Hear William O. Douglas:
Man sometimes seems to try to crowd everything but himself out of the universe. Yet he cannot live a full life from the products of his own creation. He needs a measure of the wilderness, so that he may relax in the environment that God made for him. He needs life around him in order to experience the true measure of living. Then only can he get a sense of the full glory of the universe. There is a place in man’s life for the antelope, just as there is for the whir of sage grouse and the song of the thrush. There would be a great emptiness in the land if there were no pelicans wheeling in great circles over Hart Mountain, no antelope fawn in its aspen groves, no red-shafted flickers in its willow. I say the same for the coyote and golden eagle. We often downgrade them as predators. Yet they, too, play an important role in the cosmic scheme.
I always feel sad leaving Hart Mountain. Yet after I travel a few hours and turn to see its great bulk against a southern sky my heart rejoices. This refuge will leave our grandsons and granddaughters an inheritance of the wilderness that no dollars could recreate. Here they will find life teeming throughout all the life zones that lead from the desert to alpine meadows. (Quoted from My Wilderness: the Pacific West, Doubleday & Co., 1960, p. 74.)
For a brief biography of William O. Douglas, click here.
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