In the first half of the nineteenth century, America's intellectuals and artists understood that the countryside, that the nation was cultivating at that time, was a new and special phenomenon. They developed a theory about it, painted pictures of it, wrote poems about it, and began a new literary genre for it. (And some, such as Thoreau, disliked it, in favor of wilderness.) It was a "middle landscape", between wilderness and the urban settlement. They also understood, with an inkling of ecological science, that the countryside had to be conceived as a whole fabric of life. The countryside would perish, if the fabric was cut up into pieces. Once cut up, the fabric could not be put together again.
Year-Round Natural Spring.
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The insight remains valid today. The countryside contains elements that must remain connected and integrated, if the countryside is to remain alive as a self-reproducing environment of plants, animals, and humans. The countryside cannot persist as a disconnected collection of niche environments separated by subdivisions, cultivated five-acre estates, mini-malls, industrial parks, and heavy road traffic.
A plan to preserve the countryside must identify the fabric, inventory its elements and inhabitants and their connections, and preserve them. In this article, I discuss some elements of the landscape to which special attention must be paid.
The fabric. Over the past century, American scientists have identified broad ecological formations, called biomes, in North America. The North American tall grass prairie is an example of a biome. A comprehensive plan for a countryside should be based on ecological identification and mappings of the biome of which it is a part and of the biosystems, such as forests, meadows, and wetlands, that comprise it. Within this categorization, the plan should have an inventory of plant and animal species and their habitats.
Cattle Trail.
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Biosystems. Each countryside has a unique collection and arrangement of biosystems. Because the countryside is a human artifact, representing the interaction of human cultivation and nature, the countryside changes over the course of history. (Even without major changes in human occupation, natural evolution within the context of climatic and geological change would change the countryside, but these changes would be much slower than changes causes by human impacts.) Changes in agricultural crops, technologies of cultivation, settlement patterns, railroad, vehicular road, and other infrastructure routes, among many factors, will force changes in the landscape. While such changes cannot be prevented, in an absolute sense, the issue for a comprehensive plan is to guide such change that the ability of the landscape fabric to reproduce itself and sustain itself is not destroyed.
Elements. A comprehensive countryside plan must identify, map, and plan for preservation of countryside elements that fuse natural biosystems and human occupations:
- Woodlands
- Forests
- Copses
- Woodlots
- Aboriginal forest remnants
- Grasslands
- Natural clearings
- Aboriginal grassland remnants
- Meadows
- Fields
- Pastures
- Water systems
- Streams and rivers
- Lakes and ponds
- Wetlands
- Flood plains
- Drainage and flood control systems
- Flyways
- Wildlife ranges
- Wildlife corridors
It is very important to identify and preserve wildlife corridors between stabilized ranges. Large, divided highways, such as interstate highways and toll roads, separate countryside into regions that land animals cannot cross. 
Such impassable barriers should be avoided by constructing passageways through highways in natural corridors, allowing animals the opportunity to migrate between ranges, to follow watercourses, and to facilitate predator movement. Corridors must be maintained between elements of the countryside if the fabric of the countryside is to be preserved.
A freeway overpass is not a wildlife corridor. It is a death trap and animals will avoid it.
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Landforms. Viewsheds and ridgelines should be identified, mapped, and protected.
Contributory human occupation. Farming and ranching are the historical agencies of creation of the countryside; but today they are not the only agencies. Forest ownership and management by industrial manufacturers of paper and paper products has historically protected millions of acres of the North American forests from development. (I am not ignoring the destruction of other millions of acres by clear cutting by forest products companies.) In northern New England, large resort hotels obtained ownership of hundreds of thousands of acres of forest in the late nineteenth century and have preserved them for enjoyment today. Universities own and manage bird and wildlife conservation areas. The USDA sponsors agricultural reserve lands that are taken out of cultivation. Nonprofit organizations own and conserve bird reserves.
A plan for countryside preservation should inventory and identify the contributory human occupations and plan for their preservation (see my discussion of land use stability).
Points of human access. Every countryside has historical and planned points of public human access to the countryside, including hiking trails, ATV trails, parks, roads, bridges, and highways, drainage systems, and cemeteries. Since the countryside is cultivated, there are also many points of private human access, including farm tractor roads, livestock tracks, farm outbuildings, farm homesteads, second homes and recreational habitations, such as fowl shoot blinds.
Historical use cannot be reversed, but some accommodation must be reached between historical use that is part of the special quality of country living and regulation to preserve the countryside's environment from irreversible ecological deterioration.
Adverse human occupations. A plan should also identify those uses of the countryside, in addition to residential sprawl, that rupture its fabric and degrade its capability to regenerate and to sustain itself. While most of these occupations will be obvious, for example, airports, some uses might not be so obvious. In particular, a plan should pay attention to:
Noise pollution. Some uses of the landscape create noise that spills over large areas. Off-road vehicle and motorcycle parks, outdoor theaters, and amusement parks are usually located in rural areas, because they are incompatible with residential use of the land. They are also incompatible with living in the countryside. You can't hear the spring peepers when motorcycles are roaring nearby.
Air pollution. Air pollution can arise in unexpected ways, for instance, wood burning in homes located in a valley that suffers atmospheric inversions during winters. Wood burning in some rural New England areas became so severe several decades ago, for instance, that it had to be restricted.
Deer trail.
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Light pollution. Cities love light at night; but the countryside thrives on darkness. The dark night is vital to the cycle of life in the countryside. Everyone who has watched deer emerge at dusk from woods to graze at the edge of pasture in the safety of half-light understands that country darkness is a positive environment. Star gazing and enjoyment of moon light are aesthetic experiences also central to country living that deteriorate with heavy use of night lighting. Anyone who has seen the constellations wheel out of the horizon of hills knows that the starry sky is part of the landscape. The intrusion of mini-malls and automobile service stations at the intersection of country roads brings flood lighting at night that disrupts the darkness and limits the countryside. Night lights must be restricted in the countryside.
Contents
A Theory of Rural Life
1. What is Country Living?
2. Social-Economic Classes.
3. Conditions for Successful Production.
4 pt. 1. Land-Use Stability.
4 pt. 2. Landscape Preservation.
5. Country Living Values.
6. What Are Values?
7. A Home Place.
8. Education and Identity.
9. Marketing the Countryside.
10. Conclusions and Recommendations.
(Revised. April 21, 22, 2007.)
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