Several years ago I went to Lake Powell with some friends. We climbed up through a place called the Hole in the Rock where some early settlers took their wagons as they traveled down to Bluff to settle the country down there. It was an amazing feat to take the wagons down that canyon wall. People still talk about it today.
Later we went across the lake and followed their trail for a couple of miles on the other side. This country was much friendlier, with rolling hills of grass, sage brush and junipers. No other vehicle had traveled this trail for well over a hundred years, but the ruts of their wagon wheels were still visible in the sand.
This image has stayed with me for a very long time. As impressive as the human accomplishment of determination and ingenuity was, the record of their damage to the land may be even greater. Not because it is such an eyesore. But it is a lasting testimony to how long it takes for the land to recover from mans interference.
When the first American settlers arrived in the plains of Nebraska and Kansas they found top soil that was more than a foot deep. They were amazed at the fertility. Now we routinely add chemical fertilizers. It doesn’t have to be that way. There are ways of farming that replenish the soil and maintain nature’s richness and variety. But modern farming is often more like strip mining. How many years would it take to replenish the great plains of the United States?
A trail of wagon ruts is no big deal. A mountain side of four-wheeler and motorcycle tracks is probably not significant except in terms of aesthetics. But they are symbols of how little humans know about the earth, and how little value they place on the land. We understand very little about the responsibilities of dominion, the techniques of replenishment, or our position in nature.
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