[at-l] Pot-pourr}

[Bob Cummings <ellen@clinic.net> (Bob Cummings)]

Just a couple of thoughts and maybe that will be enough.

 OB and others have rightly pointed out that MacKaye was writing in the context
 of society's concerns in 1921. In 1921 most of these mountains were reasonably
 wild. He wrote in the context of 1920 needs, not 2001 needs.

 But to keep the record straight, the second sentence in the second paragraph of
 MacKayes "A Project in Regional Planning" reads:

 "The ability to cope with nature directly -- unshielded by the weakening wall
 of civilization -- is one of the admitted needs of modern times." That strikes
 me as a call for providing humans with a wild experience, if not a wilderness
 experience.

 Else where in the article that inspired the Appalachian Trail he talks of the
 need for "wild lands."

 The AT, then and now, is not wilderness. But it is wild. There is no doubt in
 my mind that MacKaye recognized the importance of preserving wild places.
 Somewhere in my vast and chaotic files I have copies of an exchange of letters
 between MacKaye and Avery.

 MacKaye chastizes Avery for compromising the wildness in his efforts to create
 a continuous trail. Avery responds by calling MacKaye an armchair theorist who
 failed to do anything useful during the years MacKaye was in charge of trail
 development.

 If I remember rightly, MacKaye later became one of the founders of the
 Wilderness Society -- though you should note that I don't remember "rightly" as
 well as I used to.

 Yes, Jim. MacKaye also praised workers cutting down forests and building their
 own homes. Something I also praise. That fact in no way suggests that either
 MacKaye or I  oppose wilderness. I just wish more of the workers would make
 those homes passive solar homes.

 Weary