Dear HCN,
Interior Secretary Harold
L. Ickes, 1933-1946, made a powerful public statement in 1935
supporting wilderness at a conference of state park authorities.
Given the public mood, I believe it is time to hear from the old
curmudgeon once again:
“I am not in favor of
building any more roads in the national parks than we have to
build. I am not in favor of doing anything along the lines of
so-called improvements that we do not have to
do.
“This is an automobile age, but I do not have
much patience with people whose idea of enjoying nature is dashing
along a hard road at 50 or 60 miles an hour. I am not willing that
our beautiful areas ought to be opened up to people who are either
too old to walk, as I am, or too lazy to walk, as a great many
young people are who ought to be ashamed of themselves. I do not
happen to favor the scarring of a wonderful mountainside just so we
can say we have a skyline drive.
“I think we
ought to keep as much wilderness in this country as we can. It is
easy to destroy a wilderness; it can be done very quickly, but it
takes nature a long time, even if we let nature alone, to restore
for our children what we have ruthlessly destroyed
…
“We ought to resolve all doubts in favor of
letting nature take its course. In a field where nature is
preeminently the master artist, where nature can do much more than
we can do with all our cleverness, with all our arts and with all
our best efforts, we cannot improve but only impair if we undertake
to alter.”
Michael F.
Turek
Toppenish,
Washington
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Don’t forget an “old curmudegon’s’ opinion.
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