Ability To See The Cultural Value Of

Then Came The Gadgeteer, Otherwise Known As The Sporting-goods Dealer. He Has Draped The American Outdoorsman With An Infinity Of Contraptions, All Offered As Aids To Self-reliance, Hardihood, Woodcraft, Or Marksmanship, But Too Often Functioning As Substitutes For Them. Gadgets Fill The Pockets, They Dangle From Neck And Belt. The Overflow Fills The Auto-trunk And Also The Trailer. Each Item Of Outdoor Equipment Grows Lighter And Often Better, But The Aggregate Poundage Becomes Tonnage.

We All Strive For Safety, Prosperity, Comfort, Long Life, And Dullness. The Deer Strives With His Supple Legs, The Cowman With Trap And Poison, The Statesman With Pen, The Most Of Us With Machines, Votes, And Dollars. A Measure Of Success In This Is All Well Enough, And Perhaps Is A Requisite To Objective Thinking, But Too Much Safety Seems To Yield Only Danger In The Long Run. Perhaps This Is Behind Thoreau's Dictum: In Wilderness Is The Salvation Of The World. Perhaps This Is The Hidden Meaning In The Howl Of The Wolf, Long Known Among Mountains, But Seldom Perceived Among Men.

It Is, By Common Consent, A Good Thing For People To Get Back To Nature.

The Practice Of Conservation Must Spring From A Conviction Of What Is Ethically And Aesthetically Right, As Well As What Is Economically Expedient. A Thing Is Right Only When It Tends To Preserve The Integrity, Stability, And Beauty Of The Community, And The Community Includes The Soil, Waters, Fauna, And Flora, As Well As People.

If We Lose Our Wilderness, We Have Nothing Left, In My Opinion, Worth Fighting For; Or To Be More Exact, A Completely Industrialized United States Is Of No Consequence To Me.