Blue Ridge Country November/December 2021 - 66

GUEST COLUMN
Guest Columns: Selected Thoughts
LOOKING BACK 20 YEARS
Our Guest Column department began in the May/June 2001 issue and now, a bit more than 20 years
later, is being retired in favor of a new Q & A format beginning with the next issue. In commemoration,
we present perspectives from the first few years of those columns (in the first years called " My
Mountains, My Hopes " ). Our thanks to all who graced our pages with their thoughts over the years.
" Business, industry and government, in
my opinion, all have an obligation to
clean our air. "
-Daniel W. Brown, Blue Ridge
Parkway Superintendent, May/June, 2001
" My wish for the mountains is that
they will be like they were when I was
growing up in the 1920s and '30s. One
out of every four trees was a chestnut.
Here's hoping the forest scientists will
develop a blight-resistant chestnut. "
-Hugh Morton, President of
Grandfather Mountain, September/October,
2001
" I'd choose the return of rail passenger
service and the Civilian Conservation
Corps. "
-M. Rupert Cutler, former
Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Forest Service,
November/December, 2001
" This is a sales pitch, but please don't
send money. I just want you to think
back over your walks and drives
through the Blue Ridge . . . and make
a gift of these favorite spots to some
young friend, a child or a grandchild.
We own these places. Our parents and
grandparents and our government
decided to protect them. "
-Steve Nash, author of " Virginia
Climate Fever: How Global Warming Will
Transform Our Cities, Shorelines, and
Forests, " January/February, 2002
" The fire towers of yesteryear housed
sentinels who watched over these
mountains. My hope is that we will be as
vigilant, that we will be the sentinels who
now watch over the marvelous area, to
sound the alarm and spring into action. It
is our turn. "
-Charles Maynard, Founding
Executive Director of Friends of Great Smoky
Mountains National Park, March/April, 2002
" As the longest day of the year comes to a
close, and I drive away from Mt. Mitchell,
past strip malls, new bulldozed land for
summer homes and unsightly clear cuts,
I offer a silent thank you to those early
conservationists. My hope is that we
will heed their wisdom, that we will not
squander our environmental future for the
immediate sound of a ringing cash register. "
-Timothy Silver, author of " Mt.
Mitchell and the Black Mountains: An
Environmental History of the Highest Peaks in
Eastern America, " September/October, 2003
" The forests are the hearts of our lives
in the Blue Ridge. Forests stabilize our
mountains and our economies. The quality
of life in the region depends heavily on
healthy, natural forests. "
-Christian Wulf, Coordinator of
Virginia Forest Watch, November/December,
2004
" I pass this along as a warning. If you throw
away your cultural identity, if you refuse to
pass along traditions, songs and stories to
the next generation, those treasures may be
lost forever. "
-Sharyn McCrumb, award-winning
author of the " Ballad " series and other novels,
March/April, 2005
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Blue Ridge Country November/December 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country November/December 2021