"I maintain that if there is such a thing as a true and honest environmentalist, it's people like Slim and hopefully me, who have been caretakers of the land all our lives, along with the generations before us"

Wilford Brimley expresses a perspective that roots true environmentalism in long-standing, lived stewardship of the land. His statement highlights the idea that authentic care for the environment is not necessarily found in labels or activist trends, but rather in the lifelong, often humble, commitment of individuals who work closely with the land. By referencing “people like Slim and hopefully me,” Brimley points to a generational continuum, people who have inherited an ethic of care from those before them and who aim to pass it down. There’s a quiet confidence in his assertion that these stewards, through their actions rather than proclamations, embody environmental principles.

Brimley’s viewpoint draws a distinction between theoretical or political forms of environmentalism and the everyday practices of those who depend on and sustain the land. Farmers, ranchers, and rural caretakers are seen as natural allies of ecology, their livelihoods intertwined with the health of their environment. The care and respect they show is not an abstract ideal, but a daily necessity. When the wellbeing of the land equates to the wellbeing of the people living on it, stewardship becomes a practical imperative, not just a moral one.

His words also call attention to the idea of continuity, the environment is protected not just through regulations or campaigns, but by a long chain of custodians who learn, adapt, and transmit knowledge. Honesty and truth, in his eyes, come from a direct, sustained relationship with nature, where every decision, how to plant, graze, conserve water, or restore habitat, has visible consequences. Brimley’s reflection is an invitation to appreciate the grounded wisdom and uncelebrated ecology work performed by those whose lives are inseparable from the landscapes they tend, suggesting that environmentalism is as much about lifelong, local deeds as it is about ideology or activism.