"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." — Aldo Leopold A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There
"I’m a spokesperson not only for myself and my people but for those that aren’t able to speak for themselves. And that’s the land, the water, the air, and the animals. They’re not able to speak for themselves or advocate." — Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk
"Even when touring, there are no free tickets. We need to speak up and build a collective voice and presence through community involvement. Instead of reacting to policy, it’s time to begin shaping it." — Anthony Pavkovich Backcountry Magazine, Issue 125
"The biggest challenge we face is shifting human consciousness, not saving the planet. The planet doesn’t need saving, we do." — Xiuhtezcatl Martinez
"The living world is dying; the natural economy is crumbling beneath our busy feet. We have been too self-absorbed to foresee the long-term consequences of our actions, and we will suffer a terrible loss unless we shake off our delusions and move quickly to a solution." — Edward Wilson The Future of Life
"I wonder how [children] will imagine the infinite when they have never seen how the stars fill a dark night sky." — Barbara Kingsolver Small Wonder
"The wilderness holds answers to questions man has not yet learned to ask." — Nancy Newhall
"We save what we love and we love what we know." — George Wendt
"Now I see that everyone’s values hold weight, and that there’s a rational argument behind every kind of use. No one is really in the wrong, there’s just not enough water for them all to be right." — Heather Hansman Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West
"I think all the wrong things are beautiful: invasive cheatgrass, the glint of sprinklers firing in late-day light, the glossy introduced rainbow trout. I realize it’s hard for me to tell what’s native and natural, what’s been altered by people, and what counts as history." — Heather Hansman Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West
"What counts as valuable seems arbitrary; the human demarcation line seems blurry. Even for an expert, it’s hard to tell what’s natural or native at this point because the changes in the ecosystem are similarly subtle and blurred. Ranchers argue that irrigation smooths out the seasonal variation in stream flow and recharges the aquifer, creating habitat, making it better for people and wildlife. But it’s not necessarily historically native animals that would be there if ranchers weren’t watering the land. That’s the tricky part of trying to recreate an unclear past." — Heather Hansman Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West
"'We can’t restore the river because it would require taking out the dam, but we can understand how the dam impacts ecosystems, then try to understand how to best manage it,' [Anya] says. 'You can’t always manage for restoration, but you can try to manage for a healthy ecosystem.' Healthy is a tricky, subjective goal. Jack believes that for the future of healthy rivers, and to hold onto some modicum of pristineness, we should try to keep the Green as wild as we can. The dams have broken the rivers, that’s inarguable, but they’re there. So now, he says, it’s important to try to manage the rivers in as natural a way as possible and to gather as much data as possible to try to figure out what natural looks like. It’s a combination of looking realistically at the ecosystem and working smartly within the bounds of what we need to exist." — Heather Hansman Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West
"The reason why we won’t face up to our problems with the environment is that we are the problem. It’s not the corporations out there, it’s not the governments, it’s us. We’re the ones telling the corporations to make more stuff, and make it as cheap and as disposable as possible. We’re not citizens anymore. We’re consumers. That’s what we’re called. It’s just like being an alcoholic and being in denial that you’re an alcoholic. We’re in denial that each and every one of us is the problem. And until we face up to that, nothing’s going to happen. So, there’s a movement for simplifying your life: purchase less stuff, own a few things that are very high quality that last a long time, and that are multifunctional." — Yvon Chouinard The Usual Montauk, "Don of the Dirtbags: An Interview with Yvon Chouinard"
"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed." — Mahatma Gandhi
"The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery, not over nature but of ourselves." — Rachel Carson
"In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create, but by what we refuse to destroy." — John C. Sawhill
"The creature at your feet dismissed as a bug or a weed is a creation in and of itself. It has a name, a million-year history, and a place in the world. Its genome adapts it to a special niche in an ecosystem. The ethical value substantiated by close examination of its biology is that the life forms around us are too old, too complex, and potentially too useful to be carelessly discarded." — Edward Wilson The Future of Life
"Public lands instruct in the value of respecting differences. We may all be endowed with a love of nature, but that passion takes many forms. Public lands must accommodate multiple uses because there are multiple publics whose wishes point in all directions. … Such differences don’t have to fester into divisions. The duck hunter and the birdwatcher may have their own ideas about the highest value of a wetland. Yet both know that without public protection, there might not be a wetland at all…. America’s public lands teach the etiquette of sharing. They instruct is in the manners of coexistence, cooperation, and consideration toward each other. … Such humility can remind us that even though we may find the culture and politics of others to be incomprehensible, their desire to find happiness in the natural world is much the same as our own." — Jason Mark Sierra Magazine, July/August 2020 Issue, "In Public Lands is the Preservation of the Republic"
"This was the manicured, bought, sold, developed, regulated coast of Southern California. Still beautiful—still wild in many ways—but it felt more like real estate than nature. The best beach houses, the best cliffs, the best coves—but owned by someone else. And the public beaches are covered in signs and controlled by rules." — Jedidiah Jenkins To Shake the Sleeping Self: A Journey from Oregon to Patagonia, and a Quest for a Life with No Regret
"As we entered California, it looked exactly like Oregon—another reminder of the arbitrariness of most human boundaries." — Jedidiah Jenkins To Shake the Sleeping Self: A Journey from Oregon to Patagonia, and a Quest for a Life with No Regret
