Nature, Spirit, and Land Management
— U.S. Forest Service, 1996

"Nature, Spirit, and Landscape Management." Pages 17-24 in Beverly L. Driver, Daniel Dustin, Tony Baltic, Gary Eisner, and George Peterson, eds., Nature and the Human Spirit: Toward an Expanded Land Management Ethic (State College, PA: Venture Publishing Co., 1996). Online at: http://hdl.handle.net/10217/41102

Anthology published by a U.S. Forest Service task force. What impressed the ancients is still impressive after biological science the rising up of life from the ground. Life has persistently seemed sacred, something mysterious, an animation otherwise as yet unknown in the universe. One of the values of landscapes is provided by spiritual responses to nature. One of the constitutional freedoms in the United States is religious freedom, but one cannot be free to practice his or her religion if one of the sources of its inspiration is unavailable. Religious persons bring a perspective of depth on wildland conservation, and if landscape managers do not find that such perspective of depth fits their usual categories of landscape management, then their perspectives need to be deepened, else they will miss important values on landscapes.