See also: no. He would later be called the godfather of the American environmental movement. Last summer, of the unrivaled redwood forests of the Pacific Coast Range the United States Forestry Commission could not find a single quarter-section that remained in the hands of the government. The Wild Parks and Forest Reservations of the West, chapter 1 of 'Our National Parks' by John Muir (1901). Within the pantheon of environmental greats, few match the stature of John Muir. Muir, John, 1838-1914 Publication date 1901 Topics National parks and reserves -- United States, Yosemite National Park (Calif.) Publisher Boston, New York : Houghton, Mifflin and Company Collection cdl; americana Digitizing sponsor MSN Contributor University of California Libraries Language English After several legal battles, Congress established Yosemite National Park in 1890 in order to protect thousands of acres of forest land from further destruction. The Forests of the Yosemite Park . The annual appropriation for so-called protection service is hardly sufficient to keep twenty-five timber agents in the field, and as far as any efficient protection of timber is concerned these agents themselves might as well be timber. By the act of March 3, 1875, all land-grant and right-of-way railroads are authorized to take timber from the public lands adjacent to their lines for construction purposes; and they have taken it with a vengeance, destroying a hundred times more than they have used, mostly by allowing fires to run into the woods. To Muir, these forests are a true creation by God himself--everlasting, plentiful, and can feed every man and . John Muir (1838-1914), the great naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club, has long been a favorite of mine. On the contrary, all the brains, religion, and superstition of the neighborhood are brought into play to prevent a new growth. John Muir; At Home in the Wild. As timber the redwood is too good to live. The whole sky, with clouds, sun, moon, and stars, is simply blotted out. Then he strikes off into the virgin woods, where the sugar-pine, king of all the hundred species of pines in the world in size and beauty, towers on the open sunny slopes of the Sierra in the fullness of its glory. Not only do the shepherds, at the driest time of the year, set fire to everything that will burn, but the sheep consume every green leaf, not sparing even the young conifers when they are in a starving condition from crowding, and they rake and dibble the loose soil of the mountain sides for the spring floods to wash away, and thus at last leave the ground barren. Every tree heard the bodeful sound, and pillars of smoke gave the sign in the sky, Many of natures five hundred kinds of wild trees had to make way for orchards and cornfields. The Yellowstone National Park 3. How strong a voice that metal has! Then he advertises, in whatever way he can, that he has excellent sugar-pine shakes for sale, easy of access and cheap. They have disappeared in lumber and smoke, mostly smoke, and the government got not one cent for them; only the land they were growing on was considered valuable, and two and a half dollars an acre was charged for it. Under these circumstances, the bawling, blethering oratorical stuff drowns the voice of God himself. John Muir's 1897 Case for Saving America's Forests - The Atlantic August 1897 Issue Explore Technology The American Forests "God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease,. In its calmer moments in the midst of bewildering hunger and war and restless over-industry, Prussia has learned that the forest plays an important part in human progress, and that the advance in civilization only makes it more indispensable. Still, in the long run the world does not move backward. Taking from the government is with them the same as taking from nature, and their consciences flinch no more in cutting timber from the wild forests than in drawing water from a lake or river. Passionate and . The outcries we hear against forest reservations come mostly from thieves who are wealthy and steal timber by wholesale. Both environmentalists were great activists that informed the . Enthralled by nature from a young age, Roosevelt cherished and promoted our nation's landscapes and wildlife. A large portion of the best timber is thus shattered and destroyed, and, with the huge knotty tops, is left in ruins for tremendous fires that kill every tree within their range, great and small. Thus, with abundance of fuel, shelter and comfort by his own fireside are secured. At university, Muir focused his studies on chemistry, geology and botany. The special land agents employed by the General Land Office to protect the public domain from timber depredations are supposed to collect testimony to sustain prosecution, and to superintend such prosecution on behalf of the government, which is represented by the district attorneys. The volume is from the press of Houghton . It seems, therefore, that almost every civilized nation can give us a lesson on the management and care of forests. Conservation in the United States can be traced back to the 19th century with the formation of the first National Park. Every one of the frail shake shanties is a centre of destruction, and the extent of the ravages wrought in this quiet way is in the aggregate enormous. A champion of America's great writers and timeless works, Library of America guides readers in finding and exploring the exceptional writing that reflects the nation's history and culture. Any fool can destroy trees. Nor will the woods be the worse for this use, or their benign influences be diminished any more than the sun is diminished by shining. It is not generally known that, notwithstanding the immense quantities of timber cut every year for foreign and home markets and mines, from five to ten times as much is destroyed as is used, chiefly by running forest fires that only the federal government can stop. And in the fullness of time it was planted in groves, and belts, and broad, exuberant, mantling forests, with the largest, most varied, most fruitful, and most beautiful trees in the world. Being rather partial to trees, I could not resist reading "A wind-storm in the forests" by Scottish-born American naturalist/enviromentalist John Muir (1838-1914) when it lobbed in by email today as this week's Library of America story of the week.Anyone who has been to the stunning Yosemite - or visited the peaceful Muir Woods north of San Francisco - will have heard of John Muir. Read the whole article in the August 1897 Atlantic. Relating how the ever-increasing horde of settlers had poured across the continent, Muir writes: " with no eye to the future, these pious destroyers waged interminable forest wars; chips flew thick and fast, trees in their beauty fell crashing by the millions and the smoke of their burning has been rising to heaven more than 200 years . Every other civilized nation in the world has been compelled to care for its forests, and so must we if waste and destruction are not to go on to the bitter