Photo: Chad Wohlers

The Mountain Manifesto

“Vermont is a state I love. I could not look upon the peaks of Ascutney, Killington, Mansfield and Equinox without being moved in a way that no other scene could move me.”

— President Calvin Coolidge

“Man is everywhere a disturbing agent. Wherever he plants his foot, the harmonies of nature are turned to discords.”

— George Perkins Marsh

“Vermont is a state I love. I could not look upon the peaks of Ascutney, Killington, Mansfield and Equinox without being moved in a way that no other scene could move me.”

— President Calvin Coolidge

“Man is everywhere a disturbing agent. Wherever he plants his foot, the harmonies of nature are turned to discords.”

— George Perkins Marsh

Authors’ note of appreciation

The seed for a mountain manifesto was sown around John Ewing’s kitchen table in Burlington. As it germinated, that seed has been tended by Vermonters and others seeking to protect the Green Mountains from destruction. We thank John Ewing for his initial inspiration; Roger Allbee, whose encouragement kept the idea alive; Justin Lindholm and Steve Wright, who know the hills and have depicted what has happened to them; Sue Morse, who implicitly understands the importance of intact mountain habitats; Steve Young, who, as founder of the Center for Northern Studies, knows the northern regions as well as almost anyone; Elizabeth Cooper and Christian Peet, whose creative skills have fashioned this document for presentation; and especially Annette Smith and Vermonters for a Clean Environment for agreeing to publish the Mountain Manifesto and make it available to lovers of the Green Mountains. All these individuals are truly “Mountain Protectors.” We hope you will join them.

Bruce S. Post
Charles W. Johnson

Authors’ note of appreciation

The seed for a mountain manifesto was sown around John Ewing’s kitchen table in Burlington. As it germinated, that seed has been tended by Vermonters and others seeking to protect the Green Mountains from destruction. We thank John Ewing for his initial inspiration; Roger Allbee, whose encouragement kept the idea alive; Justin Lindholm and Steve Wright, who know the hills and have depicted what has happened to them; Sue Morse, who implicitly understands the importance of intact mountain habitats; Steve Young, who, as founder of the Center for Northern Studies, knows the northern regions as well as almost anyone; Elizabeth Cooper and Christian Peet, whose creative skills have fashioned this document for presentation; and especially Annette Smith and Vermonters for a Clean Environment for agreeing to publish the Mountain Manifesto and make it available to lovers of the Green Mountains. All these individuals are truly “Mountain Protectors.” We hope you will join them.

Bruce S. Post
Charles W. Johnson

Lowell Mountain, 2011
Photo: Justin Lindholm

Authors’ note of appreciation

The seed for a mountain manifesto was sown around John Ewing’s kitchen table in Burlington. As it germinated, that seed has been tended by Vermonters and others seeking to protect the Green Mountains from destruction. We thank John Ewing for his initial inspiration; Roger Allbee, whose encouragement kept the idea alive; Justin Lindholm and Steve Wright, who know the hills and have depicted what has happened to them; Sue Morse, who implicitly understands the importance of intact mountain habitats; Steve Young, who, as founder of the Center for Northern Studies, knows the northern regions as well as almost anyone; Elizabeth Cooper and Christian Peet, whose creative skills have fashioned this document for presentation; and especially Annette Smith and Vermonters for a Clean Environment for agreeing to publish the Mountain Manifesto and make it available to lovers of the Green Mountains. All these individuals are truly “Mountain Protectors.” We hope you will join them.

Bruce S. Post
Charles W. Johnson

“I lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” — Psalm 121

The Mountain Manifesto

A Call to Protect the Green Mountains

Inspired by the Green Mountains and all who love them

DEDICATION
Shirley Strong

“If you’ve got the ecological, scientific reason for protecting the mountains and you have a resource up there that’s worth protecting, and it’s the backbone of Vermont, you’re gonna do something about it.”

  • 1st woman president of the Green Mountain Club
  • Founder, Green Mountains Profile Committee
  • Ardent protector of Vermont’s mountains

 

Photo: Vermont Folklife Center archives with permission of Strong family.

Photo: Vermont Folklife Center archives with permission of Strong family.

DEDICATION
Shirley Strong

“If you’ve got the ecological, scientific reason for protecting the mountains and you have a resource up there that’s worth protecting, and it’s the backbone of Vermont, you’re gonna do something about it.”

  • 1st woman president of the Green Mountain Club
  • Founder, Green Mountains Profile Committee
  • Ardent protector of Vermont’s mountains

THE MOUNTAIN MANIFESTO:
WHAT IS IT? WHOSE IS IT?

A manifesto, by definition, is a public declaration of intent by the group issuing it. This manifesto is our public declaration to protect Vermont’s mountains, the icons that give the state not only its name, but its identity. We who issue it do so on behalf of the mountains, which cannot speak for themselves, and of all who wish to join us.

We have created the Mountain Manifesto because we feel the mountains are now under siege, as they have been before, but this time for the seemingly-insatiable human craving for energy. The siege is relentless, the need for defense more urgent.

This Mountain Manifesto is an homage, a plea, and a call to action. An homage, to honor what the mountains are and have been for hundreds of millions of years. A plea, to value and respect them for their geology, ecology, history, and social role in our lives. A call to action, to do what we must morally – and what we can legally – to protect them from further desecration and destruction.

Let us raise a unified voice to save the mountains. Let our voice be heard.

THE MOUNTAIN MANIFESTO:
WHAT IS IT? WHOSE IS IT?

A manifesto, by definition, is a public declaration of intent by the group issuing it. This manifesto is our public declaration to protect Vermont’s mountains, the icons that give the state not only its name, but its identity. We who issue it do so on behalf of the mountains, which cannot speak for themselves, and of all who wish to join us.

We have created the Mountain Manifesto because we feel the mountains are now under siege, as they have been before, but this time for the seemingly-insatiable human craving for energy. The siege is relentless, the need for defense more urgent.

This Mountain Manifesto is an homage, a plea, and a call to action. An homage, to honor what the mountains are and have been for hundreds of millions of years. A plea, to value and respect them for their geology, ecology, history, and social role in our lives. A call to action, to do what we must morally – and what we can legally – to protect them from further desecration and destruction.

Let us raise a unified voice to save the mountains. Let our voice be heard. 

The ecological integrity of the Green Mountains is essential to the health of Vermont’s lands, its air and its waters, and to all the life — human and otherwise — that dwells on and in them. For eons, these mountains have been shaped and transformed by the long, slow evolutionary forces of geology, ice, wind and water. Now, we are the greatest threat to Vermont’s mountains and have been since the early days of colonial settlement. And, as the artifacts of destruction have become more sophisticated, powerful and readily deployable, humankind can with ease and within a few months — milliseconds on the geological clock — destroy what took millennia to create. Now is the time to stop this madness.

— The Mountain Manifesto

The ecological integrity of the Green Mountains is essential to the health of Vermont’s lands, its air and its waters, and to all the life — human and otherwise — that dwells on and in them. For eons, these mountains have been shaped and transformed by the long, slow evolutionary forces of geology, ice, wind and water. Now, we are the greatest threat to Vermont’s mountains and have been since the early days of colonial settlement. And, as the artifacts of destruction have become more sophisticated, powerful and readily deployable, humankind can with ease and within a few months — milliseconds on the geological clock — destroy what took millennia to create. Now is the time to stop this madness.

— The Mountain Manifesto

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