What is West Virginia’s Best Hope?

Well, according this piece, it’s becoming something like an American Lake District.

And the more I think about it, he has to be right.

I grew up within 20 yards of the forest. Indeed, our lawn was merely the land we mowed every week. Everything else was left to mature into tall timber for the squirrels and deer. Wild turkeys often roosted in the hickory trees at the edge of the front yard, and does gave birth to their fawns in thickets of multiflora rose and autumn olives (both introduced species) that could easily be illumined by our porch lights.

I remember spring mornings when the birds would wake me up before the alarm clock buzzed the hectic day into existence. The birds would sing and the light would gradually fill the sky as the sun rose from the easternmost ridges behind the house.

I always thought I was lucky– and horribly spoiled– to have grown up in such a place. The natural world was always at my fingertips– in all its glorious and horrific splendor.

My professional life requires that I must make some accomodation with the contrivances of concrete and cut stone that we call cities. This is where the epitome of earthly creation supposedly exists– cultured and commercial man. All of these are the fruits of man’s creativity and ingenuity.

But that same ingenuity and creativity are really good at deluding us. They aren’t as good at deluding us as our ego is, but they are awfully good at it.

We are not beyond the laws of nature. Our brains might develop new ways to use the earth’s resources, but they don’t change the fact that those natural resources are still finite.

Growing up that close the natural processes, close to the pulsating forces of life on this planet, I came to understand that nature is not something we can avoid forever. It has a way of taking our egos down a notch.

And maybe that will be West Virginia’s hope.

Of course, if that becomes the reality, the common people won’t have access to all the things they currently enjoy. Land value will increase, as will property taxes. Yuppies won’t like having bawling coonhounds running through backyard at 3 in the morning.

So maybe it will be hope for some, and not such a good thing for others. Of course, that’s the way it is now.