Watched the Ken Burns documentary in Maine
When Ken Burns' powerful documentary about national parks was airing last week, I was about a mile from the gate of a national park -- Acadia National Park in Maine.
I was traveling in New England, so I couldn't be in Yosemite or Sequoia-Kings Canyon. So it seemed appropriate to rent a house near the entrance to Maine's grand outdoor paradise.
Did anyone else catch the Burns documentary? What did you think?
The photo in this item is Duck Brook in Acadia. It was Oct.1, and the color was just coming into the maples there.
Downstream, the beaver dens were all over the place. Critters were no doubt getting ready for another harsh Maine winter.
Comments:
I watched every installment except for the second. What a great presentation! I learned much about the national parks I didn't know. It was perhaps the best way to present the parks to the viewing audience. Kudos to Burns and PBS!
On the downside, establishing the nation's national parks kind of backfired in the sense that land that was set aside for the purpose of preserving wilderness areas, in some areas, was then so tromped upon by the tamed that by that very action, it seemed to defeat the purpose of setting aside those areas to begin with. It was also disconcerting to see people feeding the wildlife in the documentary.
From this it is easy to understand why there are proposals and efforts to limit the numbers visiting certain sites.
Ultimately, having the national parks is a blessing and we all should feel extremely lucky and thankful that such land has been set aside for our enjoyment. I'm so thankful there were those who had the presence of mind to preserve such areas. As it relates, I was reading in the Bee today where a dam on Oregon's Rogue River was demolished which begs the question: Will the Hetch Hetchy Valley ever be returned to its original pristine state?
Posted by: Alan Kandel at October 11, 2009 10:12 AM
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