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75 CHAPTER 6 Asset Preservation This book is about lakeshore living, not just about lakes or about their protection. People want to use lakes. Desire creates value, and value often creates problems. To truly acknowledge the assets the land has to offer, as Aldo Leopold, in Game Management , stated, “to see why it is, how it became, and the direction and velocity of the changes,” is as important as seeing what the land offers today. To effectively place humans and the rest of nature together on the lakeshore, we must understand the special attraction of lakeshore living. Sigurd Olson contemplated in Listening Point: “Water reflects his inner needs. Its alldeveloping quality, its complete diffusion into the surrounding environment, the fact it is never twice quite the same and each approach to it is a new adventure, gives it a meaning all its own. Here a man can find himself and all his varied and changing moods.” Water’s appeal can be traced across continents and cultures. In many lake-rich districts of Russia, for example, people seem drawn to the water. There, as in Minnesota, the Scandinavian heritage of fishing cabins seems to have grown and changed colors. Bill Holm, in Cabins of Minnesota, reflected beautifully on cabins, cabin life, and lakeshore living. He traced the various motivations of people to go to the cabin, making the connection with the Swedish stuga, or summer cabin. In Scandinavia and Russia, the whole family often moved to the cabin for the summer, with the father visiting from town as often as his job allowed. Holm also describes how Minnesotans transformed that tradition, with less time spent swimming and gardening, more time spent fishing, and the adoption and invention of new customs. One of the primary changes in the cabin tradition was that private property became symbolically important. Although most lakes did not become private property, perceived ownership of the lake and of the lifestyle became meaningful. Owning your own spot directly on the lake, with your own pier, a private beach, and few other people around, easily captured the imagination. However, at the same time, the cabin offered a community life. Large families , extended families, and friends would share small cabins. People from neighboring cabins would visit and gather around the fire or barbeque. A private idyll was pursued in company. Holm links the Minnesota cabin tradition to the romantic tradition of retreats in nature, and even further back to Chinese lore about the pleasures of a simple life away from society. Interestingly , the idyllic views of nature are often formed in an urbanizing society, and visions of an isolated life are formed in an intricate community. It is not surprising, then, to find in a cabin many overlapping activities and many contradictory expectations, and to find lakeshore living as complex as any urban lifestyle despite all its aspirations of simplicity. For many people, the pursuit of simplicity combines with a pursuit of timelessness, of time standing still. Sigurd Olson noted in Reflections from the North Country that “Time moves 76| Development and Redevelopment slowly, as it should, for it is a part of beauty that it cannot be hurried if it is to be understood. Without this easy flowing, life can become empty and hectic.” Logs, fireplaces, and wooden furniture give the impression of old unchanging lifestyles. Old buildings may be moved to the lake and re-created as cabins, or old cabins may be renovated. Living in these modest secluded cabins, or emphasizing old traditions, can give the feeling of a connection to the past. There are myriad other desired lifestyles and motivations for lakeshore living, of course. For some, the lake is the networking environment for the summer, an extended golf course. Others enjoy the fishing. Some simply enjoy living in two different environments, while others desire to get away from an urban place, from other people, or from a lifestyle. Some people adopt a different persona in the cabin; others don’t. Some people see nature as a scenic background for their activities, while others are indifferent; still others go to the lake wholly for the natural environment. Sigurd Olson wrote in The Singing Wilderness, “there are many trappers’ cabins in the north and there are many mansions called cabins.” Despite this variety of backgrounds, motivations, and philosophies, the goal remains consistent: a desirable lakeshore lifestyle. All kinds of people aspire to the cabin life, to a form of lakeshore living. Many changes in the lakeshore lifestyles and...

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