What he did not recognize, I suppose, is that, with or without the flag, this park - its very existence - is all about patriotism. That our predecessors would set aside these 600+ acres of our homeland where the natural world could go about its business, build and maintain trails and other simple infrastructure where today's and tomorrow's citizens can enjoy Nature, recreate, and find refuge from the ever-increasing pace of our culture, is absolutely an expression of patriotism. And the work that he does, taking care of this little piece of our homeland, is also patriotism, in action.

After all, along with its form of government, policies, laws, its cities, and its citizens, our country is no less the very land that it occupies. The dictionary definition of patriotism is "a feeling of love and devotion to one's own homeland." Accordingly, acts of love and devotion to our nation's forests, prairies, seashores, rivers, mountains - and its parks, from Yellowstone to the Pueblo Mountain Park to a small acre of urban greenery - are patriotic acts.

There is much talk these days about "homeland security" and defending our nation from threats, particularly terrorist attacks against citizens and key infrastructure. Since our nation is made up of many facets, including its diverse landscapes, then actions that threaten the ecological health of these places are also threats to our homeland security - in a sense, another brand of terrorism. For it is the very land that has molded and continues to mold the character of this nation, and it is the land that sustains, inspires and nurtures its citizens. Damage the land, and you damage the nation. As such, the work by countless conservationists - paid and volunteer alike - who seek to protect the ecological integrity of our homeland are also, by definition, and by law, acts of patriotism.

It is a sad sign of our times that much of our media-driven culture, including the political processes presented by most media, seems to overlook the fact that conservation is a fundamental expression of patriotism. Clearly, flying flags and saying pledges are portrayed as patriotic acts. That protecting and conserving the homeland itself is somehow not on the patriotism radar-screen demonstrates just how far our culture is from this most fundamental expression of love and devotion to country.

Such lack of recognition of the patriotism inherent in conservationist efforts is also a significant reason, maybe the main reason, why a growing consensus of scientists believes that our planet - and, hence, our nation - is in an ecological crisis of proportions unprecedented in the history of our species. One manifestation of this is our nation's unwillingness to seriously address the many potentially catastrophic global environmental issues of our day (e.g. global climate change, destruction of biological diversity). As Admiral Hyman Rickover, often called the father of the U.S. nuclear Navy, once stated, "There is a need for wider recognition that government has as much a duty to protect the land, the air, the water, the natural environment against technological damage, as it has to protect the country against foreign enemies." Or, as retired Air Force pilot Reese Liggert recently said, "I was in the military because I think it is very important to defend the country. I'm in the Sierra Club to make sure there is something worth defending." This all seems to logically mean that to act in a way that damages or diminishes the natural environment is actually unpatriotic.