|
|
- Info
Illinois life: an environmental testament
| Author: |
Freyfogle, Eric T. |
| Date: |
1997 |
| Periodical: |
University of Illinois Law Review |
| Abstract: |
This essay was prepared at the request of the Illinois Environmental Council (IEC), an organization that serves as the central voice in the Illinois state capital for state-based environmental groups. To be an environmentalist is not to hold a particular job or belong to a special group. A further complicationis the ongoing evolution of environmental thought, as science augments our knowledge and asdiscussion and reflection give rise to more refined visions of land health. For many environmentalists, the ultimate envirom-nental goal is best phrased in terms of the well-being or healthy functioning of the overall land community, using the term \"land community\" here broadly, to include the soils, waters, and air, along with the resident plants and animals. What should it mean to be a responsible landowner today? How should ownership norms reflect our widespread environmental problems, many of them brought on by bad land-use practices? What can the community legitimately ask of a landowner, in the way of promoting community health? Farm fields and timber lots would look much different, as we shifted to methods of drawing sustenance from the land that aligned better with nature\'s ways - methods that featured greater species diversity, generated fertility within each field, and added slowly to our indispensable fund of soil. |
|
