and he will be able to do on those days when
we want to to see less of the world as man has remade it and
more of it as God made it in the first place. The SRR has meaning
to the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings we ought
to be able to know when we head for a far, clean horizon to come
to our senses, or let them come to us.
So much for
the general import. What are the specific steps of the inquiry?
Lets take them one by one. . . .
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