Often, when he ponders issues that confront and confound us, he is surprised how folks will assume that our ability to control outcomes and protect values is nearly nonexistent, or at best, should not be relied upon. The discussion on stem cell research for example stiffens because it is feared that we could not control breaching the ethical boundaries such as body part farming. Or when physician assisted suicide is debated, it is as if we could not regulate the laws to avoid the assembly of “death panels.”
Yet he has discovered many examples in this life of common people taking charge and preserving our valuable natural assets from the human patterned behavior to exploit.
We can begin by leaving aside the obvious National Parks that President Teddy was so intent and successful in setting aside in the wake of sustained business pressure, as well as the endless wetlands and conservation refuges that have avoided destruction, and describe a new treasure he discovered this last summer while traveling up in the Upper Peninsula.
There, up in the land that time forgot due to the plethora of water, rock, woods, and a slim window of moderate weather, sits a group of natural lakes, once pristine, still pristine. A grouping of deep lakes which require canoe in, portage between, and camp primitively, at designated sites restraining the urge to over -populate, and providing the experience that only a true wilderness can.
Sure, it is a high-tech and elite form of use. Reserving the limited campsites is done online, and the rules vigorously restrict noise, garbage, and the high impact effects that are commonly associated with American campers. Yet this is the fine dining of the natural world and it needs a place, and it has one here.
Once again the human community proves the ability to regulate in order maintain value, use, preservation, and sustainability. Great things should be hailed and repeated.
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