Guest blog post by Kalie Fallon, an Intern for Defend Our Future Ohio. Katie is a student at OSU in the School of Environment and Natural Resources | Class of 2018. Her focus is on Environmental Policy and Decision Making. We welcome her thoughts below reflecting on the deeper value of our national parks. Federal policies to open our national parks to drilling for fossil fuels should not overlook their original purpose. Kalie expresses her experience at Escalante beautifully. Editor, Chuck Lynd
Why We Need National Parks: In Light of The Recent News About Escalante, Utah
I have honestly never felt so at peace, so in awe of this beautiful planet and so moved by our deep and innate biological craving to be within nature than when I was in Escalante. When you’re out there – when you can hear deafening silence, feel the fresh air filling your lungs and feel the sun on your back – when you feel pure happiness for the sake of happiness and when you find yourself stumped at the sheer grandeur of rocks and earth and water and wind – that’s when you find yourself. You feel fulfilled. You forget about the silly little things in life that don’t truly matter, I mean really, really don’t matter like phone calls and texts and emails or what you’re wearing. You realize that life itself has so much more meaning to it than what we give it credit for on a daily basis. We are a part of nature. We need nature to survive. But nature doesn’t need us.
