That there might be states, even desirable states, between vestal seclusion and being a slag, ought to be obvious but isn't even admitted. Given all this, the pressing question is how we should go about being good godlings. We need to know about breeding populations, the adaptability of predators, the effects of fires and how often they should occur, and so forth. Of course, no amount of knowledge and good intentions is going to achieve anything if subverted by apathy, political impotence and greed. But greed is not some faceless, unknowable force.
Pollution is undesirable, but unavoidable.
And there should be no reason why environmentalists couldn't buy up pollution rights and sit on them, if they're willing to put up the money. There will still be costs of enforcement, but there are always costs to enforcing property-rights, and there are costs to enforcing regulations now. Budiansky's chapter on this and similar uses of suitably rigged and regulated markets is probably the most interesting one in the book. The main problem with Budiansky's book is that he thinks too small, too locally. Like his opponents in the Dianic cult, he's mostly concerned with issues like wilderness preservation, with the fates of individual ecosystems.