[Some] followers of the deep ecology movement…have stressed that, for deep ecology, respect and care for Nature are not based on a code of ethics…They grow spontaneously out of realizing that our small ego self is embedded in a larger ecological self. We reach awareness of and ability to act from this larger self by means of extension of identification. What we identify with we care for because, if we love ourselves, we spontaneously love what we identify with.

~ A. R. Drengson

Big Spring Creek – photo by Sandy’s NW Hiking Photos, used with permission