10 MAN ON THE LANDSCAPE 



There have been and there are islands of normality in the world, 

 where men have learned to live largely in harmony with the land- 

 scape. (Fig. 6.) Such a happy status always involves control of the 

 human population by one means or another. (Every kind of life has 

 the capacity to reproduce at a greater rate than the landscape can 

 support.) These tiny islands of sanity in landscape management are 

 probably in some degree accidental. Sufficient scientific knowledge, 

 which would permit a deliberate attempt to establish widespread nor- 

 mal relations between civilized man and nature, has only recently 

 become available. 



Man, the Re-Organizer. The natural cycles of life, energy, and 

 matter are a trinity, unified and inseparable. They are a product of 

 the universe. Nature exerts forces to maintain these cycles in opera- 

 tion, and restore then to balance when disturbed. Yet, these balances 

 are so delicate that even a small remnant of the former human popu- 

 lation, if it continues destructive practices, can prevent the landscape 

 from recuperating. We see evidence of this on impoverished farms, 

 pastured timberlands, overgrazed rangelands. We see it in once 

 thickly peopled, now largely barren areas in North China, Mesopo- 

 tamia, North Africa, Greece, Yucatan, Phoenicia, Mexico, South Afri- 

 ca, and others, including the United States of America. Naturally, 

 we should like to prevent such drastic procedures. We should like to 

 see these impoverished areas restored. We should like to see the down- 

 ward trend stopped on still other areas. 



Prevention of slow disaster requires reorganization of man 's land- 

 scape activities. Where he has been siphoning off energy and sub- 

 stance from the natural cycles without providing for a proper frac- 

 tion of return, he must provide such return. (Fig. 7.) 



Furthermore, science is discovering that the life producing cycles 

 can be enlarged and speeded by feeding into them through the soil 

 (and sometimes through the leaves of plants) certain elements (such 

 as phosphorus and calcium, zinc and copper.) Man found these and 

 other elements lying about in deposits, inert and seemingly useless to 

 organic processes. The possibilities for human betterment which lie 

 in such improvements on nature Iiardly have been touched by the 

 rank and file of land users. Nor has there been a sustained and in- 

 sistent demand from consumers for rational management of our 

 resources. The job is only well started. The masses sense vaguely 

 and intuitively that such activities will benefit them. But, there is 

 no strong awareness of its full importance. 



It is certain that the future security of all peoples is linked with 

 material abundance. People in the mass will never conduct them- 

 selves on a purely intellectual and moral plane. Morals, personal or 

 national, are powerfully influenced by the fullness or emptiness of the 

 gut. Hundreds of millions of hungry people (and they are hungry 

 for more than food) are a constant force toward war. America alone 

 cannot feed, clothe, and house them. We can only help them help 

 themselves. They can only help themselves by enriching their own 

 landscapes, 



