“Starker was saying that to be a guardian, you must be a gardener.”
Source: Engineering Eden: A Violent Death, a Federal Trial, and the Struggle to Restore Nature in Our National Parks
“Starker [Leopold] had an adage for people in public service: 'If you're ashamed of it, don't do it. If you're not, publicize it.' " -David Graber, wildlife biologist at Yosemite National Park”
Source: Engineering Eden: A Violent Death, a Federal Trial, and the Struggle to Restore Nature in Our National Parks
“I spent my summers at my grandparents’ cabin in Estes Park, literally next door to Rocky Mountain National Park. We had a view of Longs Peak across the valley and the giant rock beaver who, my granddad told me, was forever climbing toward the summit of the mountain. We awoke to mule deer peering in the windows and hummingbirds buzzing around the red-trimmed feeders; spent the days chasing chipmunks across the boulders of Deer Mountain and the nights listening to coyotes howling in the dark.”
Source: The Guide to Colorado Mammals
“Ghosts were not the spirits of the dead returning but the memories of the living not yet laid to rest.”
Source: Ill Wind
“I think that is what a national park is all about. It gives people breathing room. It gives people a tranquil atmosphere. It gives them an opportunity to be a part of nature, You're just part of it all." - Juanita Green”
Source: The National Parks: America's Best Idea
“Freedom. It stays in your head and won't bust out or slip away like tears.”
Source: Gloryland
“One of the beautiful things about the US National Parks is that they created specifically for the enjoyment of all people -- in the beginning, now, and for the future.”
Source: The National Parks Journal: Plan & Record Your Trips to the US National Parks
“I just wouldn’t want to hook up with a guy unless I really, really like him, and in my
experience all boys can be classified as either assholes or bores, unless they’re both.
Maybe it’s a blessing, because the last thing I need is relationship drama to sidetrack me from my grades.”
Source: Anatomy of a Boyfriend
“What Starker Leopold was trying to teach Graber was not to master and control everything but, instead, to remember that because human hands were always unintentionally doing something to nature, they ought to do something carefully planned as well.”
Source: Engineering Eden: A Violent Death, a Federal Trial, and the Struggle to Restore Nature in Our National Parks
“At one time areas along the roadways [in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park] were carefully cut and trimmed, creating a lawnlike appearance. When a new superintendent was appointed, he ordered this practice stopped, which engendered a good deal of complain from visitors. The roadsides had been so attractive, they said, so neat, and now they had a rough and ungainly appearance. On this small but significant point the superintendent was adamant, however, and for exactly the right reason. Visitors to the park were reacting to a conventional, familiar, and deeply ingrained image of beauty - the trimmed and landscaped lawn. The goal should not be to stimulate that familiar response, but to confront the visitor with the less familiar setting of an unmanaged landscape. The mild shock of a scene to which there is no patterned response, and the engendering of an untutored personal response, is precisely what national park management should seek, even in such seemingly small details.”
Source: Mountains Without Handrails: Reflections on the National Parks