That Dark Laboratory We Call The Soil.

Wilderness Is The Raw Material Out Of Which Man Has Hammered The Artifact Called Civilization. Wilderness Was Never A Homogenous Raw Material. It Was Very Diverse. The Differences In The Product Are Known As Cultures. The Rich Diversity Of The Worlds Cultures Reflects A Corresponding Diversity. In The Wilds That Gave Them Birth.

All Conservation Of Wildness Is Self-defeating, For To Cherish We Must See And Fondle, And When Enough Have Seen And Fondled, There Is No Wilderness Left To Cherish.

One Swallow Does Not Make A Summer, But One Skein Of Geese, Cleaving The Murk Of March Thaw, Is The Spring.

Conservationists Have, I Fear, Adopted The Pedagogical Method Of The Prophets: We Mutter Darkly About Impending Doom If People Don't Mend Their Ways. The Doom Is Impending, All Right; No One Can Be An Ecologist, Even An Amateur One, Without Seeing It. But Do People Mend Their Ways For Fear Of Calamity? I Doubt It. They Are More Likely To Do It Out Of Pure Curiosity And Interest.

Your Woodlot Is, In Fact, An Historical Document Which Faithfully Records Your Personal Philosophy.