When the pioneer hewed a path for progress through the American wilderness, there was bred into the American people the idea that civilization and forests were two mutually exclusive propositions. Development and forest destruction went hand in hand; we therefore adopted the fallacy that they were synonymous. A stump was our symbol of progress.


In: Susan L. Flader and J. Baird Callicott, The River of the Mother of God, The Popular Wilderness Fallacy: An Idea That Is Fast Exploding (p. 49), The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin, USA. 1991

Aldo Leopold Quotes

When the pioneer hewed a path for progress through the American wilderness, there was bred into the American people the idea that civilization and...

When the pioneer hewed a path for progress through the American wilderness, there was bred into the American people the idea that civilization and...

When the pioneer hewed a path for progress through the American wilderness, there was bred into the American people the idea that civilization and...

When the pioneer hewed a path for progress through the American wilderness, there was bred into the American people the idea that civilization and...