To the editor:
Yesterday, I arrived in Leelanau County after a ninehour drive from my home. After the long drive, I headed to Little Traverse Lake Rd rather than enter my driveway. This was my first time on LTL Rd. since the NPS wisely decided not to trammel the sacred nature of this land of the Ottawa and Chippewa. What a wonderful experience this drive was! Of course, with the snow and all, it was beautiful. But my dominant experience was that this land was once again FREE! It was no longer restricted.
For years, whenever I’ve driven LTL Rd, I did so with a sense of impending loss and anticipatory grief. I did so, craving for what could be done to protect this land in its wildness, with its right to exist, evolve, regenerate, and flourish without human-caused disruption. My heart was unrestricted when I drove LTL Rd. this time, free from this craving. My heart was once again free, just as the land was once again free.
I know others are sharing this experience. For all of us, and for the land itself, this land can now be simply wilderness. It can go from being a line on the map to being a blank spot on the map. Conservationist Aldo Leopold speaks for all of us when he says: “Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?”
I hope this can be my final letter to the editor about SBHT Segment 9. Miigwech!
Douglas Jones Maple City Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
