RURAL VALUES ARE GETTING HARD TO FIND
Sunday, December 24, 2000
By Tom Koenninger, The Columbian's editor and vice presidentIt's Christmas Eve. A cold rain soaks the soil, and creeks rise. Cattle come out of the mud and walk into the barn, vapor rising like steam from their flanks. Stanchions close around long necks in a final clank of metal. There is a rustle of hay in the manger as the cows settle into the evening routine. A shuffling of padded feet on wood flooring is a comforting sound.
This is my memory of the family dairy farm at Sara more than a half century ago. It is a memory of childhood and youth, but it's permanently locked in my head and heart.
It comes back to me at this time of the year, a reminder of a different life, one physically demanding, sometimes painful yet embroidered as a richness in the tapestry of living.
Sadly, it is a memory of a time that is all but lost in the 21st century. Few people now experience it, and fewer still will know of it as the years advance.
I wish my children could have had this experience. The rural way of life was a lesson in life without equal.
There were so many lessons, starting with the stewardship of the land. If you do not till the land and enrich the earth with fragrant nutrients such as cow manure, it will not grow for you. If you do not remove weeds from the garden, they will choke out the vegetables. Shepherding a near-Noah's ark of animals on the farm from cows, calves, colts, pigs, dogs and barnyard cats to chickens, ducks and geese required tenderness and care, love, self-discipline; blisters, bruises and hard work. Responsibility was learned early and practiced often.
You matured quickly as you aided in the birth of a calf or treated an animal's injured foot. Agony was deep and tears many as you witnessed the death of a prized cow that had ingested wire or tried to aid an animal writhing in the agony of bloat after eating too much wet grass.
There was much to be joyful about as winter yielded to spring and the farm renewed itself in buds, blossoms and bees, and in the frolicking of spirited horses sensing newness in the land.
Opportunities for duplicating a rural lifestyle of 50 or more years ago are next to impossible to find in today's Clark County. Development continues to consume farmland at the rate of about 2,000 acres per year. From a quarter-million acres of farmland of my youth, the county now has little more than 50,000. We fret about not having enough industrial land, yet few people lament the shrinking inventory of space for crops.
Hobby farms, usually five acres, do exist, often to support a riding horse or two. These are good but don't come close to duplicating farm life, when people were dependent on earning their living from the land.
A marvelous training ground
While the farm of old is gone, there remain good outdoor experiences for young people today. They are found on the lakes, rivers and streams and in forests, mountains and open spaces. They have names such as rivers Columbia, Lewis, Lake, Wind and Washougal. They are called the Vancouver Lake Lowlands, Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge and La Center Bottoms. They are lakes Vancouver, Lacamas, Battle Ground, Carty, Campbell, Green, Lancaster, Mud, Merwin, Yale, Round and Post Office.
The Columbia River Gorge offers a magnificent and majestic look at nature in her glory. Appreciation of natural beauty and lessons in environmental protection are found here. It is a marvelous training ground for people of all ages.
Much the same can be said for the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and areas such as the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge. These experiences must substitute for values learned on the farm, because the farm lifestyle exists mostly in memory.
That's the main reason the highest value must be placed on protection of open space wherever it exists. It is the teaching tool for future generations. It is where stewardship of the land is obvious.
Likewise, efforts of such organizations as the Columbia Land Trust, which acquires and preserves open space through donations of land and money, should be encouraged. On a short-term basis, an opportunity to learn and value what went before us will come through the bicentennial observation of the Lewis and Clark journey of discovery in 2003-06.
From whatever source, these exposures to solid values are critical to the well-being of this republic.
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