Replies

That was a very good mini-essay, Knitting. I learned something! I agree that the eco-freaks do not comprehend the dynamic aspect of ecology. Many of their organizations and movements are simply vehicles for leftist activism.

Conservation is what I believe in also, as opposed to environmentalism. I'm wondering now if Teddy Roosevelt wasn't the President most instrumental in bringing these protections about. I believe he not only founded our national parks system, but established other governmental conservation agencies.

"In utilizing and conserving the natural resources of the Nation, the one characteristic more essential than any other is foresight.... The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life."

Address to the National Editorial Association,
Jamestown, Virginia, June 10, 1907.

Believe it or not, U.S. Grant founded the first national park, in 1872, Yellowstone...but TR did more for conservation for sure. The Forest Reserves started in 1891, but it wasn't until TR and Gifford Pinchot got things going in 1905 that you got the real Forest Service, which was based on land management science and the desire to protect important resources to insure that they would be available for the future.

Conservation is based on science. And that's what makes it valuable. Unfortunately sometimes politics doesn't listen to the science and we get a mess like the huge tracts of standing dead red stuff today because of beetle problems, somewhat linked with the cessation of logging on public lands (which fulfilled part of the function of wildland fire.)