My grandparents, parents, my children and I represent somewhat different points in time and development on a historical trend line that is at least thousands of years old but which has accelerated in more developed countries in this century: increasing human intermediation between ourselves and the raw materials and biota upon which we depend for the necessities and amenities of life. Increases in magnitude and complexity of what is known as to the workings of the material world, combined with concomitant specialization in knowledge and function among the workforce has rendered individuals largely clueless as to the processes of production outside their own sphere. I would argue that to some extent, and due to the environmental movement, knowledge regarding environmental issues has become, in my lifetime, less confined to the province of specialists. Environmentalism is widely discussed and is a compellingly strange amalgam of scientific thought and religious feeling---the latter appearing to be a kind of animism free of superstition. God may or may not be "in His Heaven" but we are encouraged to experience divine presence in the "snail upon the thorn" whether said phenomenon is perceived poetically or scientifically.

Some vestige of a closer connection to non-human sources of sustenance was maintained throughout my grandparents' lives and continued through childhood for both of my parents. Grandparents on both sides supplemented wage labor with small-scale subsistence agriculture, animal husbandry and hunting. Both of my grandmothers milked a cow, canned fruits and vegetables they grew, raised and slaughtered poultry and swine. My grandfathers worked in blue collar occupations away from the home. My parents, born shortly after the end of WWI, both left the rural areas in which they'd been raised, Fish Hollow, KY. and Weedpatch, CA. respectively, and ultimately settled in urban areas where they could more easily find work. They too were blue collar workers. By the time I was born they'd become thoroughly suburbanized.

My own occupational history includes both blue-collar and white collar occupations---the primary difference being, with some exceptions, that in the former one still directly manipulates matter while in the latter one manipulates symbols which moves others to action that will indirectly but ultimately have an effect on the material world.

As with many, my parents have often expressed and acted on a nostalgic yearning for a closer connection with the land and its non-human, undomesticated inhabitants for purposes emotional and aesthetic rather than materially utilitarian. They retired to, and until quite recently, lived in the Sierra foothills and only very reluctantly moved to the Bay Area due to health concerns.

This appetite for feasting upon nature with the eyes, ears and that part of the brain we describe with such terms as heart, soul and spirit is of particular interest to me. While I have at times engaged in attempts at pastoral living, I am , figuratively speaking, more of a hunter than a farmer at heart and thus require for my re-creation wilder landscapes and fauna than ranches and farms provide. On the other hand I also enjoy the the pleasures of the city. I simply must have, among other things, my ethnic and cultural diversity, my nouvelle cuisine, my caffe latte and several interesting conversations per week.

My son and I for the last five years have been spending the bulk of our summers in and around Yellowstone National Park. Inspired by our own experiences in that place and by the significant and growing worldwide interest (YNP attracts 2-3 million visitors annually) in wildlife preserves of this type, I have reentered this institution at an age verging on decrepitude in the hope of acquiring credentials and knowledge that will allow me to be taken at least somewhat seriously in those councils where the fate of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem will be decided. Barring this I have little doubt, based on my impressions of the potential market, that I can combine business with pleasure in some venture related to eco-tourism. In spite of its purist critics, eco-tourism is significant as an economic factor favoring wildlife conservation and represents a rekindling of animistic feeling in people whose feelings of kinship with the natural world has been diminished by the way we have come to work and to think. It represents at least one way in which individuals can enjoy the benefits of contemporary modes of production while mitigating some of the alienation which they engender. Furthermore, I am aware of a number of instances whereby people were moved to actively engage or to donate funds to those actively engaged in conservation efforts as a result of their experiences in places such as Yellowstone.