In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

3 OUTDOOR RECREATION ~ Leopold and the "Still Unlovely Mind" Richard L. Knight AIdo Leopold was a lifelong recreationist. Whether fishing, hunting with gun or bow, birdwatching, canoeing, or exploring wild lands on foot or horseback, Leopold sought out recreational opportunities on open lands. These activities in turn fed his commitment to conservation. Indeed , behind his early efforts to keep roads out of still-unbisected public lands lay the conviction that generations yet to come should have the opportunity to experience places that have been spared the commercializing influences of modern industry, transport, and marketing. He sought to protect these roadless areas from the kinds of recreational activities promoted by chambers of commerce and the automobile-oil conglomerates, activities that tended to bring "modern" technologies to bear on what were once simple human avocations. Leopold recognized that both private and public lands offered recreational opportunities and pursued his own play on both. He saw outdoor recreation not as the exclusive privilege of the wealthy, but as a basic human need and an inherent desire shared by most people. Leopold's Mr. Babbitt did not need a Ph.D. in ecology to participate in birdwatching , angling, or tramping through a prairie remnant. From Leopold's perspective outdoor recreation allowed individuals to connect with the wild things and places that were part of our history and that helped define our national culture. For Leopold outdoor recreation was the medium through which he could explore and bring together human and natural histories. Enjoying diverse forms of outdoor recreation, Leopold was nonetheless troubled by the increasing artificiality of outdoor experiences and the power of government and industry to deprive certain recreational activities of their requisite human skills and inherent mysteries. In "Conservation Esthetic," Leopold presaged the increasingly blurred line between ever-higher technology and recreation: "A gadget industry pads the bumps against nature-in-the-raw; woodcraft becomes the art of using gadgets."l Today hikers may venture into wilderness with little understanding of map and compass; they simply seek their location by dialing 32 Outdoor Recreation 33 up satellites on their Global Positioning Systems. And the cellular phone is always available in a pinch. Anglers depend less on their understanding offish ecology and habitat as they captain boats outfitted with instruments and gadgets that locate the fish, and then entice the fish with artificially enhanced baits and lures. Land management agencies that cater to recreationists have reduced the inherent hazards of recreation by posting and signing any real or perceived dangers: "Stay away from edge," "Bears in area," "Climb in case offlood." Magazines, sporting organizations, and government agencies leave no stone unturned before the advancing recreationist. Rock climbers are provided handhold-by-handhold descriptions of climbing routes. Mountain bikers, hikers, and equestrians are given specific directions to stay on the trail (apparently signs are not enough). The guidebook may tell us, "At the juncture marked by a sign, turn left and proceed 3 tenths of a mile, past a steep cliff on the right side and...." Outdoor adventure magazines exploit the ever-decreasing "undiscovered " sites on this planet with stories and details of destination points that haven't yet been victimized by guidebooks. Seldom, for example, does an issue of a climbing magazine appear without a detailed topographical description of some remote but just-discovered cliff. Where plants and animals unique to the vertical had found refuge for eons, there now appear brightly colored nylon runners; approaching climbers are dazzled by sunlight shining brightly off newly installed bolts; the vegetation is soon "gardened"; the cliff base is littered with waste and human refuse. Perhaps this is what Leopold feared when he wrote, "This is Outdoor Recreation, Latest Model."2 Leopold certainly saw the oncoming deluge of diverse recreationists and sensed the potential effect on our wild places. "Very evidently," he wrote in 1921, "we have here the old conflict between preservation and use, long since an issue with respect to timber, water power, and other purely economic resources, but just now coming to be an issue with respect to recreation."3 His words have proven true. In a recent review of taxpayer-subsidized uses of public lands, outdoor recreation was second only to water development projects as the culprit behind the decline of federally listed threatened and endangered species. The traditional threats to our natural heritage-forestry, livestock grazing, hardrock mining-affected fewer species.4 That Leopold anticipated such effects is clear. He stated in 1934, "The salient geographic character of outdoor recreation, to...

Share