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One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of March thaw, is the SPRING. For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled. We could have saved the Earth, but we were too damned cheap. Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter. Fish come and go, but it is the memory of afternoons on the stream that endure. In the name of the bee Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn. He who plants a tree Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life. And everyone deserves a little sunshine. Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is a process; working together is success. I have my own views about Nature's methods, though I feel that it is rather like a beetle giving his opinions upon the Milky Way. The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now. Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike. I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want to own. So bleak is the picture... that the bulldozer and not the atomic bomb may turn out to be the most destructive invention of the 20th century. ~Henry David Thoreau Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. ~Winston Churchill Well done is better than well said. ~Benjamin Franklin They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. ~Andy Warhol One planet, one experiment. ~Edward O. Wilson Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and freedom of the forest and the outlaw. - Henry David Thoreau A field rich in goldenrod, Joe-Pye weed, boneset, milkweed, black-eyed Susan, and dozens of other productive perennials supplies copious amounts of insect biomass for birds to rear their young. After it has been invaded by autumn or Russian olive, that same field is nearly sterile. ~ Douglas Tallamy, Bringing Nature Home I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs. ~ Joseph Addison Every little bit helps. It's amazing how much you can do when you choose to give a little bit of that natural habitat back. ~Roxanne Paul Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world ~ John Muir Henry David Thoreau The question is not what you look at, but what you see. We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. ~Aldo Leopold It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. - Charles Dickens Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul. ~ John Muir May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. ~Edward Abbey Congress is always willing to appropriate money for more and bigger paved roads, anywhere -- particularly if they form loops. ~Edward Abbey (Desert Solitaire) Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land. ~Aldo Leopold The silence of a shut park does not sound like the country silence; it is tense and confined. ~Elizabeth Bowen I am I plus my surroundings and if I do not preserve the latter, I do not preserve myself. ~Jose Ortega Y Gasset What's the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on? ~Henry David Thoreau One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. ~Shakespeare |
Show me a healthy community with a healthy economy and I will show you a community that has its green infrastructure in order and understands the relationship between the built and the unbuilt environment. Growth is inevitable and desirable, but destruction of community character is not. The question is not whether your part of the world is going to change. The question is how. The image of a community is fundamentally important to its economic well-being. If all places look alike, there's no reason to go anywhere. The best places to live, work, and visit are those places that are willing to uphold their standards in the face of pressure to allow lowest common denominator development… Successful communities understand that when they say no to development that is contrary to the long-term health of their community, they will almost always get better development in its place. Savvy states and communities are starting to think about green space in a more thoughtful and systematic way. They realize that green infrastructure is not a frill—it is smart conservation for the twenty-first century. If a tree falls in a forest and lands on a politician, even if you can't hear the tree or the screams, I'll bet you'd at least hear the applause High-tech employers recognize that we will only be as successful as the employees that we attract. When it comes to transportation, environmental, housing and land use decisions, we don't view investments as tax and spend, but rather as invest and prosper. The future economic success of Silicon Valley will be contingent on whether we have a good quality of life. World-class workers will only want to come to a world-class living environment. The Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group strongly supports green-line policies, because the only way to attract top level employees and their families is to protect the region's open space and environment. We want to build a community that is demonstrates smart growth rather than a model for L.A.-type growth. Communities must plan for a variety of uses and income levels. Why do we care about housing as high-tech employers? If teachers, firefighters, peace officers, retail or restau- rant workers can't live here, then we're going to fail. God Bless America. Let's save some of it. Conservation means development as much as it does protection. I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us. If there is to be an ecologically sound society, it will have to come the grass roots up, not from the top down." While I am a great believer in the free enterprise system and all that it entails, I am an even stronger believer in the right our people to live in a clean and pollution-free environment. We abuse the land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." Man shapes himself through decisions that shape his environment. Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and freedom of the forest and the outlaw. We're a small group of grumpy old men who simply will not be denied access to public land. |