It means changing cultural expectations about natural resources and public lands. It means changing patterns of recreation and resource use. It means a changing public face that will look very different from the faces you see today on many of our national forests and grasslands, whether among users or among employees. Most of all, it means challenges for us at every level to keep up with the changing face of America. Civil rights are about people, about the human dimension, about principles such as fairness and inclusion principles that inspire good government.
Good stewardship means treating people with fairness and basic decency.
Respect for the land begins with respect for each other. Three years ago, we said that civil rights delivery was perhaps our most important task. Because the two sides of our mission caring for the land and serving people are inseparably linked. Aldo Leopold once said that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. That applies equally to the human community and to the land.