Are there rural "tree huggers"?

Question

All the environmentalists I've ever met are office workers, or were raised in the suburbs. I really don't know any "tree hugger" types who are actually of the land. Do they even exist?

Answer 1

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Answer 2

Um, of course?

I mean, is it possible that the reason that the only environmentalists you've met are from the city and suburbs is because you've only looked in the city and the suburbs.

Firstly, almost every ecovillage is in a rural area.

http://www.dancingrabbit.org/

Secondly, Almost every self sustaining homestead is out in a rural area.

http://www.earthship.net/

Thirdly, the small local farmers that are left and that haven't been forced out of their land by big agribusiness are all inherently environmental.

http://www.localharvest.org/

Fourthly, think about all the hippy communes. All out in the country.

http://www.ic.org/

Answer 3

You best be believing there are!  I grew up in rural Oregon - I'm what you'd call a "redneck environmentalist."    I drink Coors Light or whatever is cheap and palatable, I go with my buddies on hunting/camping trips -they shoot, I don't.  I own a mid-size SUV (but bike to work).  I camp and burn deadfall (clear the fire hazard before summer)... I fish (catch and release, sometimes eat) and I play and watch Football fanatically.

There is a strong link between the hunter, sports fisherman and the environmentalist.  People in the outdoors tend to value the preserving natural habitats.  

Dismiss those silly stereotypes those others are throwing out there!

Answer 4

yes they fight against buildings going up all the time.

Answer 5

If they live in a rural area they don't have to do much to protect the environment around them, unlike those who live in cities or the suburbs.

Answer 6

We farm people rarely choose to use a non-complementary  term like tree-hugger to describe ourselves.

Some of us even cut down trees to give other trees room to grow, and to heat the house.

Many of us are passionate about avoiding soil erosion and compaction.

Many of us use a minimum of fuel to do our farming.

We will  kill animals to eat them. Even to prevent their overgrazing the range.

So our tree hugging  friends in the cities will have nothing to do with us. Favor returned.

Answer 7

You really poison the well when you lead off with a derogatory name and then ask for a show of hands.  By the way, how many bigoted Fascists do we have in Yahoo answers?  Enough to s***w in a lightbulb?  A CFL, or a nice 1000 watt incandescent?  See how that works?  Lets count how many we get...

Answer 8

No, not really. There are some tree huggers that were raised in cities and moved to rural areas though.

Answer 9

More than anywhere else ,

Rural people are far more aware of the values of Nature.

Most city people have grown too far from nature to realize the interrelationships of all living things ,in their artificial world.

And the biggest tree huggers of all you can find in the jungles

the native people who worship the elements of Nature and Natures Gods.

You may be celebrating a memory of that with the Christmas tree ,a left over of Pagan tree worship.

Answer 10

If you are talking about the hippy, idealistic, save the world, everything should be returned to nature type treehuggers, then no.

However, if you want to find people who respect the land, manage it carefully, and fight to keep it pristine and healthy, then yes, there are an incredibly large number of rural "treehuggers." Most people in rural areas absolutely love and respect earth for what it gives them- fresh food from the garden and quiet, peaceful seclusion from the hectic modern world. In fact, hunters are the the biggest group of conservationists in the U.S.- we fight to keep animal populations healthy and their habitat undeveloped. We don't like developers and huge agribusinesses.

Small, rural farmers also have a healthy distaste for those who come into their communities and try to teach them to "become one with nature."  Many I know see these ideas as idealistic bs. We don't need to save nature. To say that we do is to insinuate that we somehow control it. I guess that to many from the cities and suburbs, this seems true, but for those who live in rural areas, it's not. Nature is often nasty and brutish. It's already there, and will always be there. We simply need to respect it, tend it, and harvest what it gives us.

You won't find a typical treehugger who is actually of the land, because those of us who are realize that hugging trees won't due a thing to help both humans and the environment. we have a much more pragmatic approach- respect nature and use it intelligently. Don't turn it into yet another factory.