How city-dwelling leopards improve human health
Before we get started
As the coronavirus pandemic canceled or changed most Americans’ travel plans, people flocked to public lands in record numbers—many for the first time. Although these outdoor spaces are a vital haven to visitors trying to cope with the pandemic, land managers are finding that there’s a steep learning curve when it comes to these visitors’ responsible use.
“The visitation that we typically saw on the weekend, we were seeing during the week,” says Lawrence Lujan, a United States Forest Service (USFS) public affairs specialist. “And the visitation that we typically saw during a holiday weekend, like the Fourth of July, we were seeing on weekends.”
With increased use comes increased problems: Public land managers must contend with people hiking off-trail, driving or parking off-road, trampling vegetation, not packing out trash, setting illegal and abandoned campfires, and overcrowding.
A wonderful serenity has taken possession of my entire soul, like these sweet mornings of spring which I enjoy with my whole heart. I am alone, and feel the charm of existence in this spot, which was created for the bliss of souls like mine. I am so happy, my dear friend, so absorbed in the exquisite sense of mere tranquil existence, that I neglect my talents. I should be incapable of drawing a single stroke at the present moment; and yet I feel that I never was a greater artist than now.
I’ve gone off fiction a bit because I’ve read too many novels. I think, ‘Oh, God. I know what’s going to happen next.’
When, while the lovely valley teems with vapour around me, and the meridian sun strikes the upper surface of the impenetrable foliage of my trees, and but a few stray gleams steal into the inner sanctuary, I throw myself down among the tall grass by the trickling stream; and, as I lie close to the earth, a thousand unknown plants are noticed by me: when I hear the buzz of the little world among the stalks, and grow familiar with the countless indescribable forms of the insects and flies, then I feel the presence of the Almighty, who formed us in his own image, and the breath of that universal love which bears and sustains us, as it floats around us in an eternity of bliss; and then, my friend, when darkness overspreads my eyes, and heaven and earth seem to dwell in my soul and absorb its power, like the form of a beloved mistress, then I often think with longing, Oh, would I could describe these conceptions, could impress upon paper all that is living so full and warm within me, that it might be the mirror of my soul, as my soul is the mirror of the infinite God!
O my friend — but it is too much for my strength — I sink under the weight of the splendour of these visions! A wonderful serenity has taken possession of my entire soul, like these sweet mornings of spring which I enjoy with my whole heart. I am alone, and feel the charm of existence in this spot, which was created for the bliss of souls like mine.
I am so happy, my dear friend, so absorbed in the exquisite sense of mere tranquil existence, that I neglect my talents. I should be incapable of drawing a single stroke at the present moment; and yet I feel that I never was a greater artist than now.
So what are you reading now?
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