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Show 522. THE SYMBOLIC VALLEYS Joseph Sax o b s e r v e s t h a t National Parks have come to take on a symbolic s i g n i f i c a n c e in the minds of preservationists. Lately, the Owens Valley and Mono Lake have taken on similar symbolic s i g n i f i c a n c e . Nevertheless i t i s wise to remember t h a t Hetch Hetchy, and t h e Owens Valley as well, are very r e a l p a r t s of t h e l a r g e r e c o l o g i c a l systems which interpenetrate in t h e land we c a l l C a l i f o r n i a . Though the oak groves of Hetch Hetchy a r e dead, and the Owens Valley has become a dust bowl, the p l a c e s are s t i l l l i v i n g ecological systems. These p l a c e s d o n ' t go away when they are " u t i l i z e d ." They just take on a new form, and, though no longer "specimen sections of our n a t u r a l f l o r a , " they become newly created environments. Thus a s i g n i f i c a n t question to be asked about these places i s , why should we have changed or not changed them? what did they mean t o us i n 1905, and what do they mean to us now? How do Man's changes give d i r e c t i o n to his own evolving l i f e? Muir would not reduce Hetch Hetchy to an a b s t r a c t i o n. He knew t h a t i t was both r e a l and s i g n i f i c a n t . Of course it had a p r i v a t e and p e r s o n a l meaning for him, but i t also had a meaning for i t s e l f , and as f a r as he was a b l e , he wanted to make his own d e s c r i p t i o n of the p l a c e "equal to the r e a l i t s e l f ." Though the v a l l e y held in i t some of the r o o t s of h i s own |
