Conservation:
The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or
plant: "What good is it?" If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every
part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of eons, has
built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly
useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent
tinkering.
-- Aldo Leopold, Round River, 1953, New York: Oxford
University Press, p.147