FARMING'S BARREN LEGACY

The local farmers, they don't smile much," Jackson comments, but they support what I'm doing."

What will be the upshot of what she's doing? The land has proved too costly to farm, near-worthless for grazing. It has no evident role in the ecosystem, such as the water-scrubbing function of wetlands. It has no flora so spectacular as a saguaro cactus. It is wildlife habitat, but not for any glamorous and bankable endangered species. It has a natural aesthetic that you have to learn to love. Subtle, perhaps. You can appreciate `subtle' coming from Kansas," Jackson says.

Then she gets serious. I think this habitat is important because we're part of it. No one species is going to be the downfall of the ecosystem." But then, she explains, it's a chain effect like popping rivets: First one goes and then the next. The image has been used before and it's passed from metaphor to cliche, and she apologizes for that. But it's still apt.

Wes is a fine talker," Least Heat Moon wrote of Jackson's father. Laura Jackson's a pretty good talker herself, as she points out a more intangible argument, the right for things to exist even if we haven't yet figured out what they're good for. She's got a mild case of indignation. We've used it for 30 years and screwed it up for 300 years," she says. What would your mother say?"

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