· ... ,··i. ' ,;f;, , ,T ~!ltdOOf a~d Environmental li- Weekly -'--<._-~ ~,,~,,-"_.._.- 2-High Country News. Friday, July 7, 1972 ~UGUmu R, July 4 is a day to ponder. Like all birth- days, it is a day to look back and wistfully wonder how we could have made the year better. Itshould be no different with republics. We have come a long way since 1776. Tom Jefferson and those other .signers of the Declaration of Independence would be pleased with some aspects -of the great country they helped launch. And if they could see it today, I am sure they would also be shocked. Jefferson, as. well as most people of his. times, lived close to the soil. Most people made their living from the soil. But even then, few could appreciate the- hind and the 'world about them as sensitively as Jefferson did. Wilderness for all practical purposes was the region beyond the town limits of most settlements. And between the Mississippi River and the Spanish settlements along the Pacific side of a great continent was a vast void. Jefferson was to have a hand in securing and searching out that void. Little did he realize, even after receiving his reports from Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, what a rich land he had helped to fashion. He could not have ..known what a fabulous national treasury he had secured for The Oregon Buttes along the northWl!lltern edge of Wyoming's Red his country. • Desert stand high above the surrounding lands. The Buttes served.as landmarks Last Tuesday, July 4, 1972, I stood at a for pioneer emigrants along. the historic Oregon Trail. small monument which marks the site of the geographic location where the Louisana Pur- chase, the Oregon Territory and the Mexican Cession all cornered. Standing there and Letters To ~ , looking east, I could not help but think of all - -- - that lay between this spot and the Mississippi ,,~ .fi' I' ;:: r River. The Editor The site is an isolated location, far out on CIIROIlISfRlP=S;'g the Red Desert of Wyoming. The monument was raised by Kiwanis Clubs of central Wyo- ming in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management. BLM has erected convenient Editor': fniition. '. ' .<- signs to direct interested visitors. Thanks for your second re~inder and Also enclosed are several articles which are The location can be but little changed from pardon me for not notifying you.sooner. self-explanatory and of interest to you if you that time when Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark Please cancel my subscription. I really enjoy have not already seen them. People are inter- forth. It is true that besides the monument your paper lind think you are striving to do a ested' in their environment and many more and three tall posts to mark each. former good thing, but I cannot go along with many are becoming involved because of those of you territory, there is a dusty, dirt road. But be- of your writers who want to degrade the who are not willing to be bystanders. We are yond that, the country has all the appear- elected officials of our. University and all grateful! ances of the wild land of yesteryear. people who have helped in m'l-king this a Standing there, you could almost see great country. We must strive to go forward Sincerely, buffalo grazing in the distance. The elk, the and preserve our wonderful land. This can be Mrs. Roger Gentry R antelope and the mule deer are close by. And done with the help of everyone, and I am Chadds FOrd, Pa. back down the road only a few miles, we had confident it will be. seen and photographed a herd of some 70 Keep up your work and direct it con- wild horses. In our travels to that point, we structively so each of us may live and enjoy had seen one other automobile - three people our lives without trying to lock everyone out, from Colorado. ' except a chosen few, from our great natural From-there, members of my family and I resources-Jet's keep 'a multiple use c;oncept: proceeded to nearby Steamboat Mountain. Standing on its crest, my two grown sons and Sincerely, I looked far out over a vast and empty land. Garl Riggan At some distance to the south could be' seen Jackson, Wyoming the smoke rising from some source near Rock Springs. That and a lone automobile proceed- * * * ing along the dusty road was about the only sign of other humans. Editor: The air was clear, fresh and invigorating at . Please accept my appology for not renew- that elevation of over 8,000 'ft. Below us ing High Country News sooner. ~ violet green swallows "irarted"Ofrorirthe cliffs Thank.youfor sending those pictures of _--··-anafar below two mule deer made their way. clear cutting in the Medicine Bow Nat'l Forest. .- I.could not help but think that it was in- The Editor, (Qf the Laramie Boomerang) for HIGH COUNTRY NEWS deed a miracle that such 'a place yet remained. teasons known only to himself, and with Publilhed bi-weddy at 140 NortII Seventh Here, there was still solitude and the natural explanations only a cryptographer could des- Street,Lander, Wyoming 82SIO."'