In the introduction to Nature\u2019s Metropolis<\/i>, William Cronon paints a picture of his childhood and the opposition of rural and urban that he claims to falsely have considered to be polar opposites, unconnected and fundamentally opposing. \u00a0I connected strongly with his childhood view, having also felt a persistent pull towards the undeveloped since my own childhood. For myself, as for Cronon, nature was pure and innocent, and the city was sophisticated, modern, and morally ambiguous. In arguing the inexorable relationship between rural and urban, he discounts this view, adopting instead a combination of Von Thunen\u2019s Central Place Theory and Fredrick Jackson Turner\u2019s Frontier Thesis.\u00a0 While his argument is convincing, it is fundamentally Marxist.\u00a0 For Cronon, commerce and economics drive development.\u00a0 I take issue with this simplified view of society, questioning the existence of nature preserves and National Parks, entities devoted to pleasure and exploration, in a world driven by commerce.\u00a0 I see this government imitative as proof that there are other forces at work in development.\u00a0 However, it is even more strongly present in the private sphere-the quest for a rural getaway that has existed for as long as there have been densely populated areas in America, as exemplified in the construction of the Biltmore House by the Vanderbilt\u2019s in the late 1800\u2019s.\u00a0 The forested mountains that we see from overlooks such as Caesar\u2019s Head (a childhood favorite) result from more than government preservation.\u00a0 As a whole, we seem to recognize the innate value in the natural, and it is evidenced in the forests that still clothe our mountains.\u00a0 However, that value is far from commercial, and if economics drove all development, the mountains would have been developed long ago.\u00a0 Therefore, I argue that the continued existence of large quantities of forestland in the American Southeast act as a counterpoint to Cronon\u2019s assertion that economics are the fundamental driver of development.<\/p>\n

I would like to add to Catherine\u2019s point<\/a> about the Davidson College Ecological Preserve. It is indeed second growth forest, and she questions how natural it is because of this.\u00a0 However, if you take a look around at this new growth forest, you see so many other physical signs of human tampering.\u00a0 You see the wide swath cleared last year for the gas lines, still bare from the destruction.\u00a0 You see the abandoned house, a favorite of students for midnight jaunts.\u00a0 You see the goats, an introduction into the Davidson woods, but their presence indicates an effort to correct another invasive species gone wild, Kudzu.\u00a0 The list goes on, from the boathouse to the power line.\u00a0 In this wild place, the wildest that Davidson has to offer, we are never far from man\u2019s influence.\u00a0 This raises the question, also raised by Cronon in his introduction, what is wilderness?\u00a0 Does it exist in this modern age?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know the answer, but as a nature lover, I am glad that the question can still be asked today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the introduction to Nature\u2019s Metropolis, William Cronon paints a picture of his childhood and the opposition of rural and urban that he claims to falsely have considered to be polar opposites, unconnected and fundamentally opposing. \u00a0I connected strongly with his childhood view, having also felt a persistent pull towards the undeveloped since my own … <\/p>\n

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