“This is your land we are talking about,” the controversial, firebrand historian and conservationist Bernard DeVoto wrote in 1947, paraphrasing Woody Guthrie’s fresh folk classic.
Bernard and his stylish, sharp-witted wife, Avis DeVoto, had returned from an epic road trip across the Lewis and Clark trail, crossing the states of the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. On their way, they researched America’s wild, public lands and philosophized about the spiritual connection between the freedom of movement they allowed and the freedom of thought they inspired.
In six magnificent national parks, they lifted their eyes to thrusting snowcapped mountains; peered down at roiling rivers churning through sculpted canyons; squinted at sunlight glinting off lakes of pristine indigo.
Yet on the road, looking at public lands, and listening to the people who lived among them, they discovered a plot – birthed by the Nevada senator Pat McCarran – to sell away nearly all of it.
As many as 230m acres constituting the natural patrimony that is the birthright of every American; the wilderness that made America the world’s first country to enshrine natural resource conservation as a national priority. Demagogic McCarran would have liquidated the landscapes of the American soul for quick cash to a politically connected few.
https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.amp...l/05/bernard-avis-devoto-public-lands-protect
Bernard and his stylish, sharp-witted wife, Avis DeVoto, had returned from an epic road trip across the Lewis and Clark trail, crossing the states of the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. On their way, they researched America’s wild, public lands and philosophized about the spiritual connection between the freedom of movement they allowed and the freedom of thought they inspired.
In six magnificent national parks, they lifted their eyes to thrusting snowcapped mountains; peered down at roiling rivers churning through sculpted canyons; squinted at sunlight glinting off lakes of pristine indigo.
Yet on the road, looking at public lands, and listening to the people who lived among them, they discovered a plot – birthed by the Nevada senator Pat McCarran – to sell away nearly all of it.
As many as 230m acres constituting the natural patrimony that is the birthright of every American; the wilderness that made America the world’s first country to enshrine natural resource conservation as a national priority. Demagogic McCarran would have liquidated the landscapes of the American soul for quick cash to a politically connected few.
https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.amp...l/05/bernard-avis-devoto-public-lands-protect