When Do We Cast Off Our Awe of Nature?

I was intrigued by the article “Where the Wild Things Are” (June 15). I spent a portion of my childhood in Montana among the wonders of the natural world. My parents, however, brought the family to Southern California, where I grew up in a populous urban environment where the wild things are not. Eventually, I became a biologist, a teacher and an ardent lover of nature.

Meanwhile, virtually all my relatives who remain surrounded in natural richness could not care less. To them, natural resources are for economic exploitation. Any suggestion of preservation stirs anger, and even to mention the Endangered Species Act brings near rage.

Stephen Trimble and Gary Paul Nabhan, co-authors of “The Geography of Childhood,” might do well to initiate a study of the transformation of human beings from the child’s wonder at nature to adult indifference and outright rejection of natural values.

AL KISNER, La Crescenta