Feature Story
To my Grandchildren’s Grandchildren
I
write these words to you because I feel I must. Why bother? In a world rife with negativity and reinforced polarizations on most things, why bother with an attempt to record or convey a subject so complex as the history of Missouri Conservation to my descendants? Why bother to reach out to you through a long letter when you have an overwhelming abundance of information in hand via the internet, social media and other networks no doubt far beyond my imaginings today? Because there are many truths, perspectives and lessons in what I know that you had best consider, come what may in the future. Our ancestors arrived in North America to a landscape of abundant natural resources, seemingly without limits, and beyond the restrictions of distant sovereigns. The fact is, even things so abundant as Passenger Pigeons and Bison are finite in their numbers. No natural resource exists which can fulfill all the insatiable desires of all people. Never has and never can. By the first few years of the 20th Century, the limits of natural resource health and abundance were very apparent in Missouri. Bison, elk, bears, cougars and many others were gone or disappearing. Things got even worse and came to a head here in the early 1930's. Our people were struggling to survive the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Every attempt to squeeze a living out of land already taxed beyond its ability to support and renew itself much less people, forests, fisheries, and wildlife yielded less and less each year. Erosion of topsoil by unobstructed wind and water, overharvesting and frequent burning of our forests, channelization of streams, levees and dams, artificial structures intended to circumvent over exploitation's symptoms rather than encouraging resilience and health of soils and water, plowing the prairies, draining the wetlands.
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CONSERVATION FEDERATION
