" '[Wild country] belongs to the people.' So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The principle, 'the greatest good for the greatest number' applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method . . . I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use our natural resources, but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob by wasteful use, the generations that come after us . . . Leave [the land] as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it . . . The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired in value."
Theodore Roosevelt
Photo: Sky Pilot flowers, Trail Ridge, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; June 30, 2014
Theodore Roosevelt
Photo: Sky Pilot flowers, Trail Ridge, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; June 30, 2014
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