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The Spring Mountains ECHOThe Spring Mountains Association
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ECHO Vol. 9, NO. 2 May 1998 to July 1998 | |
By Bob Maichle
"We do not inherit the Earth from our fathers, we are borrowing it from our children" are words ascribed to David Brower. This quote is carved in granite at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. When David Brower was first told of that quote, he didn't remember even making it. Subsequent research reveals it was made by Brower at an interview in a bar in North Carolina. Brower, after musing a bit, concluded that those words were too conservative for him. He wrote " . . . We're not borrowing from our children, we're stealing from them - and it's not even considered a crime."
Brower noted that " . . . an ecosystem can be as small as a rotting deer carcass or as large as the planet . . . " Our Spring Mountain Ecosystem is large enough to have a unique blend of bio diversity, complete with endemic plants and animals. The size of our Spring Mountain ecosystem is not so large that extraordinary effort to protect it is mandated. The bio diversity and character of land remain, almost all of the pieces are still present. Our Spring Mountains have benefitted from relatively late and haphazard attempt by man to conquer its wildness. We may not all have learned to think like a mountain, but we have learned to embrace, not dominate, our island in the desert.
The Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and the State of Nevada have just entered into a Conservation Agreement to, as David Brower would say, perform CPR on our Mountain. CPR in this case is an acronym for Conservation, Preservation and Restoration: This agreement is an example of addressing today, recovering yesterday, and providing for tomorrow. This agreement is in the spirit of thinking like a mountain. Let us consider the wisdom of David Brower and conservation, preservation, and restoration.
Aldo Leopold noted that "conservation is a state of harmony between man and the land." Brower would consider conservation as the rational use of our resources with today's wants, tempered with a deep concern for tomorrow needs. Such harmony comes when we enjoy the heritage of our children. A good rule to follow is to return a loaned item in as good shape, if not better condition, than it was borrowed. To misuse, abuse or destroy something of value is just plain foolish. When that thing of value belongs to another, it is theft. We think like a mountain when we borrow from our children, and we don't steal their future.
We need to preserve the integrity of the land. Brower wrote that "[we must] preserve what we can never replace." Preservation of the bio diversity of our Spring Mountains should be important to all. The unique diversity of our Spring Mountain Range, if ever lost, could never be replaced. Preservation, in this sense is a plan requiring a combination of coordination, cooperation, and concern for the integrity and bio diversity of our mountain. Preservation is not prohibiting use, it is providing for a continued future.
Restoration, when and where possible, is important to those who enjoy the borrowed heritage of our children. Once lost, replacement is no longer an option. More often however, when key biotic community members are destroyed, the necessary components can be found elsewhere on the mountain. When all the pieces can be found, restoration is possible. Our riparian communities are under siege from tamarisk, feral horses, feral burros, overzealous campers, and numerous other man-introduced threats. The functioning riparian community of Willow Creek has been destroyed. All the components exist elsewhere on the mountain. The riparian ecosystem of Willow Creek, as we once knew it, can be restored. Restoration, of what once was, is an important step in providing for the mountain.
Those that think like a mountain know we have an obligation to restore what we can, preserve what we have, and conserve what we use. When we borrow the heritage of our children, we must accept our obligation to care for what we have borrowed. Those that think like a mountain would never knowingly steal from future generations. To think like a mountain is to treat the land as an obligation to be conserved, preserved, and repaired, not as an inheritance to be squandered. David Brower noted that " . . . there is only one Earth." Let's think like a mountain and leave our children's heritage in better shape than when we borrowed it.
