Enjoying a book…

I really, really enjoy “Earth in Mind” by David W. Orr. There are portions of this book where I could not tell if I was reading a book or having my own thoughts laid out before my eyes. Though planning to be an ordained minister, my other passion in life is caring for the land that my family has. I plant trees, lots of them. But I also have been working on keeping young forests on our land for the animals that require such habitat. This requires removing some old forest, but on a rotational (and often only a portion of the old forest) basis. This keeps both the beauty and importance of hold forest and offers the new growth essential to some creatures…such as ruffed grouse.
I really find the land practices I partake in, as well as hunting and fishing, as an important part of myself as a child of God. So, when I read Aldo Leopold’s name the first time in the book, I was extremely excited!
I am also very bothered regarding the loss of wild habitat for the sake of making money… such as universities selling woodland. This reminded me of a conversation a few years ago with a former co-worker. This young man was very vocal in his opinion of habitat management. His opinion: get rid of it all and concrete most of the earth. He could not stand green space, trees, grass, or anything else wild. He has no time for animals either. Needless to say, we had some weird conversations. He could not understand why I would plant a tree… and I could not understand why he wanted a company nearby to get destroy the wonderful wetland habitat that surrounded the business in order to have a huge parking lot.
So, the more I read books like this, I am more inspired to combine my passions of ministry and conservation in the future. I think Leopold’s words are spot on:
“The cultural value of wilderness boils down in the last analysis, to a question of intellectual humility. The shallow minded modern who has lost his rootage in the land assumes that he has already discovered what is important; it is such who prate of empires, political or economic, that will last a thousand years.”
Awesome words from Leopold. As for me, I will put my faith in God who created the beauty of this world and offers us life eternal. I will invest my time in people and care of the earth as it was intended.

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