Re: [Paddlewise] the challenge(thinking out loud)

James Lofton wrote:
> 
> A while back Dave Kruger wrote and mentioned an old photo, [SNIP]

> What all this has been leading to: Everyone has been talking about the
> changes that are going on, but everyone seems to see it through differant
> eyes. Some say it's crowded and some say they need more kayakers. I say
> take pictures of what is now. Not just those pictures of "here is my
> kayak and the camp"(I take them too), but what the area looks like. What
> it really looks like. Show what makes it special. Show what makes you sad
> about the area, the traffic, the plants. Make notes or even sketches. The
> more you get into it the more you will get to know your area(s).., and I
> guarentee you that once you have gotten on your belly to take a close up
> of a tiny flower, sweat getting in your eye and a mosquito all the while
> trying to make you move, that you will never walk through the woods quite
> the same way.
> 
> Why all the trouble? If we are to save the wildness we need an army of
> people with facts about what is happening out there. A series of pictures
> taken from someone that is out there and watching the changes may just be
> make that differance that helps it take place.
> At the very least, you can show your grandchildren what it was like, back
> then, and you will grow closer to your surrondings in the process.

Your writing is very eloquent!

The pictures *are* critical.  The one I mentioned was of La Jolla in 1918, and
I am very wistful for the California I enjoyed as a boy in the early '50's.

However, I think it is neurotic of me to "wish" La Jolla had not changed.  I
have to let go of what happened to a huge chunk of Southern California (and I
think I have, for the most part).  Rather, I need to take your advice and use
what happened there as an object lesson to help people from perpetuating the
same thing in areas which demand preservation.  With an ever-burgeoning
population, we can not expect to preserve much, but we should make *conscious*
choices and not *unconscious* ones.

The pictures are powerful convincers.

Thanks again for your wonderful contribution.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
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