(a continuation, see previous archives)
These land designations will be evaluated by considering how the public’s values, as well as the “common good”, should be applied in regulating the use of our natural resources. Rereading the John McPhee classic, “Encounters with the Archdruid” was helpful in preparing for this writing. Here McPhee, along with the Commissioner of Reclamation, the Sierra Club president David Brower, and a local resort developer, raft down the Colorado River, downstream of the Glen Canyon Dam, while debating the merits of preservation and varied use.
The dam was constructed to regulate and appropriate water use. An addition to this project was the creation of the adjoining reservoir and subsequent national recreation area. The recreation areas sole purpose is as a multiple use recreational park, as opposed to a national park, where the emphasis is primarily on the preservation of the resource.
Gifford Pinchot (the first Chief of the U.S. Forest Sevice, known for reforming the management and development of forests in the United States and for advocating the conservation of the nation's reserves by planned use and renewal, calling it "the art of producing from the forest whatever it can yield for the service of man") would have embraced this utilitarian approach, by encouraging development without waste to promote the common good. The recreation area and adjoining dam rely on the scientific expertise of public officials to manage the public resources in an efficient and sustainable manner.
The question arises of course,“what is the common good”? When Congress created the first national park (Yellowstone), it chose the wording “a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people”. Statistics bear out that the majority of visitors to public lands preferred uses include sightseeing, boating, fishing, hotels and souvenir shops. In addition, these folks want well engineered, safe and comfortable access and accommodation. Recreation areas and national parks provide this in great measure; a roadless national forest does not.
Although John Muir would counter that our wild public lands should offer spiritual, recreational, and recuperative values that are otherwise unavailable in civilized society.
In other words...."into the wild," should be just that.
