Contemporary Quotes

Ansel Adams on Yosemite
"It is all very beautiful and magical here - a quality which cannot be described. You have to live it and breath it., let the sun bake it into you"

Michael Bean, Chairperson EDF Wildlife Program, July 2, 1999
" There is no prouder symbol of our nation's commitment to preserving our natural heritage than the eagle. And there is no greater tribute to the Endangered Species Act than to allow its finest success story to fly off the list, free at last."

Jacob Hoffman, Age 12 ­ Backpacker magazine 1998
"My generation will be very environmentally conscious, because the way it is going now, we will desperately need to save our forests."

Thomas C. Kiernan, President National Parks and Conservation Association.
"If we cannot learn to live sustainable with all living creatures, then we as a species may not survive into the next millennium. To live in a sustainable, civil society, we must have the fortitude to think beyond our self interests." "Every year we are falling further and further behind in the protection of our national parks," Kiernan said. 11/18/99 press release, "National Parks Budget Still Lags Behind Needs" "People know that our parks are in peril," NPCA President Tom Kiernan said. "They don't believe that our national parks are going to be for their children what they are today." UPI 6/17/98 "Poll Finds National Park Pessimism"

Stanley Meisler, Los Angeles Times, 1997
"One hundred twenty-five years ago, the watercolors of Thomas Moran helped persuade Congress to declare Yellowstone a national park, the start of the unique and vast U.S. national park system."

Mia Monroe, National Park Ranger, Muir Woods National Monument
"Muir Woods is more than just redwoods - it¹s an old-growth redwood forest within a watershed near San Francisco. It¹s an important distinction. Until recently, there were lots of groves like Muir Woods with salmon streams. It is critically important that Americans know that what once was abundant is now almost gone and that the parks are refuses for certain species."

Robert Redford, forward These Rare Lands
"Words as well as pictures - writers as well as visual artists - have helped Americans understand the tremendous importance of our land. Back in 1862, Henry David Thoreau declared, OIn wildness is the preservation of the world.' And when poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson visited Yosemite in 1871, his host was John MuirS"

Stewart L. Udall, Former Secretary of the Interior and James R Udall, environmentalist - National Parks of America, 1993
"Every American is a stakeholder in this superlative legacy. The parks are his and hers and yours. They are a fire burning, a torch handed down from generation to generation ­ to one hopes ­ generations yet unborn." "We have not learned everything the parks have to teach. We have not fathomed all their primordial mysteries, nor plumbed their deepest depths. There is further to go along this trail. Moving forward, attuned to Nature's rhythms, we follow a fine path, headed in a noble direction." "Every celebration of the national park idea that has been published in the last twenty years has ended with a few cautionary words about storm clouds on the horizon. Those clouds have now arrived , and it is no longer possible to dismiss the challenges facing our national parks in a few paragraphs."

George B. Hartzog, Jr., NPS Director, 1964-1972
"The national park idea has been nurtured by each succeeding generation of Americans. Today, across our land, the National Park System represents America at its best. Each park contributes to a deeper understanding of the history of the United States and our way of life; of the natural processes which have given form to our land, and to the enrichment of the environment in which we live." "Srangers are the cornerstone of every park organizationSEvery superintendent has used the phrase. OHave the rangers do it.¹ thousands of times. A park would not be a park without a ranger."

Joseph L. Sax, America's National Parks: Their Principles, Purposes, and Prospects, Natural History, Supplement, October 1976:
"Like walking for the first time into Notre Dame or the Sainte Chapelle of Parkis, there is a sensory shock in seeing the Redwoods, the Grand Tetons, or Mount Rainier that dazzles all but the deadest souls."

Wallace Stegner, 1983:
"National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst."

President Lyndon B Johnson on signing the Wilderness Act, 1964
"If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it."

Edward Abbey, environmental author
"May all your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you."

Michael Finley, Superintendent, Yellowstone National Park NPS News wire March 2, 2000
Is Yellowstone at risk? "Yes," says Superintendent Michael Finley. "But it will only remain at risk if the American public ceases to care, if budgetary needs are not met, or if the many county, state, and federal jurisdictions whose decisions affect Yellowstone do not recognize and act upon our collective interest in safeguarding essential resources beyond the park's boundary - resources without which the park itself will be tragically diminished. The gift this country gave itself and the world when the Yellowstone idea took hold has multiplied in value a hundredfold, and its assets will become more precious in the future, if we let them."

Joe Galliani, Founding Partner, The Parks Company
Give up your stress and anxiety to the giant sequoia, its ageless branches will gracefully bear your burden.  Let the mighty mountains handle your business woes for a time, they are stronger still.  Drown your cares and concerns in a river, lake or stream and let their cleansing waters wash away the knot in your heart.  Find your "center," gain your perspective and get in touch with the better parts of yourself, outside in the wild, the only real place it's possible.