[NatureNS] on values of mountains in economic and other terms -- Thoreau et al. & basalt extraction

Date: Mon, 04 Sep 2006 14:13:45 -0300
From: David & Alison Webster <dwebster@glinx.com>
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Hi Jim &amp; All,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Sept 4, 2006<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Leopold's 'Thinking like a Mountain' is an essay on, among other things,
the need to take a long-term, dispassionate and balanced view. Mountains
are famous for this, because they stick around long enough to see eventual
outcomes. The value of wolves could also be taken as a metaphor for the value
of commerce; so the people who wish to make a living here don't have to make
soup out of sunsets or move to Alberta.<br>
<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The projected land area, that would become involved in the project over
50 years, is ~0.1 % of the total mountain area; less than the area of a modest-sized
farm. One part in one thousand over 50 years does not readily translate to
"...diminished in very large measures..." and if pressure had been applied
to have a positive outcome, as opposed to pressure for no project at all,
then there might have been more broadly-based pressure and at least an opportunity
for small gain. As matters now stand it will probably eventually get the
nod; without royalties (deplorable) and with no searching for more suitable
sites from a land use/ecosystem/community point of view (too bad).<br>
<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; If Thoreau knew how the wagon roads of his day had been replaced by superhighways
built with earth-moving equipment, how entire hills of sand and gravel are
being trucked off, often in the name of environmental protection but resulting
in streanflow instability, and if he learned about the colossal destruction
of natural habitat by urban sprawl then he would start spinning in his grave
and never stop. Against this backdrop, I think he would regard basalt extraction,
at the rate envisioned, to be a non-issue.<br>
<br>
Yours truly, Dave Webster, Kentville<br>
<br>
Jim Wolford wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:C11F6DDA.C5E6%25jimwolford@eastlink.ca">
  <title>on values of mountains in economic and other terms -- Thoreau et
al. &amp; basalt extraction</title>
    Thanks, Pat, for the wonderful Thoreau quotation, and as I read it my
thoughts went the same place as your sentence below the quote. &nbsp;Notwithstanding
Dave Webster's thoughts about how in some ways the North Mountain will not
be diminished much in its physical dimensions by the Bilcon basalt extraction/export/marine
terminal project, in other dimensions the ecosystem/landscape/communities
will be diminished in very large measures in diverse ways. &nbsp;Both Aldo Leopold
and Robert Bateman have similarly written about thinking like a mountain
and the worth of the last grizzly on a mountain etc.<br>
  <br>
 Cheers from Jim in Wolfville<br>
 ----------<br>
  <b>From: </b>"Patricia L. Chalmers" <Patricia.Chalmers@ukings.ns.ca><br>
  <b>Reply-To: </b>naturens@chebucto.ns.ca<br>
  <b>Date: </b>Fri, 01 Sep 2006 18:29:12 -0300<br>
  <b>To: </b>naturens@chebucto.ns.ca<br>
  <b>Subject: </b>[NatureNS] View of Blomidon and North Mountain (was : east
point of Long &nbsp;Island, Grand Pre, Wed. August 30)<br>
  <br>
 Hi there,<br>
  <br>
  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Jean Timpa's recent post about her day at Grand Pre, and her comments
about the view of Blomidon, reminded me of a passage I had recently read
from Henry David Thoreau's Journal (27 July 1852) in which he writes of another
mountain range, in Massachusetts :<br>
  <br>
  <font size="2"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</font>"I would like to ask the assessors what is
the value of that blue mountain range in the northwest horizon to Concord,
and see if they would laugh or seriously set about calculating it. How poor,
comparatively, should we be without it! It would be descending to the scale
of the merchant to say it is worth its weight in gold. The privilege of beholding
it, as an ornament, a suggestion, a provocation, a heaven on earth. If I
were one of the fathers of the town I would not sell this right which we
now enjoy for all the merely material wealth and prosperity conceivable.
If need were, we would rather all go down together."<br>
  <br>
  <font size="2"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</font>Jean's comments, and this quotation, bring
to mind the recent concerns about extracting basalt from the North Mountain
range, beginning at its Digby County end.<br>
  <br>
  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Cheers,<br>
  <br>
  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Patricia L. Chalmers<br>
  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Halifax<br>
  <br>
  <br>
  <br>
 At 10:48 AM 31/08/2006 -0300, Jean Timpa wrote:<br>
  <blockquote> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Yesterday afternoon my eldest son, Sean, and girlfriend,
Amy, and I spent several <br>
 delightful hours just sitting on the beach at the east end of Long Island,
soaking up the <br>
 lovely late summer sun and scenery, and watching the antics of the fishermen
and the <br>
 shorebirds. <br>
  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;...<br>
  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Then there was that unspeakably lovely view of Blomidon, surely
one of the very <br>
 finest in Canada. Thunderheads were constantly forming and reforming, and
paler gray fog <br>
 had obviously invaded Scot's Bay for weather entertainment. At one point
we were pretty <br>
 sure the Parrsboro Shore/Amherst area was receiving a thundershower. Very
faint rumbling <br>
 could be heard, making us realize how far the distances really are across
that stretch of <br>
 water. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;JET
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp
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;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>
    </blockquote>
    <br>
    </blockquote>
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