E.O. Wilson has been called both one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century and "Darwin's natural heir." In advance to his visit to Utah later this month, I picked up his latest book, "The Creation, An Appeal To Save Life on Earth."
    Though I'm only a rough handful of pages into the book, there are several passages that resonated with me when I think of the current battles facing the national park system. Let me leave them with you to ponder this long weekend:

    The defense of living Nature is a universal value. It doesn't rise from, nor does it promote, any religious or ideological dogma. Rather, it serves without discrimination the interests of all humanity.

    Even if the rest of life is counted of no value beyond the satisfaction of human bodily needs, the obliteration of Nature is a dangerous strategy.

    Even the most recalcitrant people must come to view conservation as simple prudence in the management of Earth's natural economy. Yet few have begun to think that way at all.

    ... the modern technoscientific revolution, including especially the great leap forward of computer-based information technology, has betrayed Nature a second time, by fostering the belief that the cocoons of urban and suburban material life are sufficient for human fulfillment. That is an especially serious mistake. Human nature is deeper and broader than the artifactual contrivance of any existing culture.

    We need freedom to roam across land owned by no one but protected by all, whose unchanging horizon is the same that bounded the world of our millennial ancestors.

    .... While most people around the world care about the natural environment, they don't know why they care, or why they should feel responsible for it. By and large they have been unable to articulate what the stewardship of Nature means to them personally. This confusion is a great problem for contemporary society as well as for future generations.

    Though-provoking stuff, no? Definitely something to think about when we look about the national park system and consider the impacts of snowmobiles, personal watercraft, new roads, downloaded park interpretation, and the like.