end." Muir emigrated from Scotland with his family to Wisconsin in 1849. > He shared his love of the outdoors through writing and inspired people to protect our country's wild places like Yosemite, Grand Canyon and Sequoia & King's Canyon . Muir's conservation efforts saved many forests and natural areas for all of us. About seventy million acres it still owns, enough for all the country, if wisely used. Nevertheless, under this act wealthy corporations have fraudulently obtained title to from ten thousand to twenty thousand acres or more. Few that fell trees plant them; nor would planting avail much towards getting back anything like the noble primeval forests. My Account | On the other hand, about one half of the fifty million francs spent on forestry has been given to engineering works, to make the replanting of denuded areas possible. They cannot run away; and if they could, they would still be destroyed, chased and hunted down as long as fun or a dollar could be got out of their bark hides, branching horns, or magnificent bole backbones. It took more than three thousand years to make some of the trees in these Western woods, trees that are still standing in perfect strength and beauty, waving and singing in the mighty forests of the Sierra. Through his book Travels in Alaska, I learned about the formation of Glacier Bay and Muir's exploration of that twinned body of water I called home for two summers. Shirley Sargent. After the destructive 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, the decision was made to dam the valley to provide the recovering city with clean water. The Pantheon Press, Nashville, Tennessee, 1959. John Muir: A Reading Bibliography by Kimes This can be in the form of setting aside tracts of land for protection from hunting or urban development, or it can take the form of using less resources such as . Muir believes the forests must have been a delight to God, for "they were the best he ever planted" (145). Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Muir Woods National Monument, Download the official NPS app before your next visit. As a boy, Muir was "fond of everything that was wild" (My Boyhood and Youth 30) and took great pleasure in the outdoors. As the title suggests, this essay is a study of the glaciers found in the region of the ensuing Yosemite National Park. During the course of his political term, Roosevelt set aside 148 million acres of forest reserves, created 50 regions for the protection of wildlife, founded 16 national monuments and established 5 new national parks. The redwood is restricted to the Coast Range, and the big tree to the Sierra. In particular, from our Earth-based vantage point, we are keen to know where the closest life to us is, and how similar it might be to life on our home planet. 234, Muir describes the beauty of trees in the many varied regions across America as "they appeared a few centuries ago when they were rejoicing in wildness." Aldo Leopold, Thinking Like a Mountain. Restless to explore more of the country, he left school for what he would call "the University of the Wilderness. The American Forests by John Muir (1901) . But not one denuded acre in a hundred is allowed to raise a new forest growth. you may Download the file to your hard drive. No traveler, whether a tree lover or not, will ever forget his first walk in a sugar-pine forest. John Muir Papers John Muir. Still, the species is not in danger of extinction. Visit the parks associated with John Muir! The conservation/preservation battle first played on the Author: SAISD Created Date: 06/16/2016 20:10:00 Last modified by: SAISD An extension of this law by the passage of the act of March 2, 1831, provided that if any person should cut live-oak or red cedar trees or other timber from the lands of the United States for any other purpose than the construction of the navy, such person should pay a fine not less than triple the value of the timber cut, and be imprisoned for a period not exceeding twelve months. The sprouts from the roots and stumps are cut off again and again, with zealous concern as to the best time and method of making death sure. He played a significant role in preserving and protecting important areas of our country. John Muir. Here, in The Mountains of California, is the first time the phrase Range . Type the abstract of the document here. The settlement laws, under which a settler may enter lands valuable for timber as well as for agriculture, furnish another means of obtaining title to public timber. It has been planted and is flourishing over a great part of Europe, and magnificent sections of the aboriginal forests have been reserved as national and state parks, the Mariposa Sequoia Grove, near Yosemite, managed by the State of California, and the General Grant and Sequoia national parks on the Kings, the Kaweah, and Tule rivers, efficiently guarded by a small troop of United States cavalry under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior. In the nature of things they had to give place to better cattle, though the change might have been made without barbarous wickedness. John Muir was born on April 21, 1838 in the small rural town of Dunbar, Scotland. The effect of the present confused, discriminating, and unjust system has been to place almost the whole population in opposition to the government; and as conclusive of its futility, as shown by Mr. Bowers, we need only state that during the seven years from 1881 to 1887 inclusive the value of the timber reported stolen from the government lands was $36,719,935, and the amount recovered was $478,073, while the cost of the services of special agents alone was $455,000, to which must be added the expense of the trials. Every train rolls on through dismal smoke and barbarous melancholy ruins; and the companies might well cry in their advertisements: Come! Even in Congress, a sizable chunk of gold, carefully concealed, will outtalk and outfight all the nation on a subject like forestry, well smothered in ignorance, and in which the money interests of only a few are conspicuously involved. Through all the wonderful, eventful centuries since Christs time and long before that God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand straining, leveling tempests and floods; but he cannot save them from fools, only Uncle Sam can do that. Even Japan is ahead of us in the management of her forests. These two sequoias are all that are known to exist in the world, though in former geological times the genus was common and had many species. President Theodore Roosevelt & John Muir. After the Atlantic coast from Maine to Georgia had been mostly cleared and scorched into melancholy ruins, the overflowing multitude of bread and money seekers poured over the Alleghanies into the fertile middle West, spreading ruthless devastation ever wider and farther over the rich valley of the Mississippi and the vast shadowy pine region about the Great Lakes. Tule Joe made five hundred dollars last winter on mallard and teal. 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