This photo depicts the stark contrast between the congested roads and the flanks of the Green Mountains in the article “Beckoning Country or Boswash” from the Summer 1970 issue of Vermont Life (Vol. 24 Issue 4). There is aim to address the economic and social changes which have occured in Vermont in the past five years, which deeply affect the historic natural beauty of the state for both residents and visitors. The future outlook of the state could go in two ways: Beckoning Country or Boswash. Beckoning country would mean “green woods, rolling mountains, clear streams and lakes, dairy farms and church-steepled villages and just enough well-situated regional cities”. On the other hand, Boswash would be “the urban octopus that has devoured most of the land from Boston to Washington, including much of southern New England.” 

In the context of the future Vermont state, environmentalism is presented as an ever-so-important solution to increasing Boswash tendencies. A domino effect is already being felt as farmers and woodland owners experience the rising land taxes from increasing urban populations. In order to preserve the state, each person can “help create an environmental commission in [each] town” by utilizing “creative regionalism” and “creative statism” to assert rights to question Legislators about natural resource and recreational development. Environmentalism is used to encourage citizens to take action in order to keep the historic beauty of the state for residents and future citizens, rather than for the environment itself.