[at-l] AT-L And The AT

[RoksnRoots@aol.com (RoksnRoots@aol.com)]

In a message dated 9/10/01 12:48:26 AM, spiriteagle99@hotmail.com writes:

<< 
When did preserving "beautiful places" become the mission of the ATC?

    # Since it was founded Jim. You will find, with its shrinking budget and 
skyrocketing market land values, the lands chosen are key parcels that would 
most impact the Trail if developed.

  Keep 
in mind that the "beautiful place" in question here is what "was" a working 
farm.  And that's precisely what MacKaye and Avery envisioned as part of the 
Trail - to introduce those flatland touron city-folks to the rural 
lifestyle.  How does eliminating those working farms and that rural 
lifestyle - and destroying peoples lives in the process enhance either the 
beauty of the Trail or the "Trail experience" that the ATC keeps talking 
about?  How does it fit with the original Trail concept? And where did your 
"human cost" get lost in that equation, my friend?  Because it is most 
certainly lost.
 >>

    # Mostly MacKaye. Avery tended towards making a footpath. Though correct 
in your reference, that day is long gone and simply saving undeveloped land 
has become more of a "Project" emphasis these days. What is naive here is 
thinking somehow these farms won't become tract developments when the time 
comes. Look at the last 75 years and think of the next 75 Jim. 

    Swapped or relocated farmers hardly have their lives ruined. Granted 
there is an intangible family connection to land that cannot be replaced, but 
neither can wilds be replaced once lost. At what point does it become more 
than a matter of individual rights to save wild spaces? Where does the equal 
selfless commitment that is shown towards war and preserving the nation kick 
in for the land upon which the nation sits? Read MacKaye's thoughts on that 
Jim. They are pretty profound. 

     What I feel you fail to register in MacKaye's writings is the broader 
significance of the total land development inevitably resulting from full 
protection of nominally perceived "rights".  We are at a point in history 
where your questions are dwarfed by the potential of overrunning the planet 
with development. MacKaye was visionary because his Appalachian Trail 
"mechanism" becomes more critical as what spurred it increasingly becomes 
more threatening. MacKaye implanted what is similar to the 'monolith' in 
2001. We have built up to the limits and the rock is screaming! I can hear 
it, can you?