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after each heavy rain, but often does not realize that he should stop 
erosion by contour farming, until years of soil loss force him to cease 
raising corn on the higher land. Even the spectacular and sudden losses 
of soil caused by strip mining and placer mining were matters of little 
public concern until recent years. 
Nowadays laws are being enacted to halt needless waste of natural 
wealth, but again the final responsibility rests on each individual. By way 
of illustration, consider a very small development project close to home. 
Let us say a small piece of suburban property is being subdivided and 
built up with residences. Pavements are laid, low spots are drained, and 
trees on sites selected for buildings are cut down. Modification of environ- 
ment has begun, but it is a necessary change, and indeed highly desirable 
in these days of housing shortages. Next come the excavations for houses. 
To save time and money, the contractor makes one pile of dirt from each 
excavation, without separating the top soil from the deeper clays and 
gravels. When the houses are completed the clay or gravel is scattered 
over the original soil surface and rolls of sod grown on fertile bottom 
land nearby are spread over the clay to form a pleasingly landscaped 
property. The realtor is not at all concerned over the fact that purchasers 
of homes will need to apply liberal amounts of fertilizer to the thin layer 
of sod, and the purchaser himself seldom gives it a thought. 
A trivial incident, indeed, but not so trivial when considered as an 
individual symptom of a national indifference to soil, which is one of the 
most important foundation stones of the conservation structure. The 
phrase “As cheap as dirt” no longer has the significance it did in pioneer 
days, and another old saw, “as clear as a brook,” means little to millions 
of people who never see a clear stream except in the movies. ‘As free as 
air” has an ironical twist to the businessman who must install an expensive 
air-conditioning system to keep the soot and fumes of city polluted atmos- 
phere from damaging his delicate manufacturing processes. 
America has indeed come a long way since pioneer times, but too much 
of the way has been downhill toward bankruptcy of resources. 
The present reaction against tinkering with nature has caused some 
groups and individuals to swing far in the opposite direction, and advocate 
a complete hands-off policy. ‘Let Nature alone,” they say, “and she will 
restore the balance of nature and heal her own wounds.” Utopia is 
wonderful, but would be possible only if the human population were reduced 
to pre-Columbian levels of culture and density. This is not possible even 
on National Park areas, although they come about as near to it as can be 
without complete exclusion of people. Even the huge game reserves in 
Canada, such as the Thelon Game Sanctuary northwest of Hudson’s Bay, 
are subject to limited modifications of environemnt by civilized man. 
Primitive peoples modified nature, but did it so slowly and slightly that 
natural healing processes were able to keep abreast of man’s influence; 
civilized man, on the contrary, has developed ways of modifying nature 
so speedily that she cannot keep up — she needs our help in the form of 
wise management of resources. The National Parks are splendid examples 
