Do we really own the land today?

I was pleased to read Rogan McKay’s letter, “This land is your land,” in the Nov. 14 edition of the Bangor Daily News. It shows him to be a young man grappling with the serious issue of land ownership, and in particular the rights conveyed by such ownership.

At 70 (I can’t remember being 12), I think a lot about the same issue.

The land I own was heavily cut-over about the time I was born. Throughout my life, I have watched it slowly recover. The ledgy soil is not deep, so new growth is strongly influenced by seasonal rainfall and wind. I am glad to have lived long enough to see the land begin to look like its old self.

I have also kept track of other aspects of property ownership. Men used to feel they could own slaves, or even their wives and children, and had a right to do what they wanted with them. Long years of struggle and bloodshed have taught us differently. We are lucky to live in a nation where slaves, women, and children are no longer regarded as personal property.

The rights of wild and domestic animals are less clear. When cars collide with moose in the road, the moose are assumed to be at fault, and the allowable take (particularly of females) during hunting season is upped accordingly. There are humane treatment laws on the books, and humane hunting regulations, but three things you don’t want to be in this life are animals raised or hunted for food, or predators that prey on such animals. Animals bred for research are given the rights of clean food and shelter, and the privilege of donating their lives and body parts for the betterment of human health.

Trees, plants, soil and groundwater are still pretty much at the mercy of landowners on whose property they happen to find themselves. Some owners believe in stewardship, sustainable growth, and pollution prevention. Others don’t. As the system works now, ownership comes first, stewardship comes second if it comes at all. I don’t hear much talk about the inalienable rights of white pines, thin soils, or aquifers.

People don’t claim to own clouds, rain, or the ocean, but we do claim that part of the water cycle that flows through the land. The part that nourishes the roots of trees and plants as it passes through a watershed into a stream or a pond. Yet the lives of all of us, all plants, animals, and people, depend on that flow. Without it, none of us would be here and Maine wouldn’t exist.

So, yes, Rogan McKay raised a serious issue in his letter. And touched on more issues than perhaps he knew. I won’t be around to read the letter he writes on the same subject when he is 70, but I wonder now if it won’t be a plea to put stewardship up front as a condition of land ownership rather than an afterthought left to people with broader opinions than experience.

Steve Perrin lives in Bar Harbor.