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JohnMuirIntroductionandOverview.pptx

John Muir 1838-1914

John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions. His activism helped to save the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. One of the most well-known hiking trails in the U.S., the 211-mile John Muir Trail, was named in his honor. Other places named in his honor are Muir Woods National Monument, Muir Beach, John Muir College, Camp Muir and Muir Glacier. In his later life, Muir devoted most of his time to the preservation of the Western forests. He petitioned the U.S. Congress for the National Park Bill that was passed in 1899, establishing both Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. Because of the spiritual quality and enthusiasm toward nature expressed in his writings, he was able to inspire readers, including presidents and congressmen, to take action to help preserve large nature areas. He is today referred to as the "Father of the National Parks," and the National Parks Service produced a short documentary on his life. (source: http:// www.goodreads.com/author/show/5297.John_Muir)

This next mini-lecture is about John Muir. Basically, in the first part of this presentation I’ve gathered some useful quotes which assess Muir’s legacy and describe his contributions to American ecology and society, as both a nature writer and an early environmentalist. Please review this presentation in accordance with these readings by Muir, about the National Parks system and the Hetch Hetchy reservoir that are in your textbook. Please read the brief passages in these first few slides which will hopefully give you an overview of Muir’s importance as a pioneering preservationist.

John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, have been read by millions. His activism helped to save the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. One of the most well-known hiking trails in the U.S., the 211-mile John Muir Trail, was named in his honor. Other places named in his honor are Muir Woods National Monument, Muir Beach, John Muir College, Camp Muir and Muir Glacier. In his later life, Muir devoted most of his time to the preservation of the Western forests. He petitioned the U.S. Congress for the National Park Bill that was passed in 1899, establishing both Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. Because of the spiritual quality and enthusiasm toward nature expressed in his writings, he was able to inspire readers, including presidents and congressmen, to take action to help preserve large nature areas. He is today referred to as the "Father of the National Parks," and the National Parks Service produced a short documentary on his life.

John Muir, American Romanticist:

“Wild country, according to Muir, had a mystical ability to inspire and refresh. ‘Climb the mountains and get their good tidings,’ he advised. ‘Nature’s peace will flow into you as the sunshine into the trees. The winds will blow their freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.’ Wilderness was medicinal to lives ‘bound by clocks, almanacs…and dust and din’ and limited to places where ‘Nature is covered and her voice smothered.’ Furthermore, following Thoreau, Muir argued that great poetry and philosophy depended on contact with mountains and forests. For these reasons he concluded, in a near-plagiarism of Thoreau: ‘in God’s wildness lies the hope of the world—the great fresh, unblighted, unredeemed wilderness.’” (source: Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, p. 128)

Basically, Muir lived by the principle that nature elevated the human spirit, and so being outside in the natural world served a morally and spiritually elevating purpose for humankind.

John Muir vs. Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946): Preservation vs. Conservation Contrasting ideas about purpose of National Parks

“A common enemy united the early conservationists. But they soon realized that as wide differences existed within their own house as between it and the exploiters. Men who thought they were colleagues found themselves opponents. The schism ran between those who defined conservation as the wise use or planned development of resources and those who have been termed preservationists, with their rejection of utilitarianism and advocacy of nature unaltered by man. Juxtaposing the needs of civilization with the spiritual and aesthetic value of wilderness, the conservation issue extended the old dialogue between pioneers and Romantics.”

(source: Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, p. 129).

Basically, Muir lived by the principle that nature elevated the human spirit, and so being outside in the natural world served a morally and spiritually elevating purpose for humankind.

(source: Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, p. 128)

Preservation vs. Conservation: the growing rift

“At the outset John Muir and his followers tried to keep a foot in both camps, recognizing the claims of both wilderness and civilization to the American landscape. In theory this was possible. But the pressure of making decisions about specific tracts of undeveloped land forced ambivalence into dogmatism. After a period of vacillation and confusion, Muir ended, inevitably, by opting for the preservationist interpretation of conservation, while others followed Gifford Pinchot and the professional foresters into the ‘wise use’ school. The resulting conflict in the American conservation movement, still prevalent today, had profound implications for wilderness.” (Nash, Wilderness, p. 129-130).

One of Muir’s early associates and later rivals was Gifford Pinchot, who represented the conservationist viewpoint most fully. Pinchot believed in a policy of “sensible use,” realizing that nature held resources that were of potential benefit to humankind and that would serve human needs. This abstract debate assumed practical form in the debate over California’s Hetch Hetchy Valley, which resided just within the newly-established Yosemite National Park.

The Hetch Hetchy Valley

“Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man” (John Muir, Sierra Club Spokesman, 1908).

In what is arguably America’s first “environmentalist” debate, the future of the City of San Francisco was at stake as officials debated over whether to build a dam across the Hetch Hetchy valley to create a water source for San Francisco, which was rebuilding after being devastated by the 1906 earthquake.

“Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man” (John Muir, Sierra Club Spokesman, 1908).

The Hetch Hetchy Reservior Project

1906: Proposed

1908: Rights Granted

1913: Signed into law (Raker Act)

1914: Construction begun

1919: O’Schaughnessey dam begun

1923: Dam completed

1934: First water delivered to City of San Francisco

The Future: Restore Hetch Hetchy Valley? See: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_21662101/hetch-hetchy-controversy-could-yosemites-second-valley-be

Here’s the sequence of events that led to the construction of the O’Schaughnessey Dam which enclosed the Hetch Hetchy valley. Notice the last point. Given California’s ongoing water problems and the growing obsolescence of the Hetch Hetchy dam, today’s journalists and policy makers have floated the possibility of tearing down the dam in an attempt to restore the valley. This debate will surely intensify as the conflict over water use in California proceeds as a result of ongoing droughts.