The antonym of "recreation" is "work." As I generally love my work, to me recreation somewhat less important than if I hated my work. My interest in recreation generally pertains (surprise!) to the public lands.

Call it the Oregon Desert, Great Basin Desert, sagebrush steppe, tree-free land, the Oregon Outback, the Intermountain West, the arid West, or just call it undescribable, it's a lot of country dominated by various species of sagebrush.

We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature's inexhaustible sources of energy — sun, wind and tide. ... I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. ~Thomas Edison

Nowhere in America is there better opportunity to restore an entire river system. ~Tim Palmer, author of The Wild and Scenic Rivers of America.

Congress declares that the established national policy of dam and other construction at appropriate sections of the rivers of the United States needs to be complemented by a policy that would preserve other selected rivers…

The differences between a wild fish and a hatchery fish are as great as the differences between a wolf and a dog. Both species can interbreed, but they are obviously quite different.

A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.