Different Drummer
Scholastic Scope
September 13, 1991

Don Henley—the man who brought you “The End of the Innocence,” “All She Wants to Do is Dance,” and “Boys of Summer”—is singing a different tune these days. He’s fighting for a small but significant slice of the earth called Walden Woods in Concord, Massachusetts.

Walden Woods is the place where the great American writer and thinker Henry David Thoreau began living off the land in 1845. While there, he became the first true environmentalist, and wrote some of this greatest work, including a book called Walden about his two years living alone in the woods.

Now Walden Woods is in danger. Developers plan to build condominiums and an office park there. But The Walden Woods Project, which Don Henley founded, is trying to raise money to buy the land and preserve it.

On a break from his current concert tour, Don Henley talked to Scope reporter Francelia Sevin about The Walden Woods Project and his passion for Thoreau.

Why do you care about saving Walden Woods?

Henry David Thoreau *1817-1862) is one of my favorite authors. I studied him in high school and in college. His writing really touched something in me. When I first read Thoreau, I had the felling that it was something I already knew intuitively but couldn’t express for myself. He was crystallizing my thoughts. That’s why I loved him so much.

Do you have any favorite passages?

There are so many. But I like “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”

What’s happening at Walden?

Right now only Walden Pond itself is preserved. That’s only 82 acres of the 2,688 acres in Walden Woods.

Why should Walden Woods be saved too?

Thoreau walked miles every week in Walden Woods. He did a lot of his thinking and writing there. It never occurred to me that this land wouldn’t be preserved. Walden is an American landmark. Thoreau is the father of the environmental movement. He’s also the father of nonviolent protest and the Civil Rights movement. He wrote Civil Disobedience which influenced Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

What has the Project done so far?

With the help of Trust for Public Land (TPL), we were able to buy one of the Walden Woods sites slated for condominiums and preserve it. We still owe $1.8 million on it, but we hope that we will have that raised by the end of the year.

To save Walden Woods, how much money do you need to raise in total?

About $8 million.

If they read Thoreau and feel strongly, can Scope readers do anything to help?

They can start fundraisers at their schools. It’s important for all of us to get up, take the initiative, and get involved. Don’t wait for somebody to come along to lead you. I think that unfortunately we’ve become a media-dependent society. We’re a society of spectators rather than participants.

Why do you think that so many musicians and actors get involved in the environment and other social causes?

I think celebrities have a good overview of what is going on in this country and in the world because we travel so much. We communicate with all kinds of people. But it’s important to know that everybody can make a difference, not just celebrities, and not just politicians. Everybody. Because the earth belongs to everybody. We all breathe the same air. And if we don’t all get involved, in the end the earth will survive and we’ll be gone. The earth, like Thoreau said, rejuvenates itself. It’s humankind that will be gone. And that’s a shame.