Achieving public values on private land

Excerpt

WEBSTER defines value as “the quality or fact of being excellent, useful, or desirable.” Few things are more personal or dear to each of us than those things we hold as “basic values.” Those values we share with each other within this society, as soil conservation professionals, and in our national cultures as citizens, are counted among our most prized possessions. They are critical, as well, because they form the basis upon which we continually shape and reshape the public policies that form the “rules of the game” under which we all live our lives.

Those values constantly change, for each of us as individuals and for society as a whole. There are individuals reading this who, at one point in their youth, thought that a souped-up Ford was the single most important thing in their life. But we all move on in our lives and adopt different values as we go.

I think it is fair to say that my own personal values, as they relate to land use and resource management, have changed dramatically during my professional career. I suspect that most …