[maxerickson]

120 years ago, huge swaths of the US had been recently clear cut and didn't have a lot of forests on them.

It doesn't even take ages for things to change.

It's unfortunate that the public idea of conservation has become so associated with stasis.

[goatlover]

The idea of preserving pristine environments as they were needs to go. There are none, and environments are always changing.

[rexpop]

Bit of a straw man. The ecologists I know of are interested in cultivating biodiversity and preserving habitats from the corrosive influence of development, pollution, and climate change. "Pristine" isn't a term I've heard used much in this context. The language of "virgin" land belongs to the lexicon of settler colonialism, not environmentalism.