There were maps we studied as kids in school, that identified economic activities that dominated a region. For agricultural areas, pictures of dairy cows or sheep, or a sheaf of grain. Manufacturing centers had cars or furniture, whatever best represented the local specialty. Mining areas were labeled with laborers and equipment.

So what would be pictured over the northern wilderness?

Two hundred years ago, the economic activity was trapping, and a beaver would have been the right image. At the turn of the 20th century, lumberjacks and horses would have been the obvious choice.

But what now?

The big logs are gone, though a second-growth forestry remains and is important. The beavers are back, but their market went out with old-fashioned hats, long ago. There is no agriculture here, no manufacturing, no data processing, no aerospace.

In fact, most economic maps donít know what to say about this region. People have struggled to express a value that is sincerely felt, by quantifying, in some reasonable way, the obvious worth of wilderness.

It cannot be done.

Yet the absence of some dollar valueóany dollar valueóleads to a flawed discussion of important issues in far-away legislatures. I believe there is immense value in this beautiful country, if only because it remains largely as it was created. Anyone but the most jaded visitor recognizes that beauty, and that value, in the first momentís glance. Unfortunately, it is a glance that can be forgotten. Nor can that beauty be fairly translated to those who wield power and make decisions from hundreds of miles away.

There certainly is value, though I am not sure what picture represents it on the map. A perfect sunset would be a good start.

Top of Page

Forest Lake Times
P.O. Box 218
880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-464-4601
Fax 651-464-4605