.I'1ll'7'" . rhythm of things unsullied and virtually cribe, failed to print them in the Boomerang. 4Im. Copyright 1971 by HIGH COUNTRY NEWS, Inc.. 2nd class postage paid at LanCler, untouched by man. However; we'll keep plugging away down Wyoming 82520. ' ~-Jeffers01fwouldbe-'pIeased' with such-a- .--, he~-. ------ -" Material published in HIGH COUNTRY spot after experiencing the teenring megalop- Keep up the good work, and best of luck NEWS may be, reprinted without, ~ilaIOll. olises which now stretch north and south from on the battles you've chosen to fight. Proper credit will I)e appreciated. ContribUtlOIII his beloved Monticello. (manuscripts; photos, artwork) wlll be Sincerely, • _ welcomed with the understanding that the editor Edward H. Lonsdale cannot be held responsible for loss or damage. Ai'ticles will be publis~ at the discretiOll of the Laramie, Wyoming -editor. EDITOR Thomas A. Bell * * * (I... M,\NMiER . Mary Margaret Davis, Editor: ·ln: Enclosed is our check for 'renewal of sub- (·J1U·III.;\TIilN M,\N,\(iER Marjorie Higley scription to High Gountry News. Thank you Subscription rate $10.00. for your valiant efforts to preservethe natural , Single copy rate . 35f \Ii, I beauty of. our world-we ,Pray Ifor their Box 1<1. • Lander. Wyoming 82520 .' i I - • , I " HigbCOuntry News-3 Friday, July 7, 1972 1Guest·Bditorials Pboto bY1Tom Baugh· Reprinted' from the LOS ANGELES TIMES, April 2, 1972, Great, Debate DeveJops Four years ago, a speaker told a conference curbed. MIT researchers emphasized that on Ecology and International Development, population, resource consumption and pollu- "I suspect that a major reason ecology is so tion are growing exponentially (by 2,4,8,16, often ignored is not so much lack of expertise etc.) rather than incrementally (by 2,4,6, 8, as the fact that an ecological awareness leads etc.), That means that the world, is in a race' to a questioning of goals - and this is some- with time. thing few wish to do," The trends regarded by MIT investigators Last week in Los Angeles, the same speaker; as disastrous have great momentum. They Russell E. Train, now President' Nixon's could pot be stopped soon, even if immediate top environmental adviser, questioned decisions were made to halt them. If U.S. those goals, which govern the economic dev- births, for example, were reduced now to "re- elopment of the United States and every other placement level" and held there, our popula- advanced technological society, tion wouid continue to grow for 70 years. Train, chairman of the President's Council , ,Not long ago, the MIr study would have on Environmental Quality, called for a been dismissed as doomsday talk. Not today. national debate on the desirability of growth. Concern, fortunately, is not limited to the The subject is raised more and more often; United States. It is worldwide All U.N.- this was the first time that the issue had been member nations have been invited to a con- put so starkly by a high government officiaL ference in Stockholm to consider the issues. , We have long known theoretically that we The MIT report can be challenged on the ' live in a finite world, that the world's re- grounds that its assumptions are too pessi- , 'sources are limited. We havelong known that mistic and don't give enough weight to man's man would one day have to confront that ability to solve problems associated with reality, but that day, until.recently, appeared growth; nevertheless, 'it raises profound ques- , to be far off. Because of man's technological tions, raised also by Train. If growth is limit;' ingenuity, that day is approaching faster than ed, what can be done to assure a decent' we thought. Decisions made today, or lack of 'standard of living for the people of under- ' decisions, may detennine whether the earth developed nations? If the world's resources can support its population for more than must be rationed, how can that be done another century; certainly they will determine equitably and who will make the decisions? how well that population will be supported. Actually, the debate has already started and Train marked out five areas on which a arguments' here and abroad are thrown back national debate should center: national pop- and forth with a good deal of passion. There Avocets ulation distribution" stabilization of world 'will be more of that at Stockholm, where the Reprinted from the DESERETNEWS population, regulation of technological devel- poor countries, who desperately need develop- opment, allocation of resources, and, finally, ment to raise their people above misery, con- "the question of income distribution." front the rich nations, who have the wealth the others seek, but who see, perhaps, more Man's love These targets coincide with the recent re- ~ 'i·..·~" 'r 1" i ' clearly than the, poor the ultimate problems 'p';rii~ilue(j 15?,il""Wam"'of~iesearcherS'at the Utahns - indeed, Americans everywhere - Massachusetts Institute of Technology; a re- of growth.