Sears • What Worth Wilderness? 



sented by the undisturbed natural 

 community. At present we have to rely 

 largely on intuition— a wasteful and 

 dangerous process, as is trial and error. 

 It is a moral obligation to know, if we 

 can. 



Why are species which have en- 

 dured for millions of years— the oak, 

 chestnut, elm and beech— suddcnlv so 

 vulnerable, now that we have disturbed 

 their homes? Introduced parasites are 

 not the entire answer. Why are the 

 second-growth forests which now cover 

 about two-thirds of New England so 

 full of inferior stock that a generation 

 or more must pass before they become 

 reasonably productive? Is it because 

 we have systematically harvested the 

 best and biggest trees, leaving only 

 scrub individuals of bad hereditv to re- 

 produce themselves? Four thousand 

 years of corncobs are piled up in Bat 

 Cave, New Mexico, and the ones on 

 top are as scrubby as those at the bot- 



199 



tom. Presumably the Indians ate all 

 the big ears instead of saving them for 

 seed. What happened in the cornfield 

 can happen in a forest. We need to 

 know. 



Yet neither knowledge nor senti- 

 ment alone afford the most powerful 

 justification of ample wilderness or 

 natural areas set aside in perpetuity. 

 Rather it is the mixture of practical, 

 theoretical and ethical symbolized by 

 the question, "What kind of a Nation 

 do we want?" Do we wish to build a 

 future completely and ruthlessh' mech- 

 anized, standardized and artificial? Do 

 we really mean to crowd back Nature 

 to the utmost minimum, depending 

 upon ingenious artifice at every turn 

 for physical and spiritual sustenance, 

 until we have to eat standing up and 

 the healing which comes of solitude 

 survives only in dreams? 



The hour is late, but we still have 

 a measure of freedom to choose. 



QUESTIONS 



1. Why did our forefathers not preserve 

 tracts of virgin timber, prairie, and 

 shore line when the government was 

 being set up? 



2. What are two things which must be 

 done to prevent an animal from be- 

 coming extinct? 



3. Evaluate the statement "Only re- 



sources having a dollar and cents value 

 are worthy of conservation." 



4. Extinction of a plant or animal means 

 that its particular and unique genes 

 are lost. Can the scientist ever be sure 

 that he will not need these genes in 

 some future breeding program? Ex- 

 plain. 



