Salt marshes have been a destination for many settlers throughout history. They are attractive pieces of land to settle due to the low topography that has hardly any rocks. This allowed settlers to move in and easily develop the coast without much effort. Before the introduction of modern environmental studies in the 20^th century, the colonists had little to no emphasis on caring for the environment as a whole. The colonists’ outlook when utilizing the environment was to benefit from it without any real concern for its well-being.

Now, the tides have turned. There has been an incredible growth of knowledge related to the environment. Most importantly is the changing of public opinion about environmentalism. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, published in 1962, is widely recognized as launching modern environmentalism in the public sphere. One main aspect of Silent Spring is that it emphasized the horrors of pollution. The book was widely read across the country and resulted in a greater awareness of the ills of harming the environment.

Before modern environmentalism, salt marsh settlers did not have a cultural or societal emphasis on environmentalism. The colonists manipulated nature for its resources: timber, land, animals, and many more. I believe the damage of the salt marshes at the time was indeed an “innocent destruction.” The settlers did not take college classes about the problems with destroying ecosystems and changing natural habitats. They merely knew what they needed and saw a solution in the form of utilizing the natural resources surrounding them.

However after the widespread dissemination of information about the importance of environmental conservation, there is no excuse for people mindlessly destroying salt marshes. Major environmental devastations after prevalent awareness about the issue are wrong. Still, it is difficult to blame the colonists for destroying salt marshes; they did not know what they were ruining. It is only after a rising modern commitment to environmentalism that people can be faulted for, at the very least, not even considering the problems with destroying our vulnerable environment. Hopefully the modern commitment to environmentalism that has grown since Carson’s seminal work will continue to help save nature from the perils of pollution, disregard, and human machination.