Review- Leave It As It Is

Since the first mass-produced Bible came off Gutenberg’s printing press, books have been important to human beings. During this pandemic they are as important as they ever were. David Gessner has just published one that is more important than the average book.

Leave It As It Is- A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt’s American Wilderness (Simon and Schuster, hardcover, 340 pages) isn’t always easy to read. I found myself sometimes thinking “Alright, just get to the point,” as I read. When Gessner makes the point though (and he always does), I had many “Ah ha!” moments. Things that I always felt but had never articulated were given voice. Information I probably should have known but didn’t was presented. New concepts were introduced. And lots of the information centered around Teddy Roosevelt, his passion for wild lands, and his vigorous protection of them.

Sadly, lots of the information presented centers around Donald Trump and his un-protecting of protected wild lands. Gessner is not a fan of Mr. Trump.

Leave it as it is. Roosevelt uttered these words during a speech at the Grand Canyon. He was talking about landscapes that had been manipulated and manicured by fire and farming for hundreds of generations, which were thought of by the white settlers as wilderness. A sad point in our history, national parks and monuments were created at the same time as Indian reservations. Indigenous peoples were moved from one to the other, often forcefully. Gessner loves Roosevelt, but he makes no attempt to gloss over the injustices done to the original Americans.

Gessner says modern man shoulders plenty of blame for our current state of affairs. “At this very moment, every second of every day, we are guilty of our own brand of biocide, destroying not hundreds or thousands but millions of creatures that we share this planet with. We are the Borg on Star Trek assimilating all. …it is very likely species suicide for us.”

So how do we protect our wild heritage? Gessner says, “…what for some is a hiker’s paradise and for others a vast reservoir of cultural and religious significance, remains for others, first and foremost, a resource colony.” Don’t take wild lands for granted. We’re never finished protecting them. He says, “We need thoughtful, well-read, articulate human beings, of all classes, ages, genders, and races, who care enough about other human beings to throw themselves out into the world and do battle with the waves of ignorance created by those who live without empathy.”

He continues, “…our public lands are a gift from the past,,, a gift that just might be able to save us. Are we really going to look at that gift and think, Hey, no thanks, let’s just cash them in?” Gessner’s book will motivate you to get out there and help protect wild lands, to help slow down global warming. In the last analysis, our species survival is up to us.

Leave It As It Is is an important book. You should read it.

John Kumiski