Martin J. Rosen

Martin J. Rosen has been a long-time president of The Trust for Public Land. He is a commissioner of Bay Vision 2020, and a member of the Walden Woods Project Advisory Board.

In contemporary terms, the bard of Walden would never have made the six o'clock news or the New York Times best-seller list&emdash;and in this is the first lesson for our celebrity-loving time. In life, as in art, such qualities as originality, patient craftsmanship, and attention to vision do not always walk away with the blue ribbon. Heaven Is Under Our Feet, 1992.

Americans have come back to Thoreau again and again as we puzzle out who we are as a people. In his studies contemplation of the world we sense a counterweight to our own frantic lives of getting and spending, and his retreat to Walden remains a powerful symbol for us. Ibid.

Each time some close-to-home field or woodlot is slated for the bulldozer&emdash;each time some swamp is to be drained, some hilltop leveled, some stream channeled, some meadow paved&emdash;we must weigh carefully not only the anticipated biological losses but the loss to our own soul as people. Ibid.

The world is full of Waldens waiting to be discovered, waiting for people as ordinary and extraordinary as you and me. Ibid.