Land Prophets

Destruction of the land stops only when people screw up their courage and speak up.

They dedicate their lives to figuring out a better way and showing others how they can do things differently. They confront the people in politics and businesses who exploit the land only to make money, who listen to special interest groups rather than the everyday people they represent and betray the public trust.

In California, John Muir saw sheep destroying the wilderness meadows of the Sierra Nevada and worked to get them removed. In the process, he helped create the National Park system that has saved large tracts of wilderness areas. He also wanted to save Hetch Hetchy, but the politicians in San Francisco sold nature out for votes.

Rachel Carson in Maine discovered the devastating effects of pesticides on eagles and wildlife, and alerted people to the problem of using toxic chemicals on the environment.

Aldo Leopold saw the barren land in Sand County, Wisconsin, and figured out a way to restore the habitat. His efforts and writings kick-started the ecology movement. 

Kathleen Dean Moore writes about the interplay of land and ocean in Oregon.

Sigurd Olson worked to save the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota.

Terry Tempest Williams in Utah writes of the radioactive desecration of land in the west and its toll on human health.

Wendell Berry in Kentucky figured out how one can do sustainable farming, feeding people while doing minimal damage to the land, thus enabling the land to remain a habitat for animals and birds and still feed people for decades to come.

Sharman Apt Russell writes of the desert wilderness in southwest New Mexico.

John Burroughs in New York wanted people to love the nature that existed around us, even in the city, because then they would take care of it.

Francis of Assisi also loved nature and its creatures, and felt that we were brothers and sisters to each other. And rather than fear the outdoors, we should participate in its life and care for it.

Stepping into the unknown involves taking risks because we don’t know where we’ll end up, who will object, or what names we will be called. The experiences of the land prophets who have gone before us tell us that this is the only way that the natural world will be saved.

Their visions guide and challenge us.