Thus, with abundance of fuel, shelter and comfort by his own fireside are secured. Many of the miners find that timber is already becoming scarce and dear on the denuded hills around their mills, and they too are asking for protection of forests, at least against fire. HASC - Digital Archives -John Muir The forests of America, however slighted by man, must have been a great delight to God; for they were the best he ever planted. Theres always a market for bear grease, and sometimes you can sell the hams. Visit the parks associated with John Muir! And you are your own boss in my business, too, if the bears aint too big and too many for you. But not one denuded acre in a hundred is allowed to raise a new forest growth. Railroad tracks were just . An exception would seem to be found in the case of our forests, which have been mismanaged rather long, and now come desperately near being like smashed eggs and spilt milk. Every tree heard the bodeful sound, and pillars of smoke gave the sign in the sky. So we confidently believe it will be with our great national parks and forest reservations. Theres big money in it, and your grub costs nothing. 1) The Sierra Nevada. the glory of the world! Gold, gold, gold! During a mans life only saplings can be grown, in the place of the old trees tens of centuries old that have been destroyed. But as this groundbreaking book demonstrates, what Muir was really seeing when he admired the grand vistas of Yosemite and the gold and purple flowers carpeting the Central Valley were the fertile gardens of the Sierra Miwok and Valley . Not a mountain is left in the landscape. Any fool can destroy trees. Ginger Wadsworth. Now it is plain that the forests are not inexhaustible, and that quick measures must be taken if ruin is to be avoided. Nevertheless, under this act wealthy corporations have fraudulently obtained title to from ten thousand to twenty thousand acres or more. As he grew older, Muir became increasingly excited about what plants and nature could teach him. Flying Spur Press, Yosemite, California. Thoreau, when contemplating the destruction of the forests on the east side of the continent, said that soon the country would be so bald that every man would have to grow whiskers to hide its nakedness, but he thanked God that at least the sky was safe. And when he was tired wading in the sloughs and touched with rheumatiz, he just knocked off on ducks, and went to the Contra Costa hills for dove and quail. While in Alaska, I saw the loveliest forests and scenery I've ever seen. University of Northern Iowa UNI ScholarWorks Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate College 2016 Three men in the wilderness: Ideas and concepts of Armed with a plant-press and a blank notebook, Muir wandered for weeks at a time, through the mountains that would later be Yosemite National Park. Gigantic second and third growth trees are found in the redwoods, forming magnificent temple-like circles around charred ruins more than a thousand years old. The slow-going, un-thrifty farmers, also, are beginning to realize that when the timber is stripped from the mountains the irrigating streams dry up in summer, and are destructive in winter; that soil, scenery, and everything slips off with the trees: so of course they are coming into the ranks of tree-friends. Most notably, this was John Muir's first published essay (1871). All sorts of local laws and regulations have been tried and found wanting, and the costly lessons of our own experience, as well as that of every civilized nation, show conclusively that the fate of the remnant of our forests is in the hands of the federal government, and that if the remnant is to be saved at all, it must be saved quickly. It grows sturdily on all kinds of soil and rocks, and, protected by a mail of . Surely, then, it should not be wondered at that lovers of their country, bewailing its baldness, are now crying aloud, Save what is left of the forests! Clearing has surely now gone far enough; soon timber will be scarce, and not a grove will be left to rest in or pray in. The whole sky, with clouds, sun, moon, and stars, is simply blotted out. He was a strong voice in preserving the area known today as the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. Worn out from this devastating loss, Muir retreated from political life and spent his remaining years writing and spending time with his family.John Muir died in December, 1914. To Muir, these forests are a true creation by God himself--everlasting, plentiful, and can feed every man and . Listen to the trailer for Holy Week. 234. 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. To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately, In the administration of its forests, the state righteously considers itself bound to treat them as a trust for the nation as a whole, and to keep in view the common good of the people for all time. Still, in the long run the world does not move backward. As a child, he designed many inventions that would ease the familys work. About seventy million acres it still owns, enough for all the country, if wisely used. This first chapter is essentially an overview of the entire book. not unlike those which confront us now. American forests! He closes his long essay with his now-famous statements: "Any fool can destroy trees. His family did not have enough money to send him to school, so after completing his daily farm chores, Muir spent his spare time teaching himself algebra and geometry. Trees from ten to fifteen feet in diameter and three hundred feet high are not uncommon, and a few attain a height of three hundred and fifty feet, or even four hundred, with a diameter at the base of fifteen to twenty feet or more, while the ground beneath them is a garden of fresh, exuberant ferns, lilies, gaultheria, and rhododendron. A proprietor who has cleared his forest without permission is subject to heavy fine, and in addition may be made to replant the cleared area. John W. Winkley, M.A., D.D. In the clearings of one of the largest mills on the coast we found thirty men at work, last summer, cutting off redwood shoots in the dark of the moon, claiming that all the stumps and roots cleared at this auspicious time would send up no more shoots. These forests were composed of about five hundred species of trees, all of them in some way useful to man, ranging in size from twenty-five feet in height and less than one foot in diameter at the ground to four hundred feet in height and more than twenty feet in diameter, lordly monarchs proclaiming the gospel of beauty like apostles. University Libraries Let them be as free to pick gold and gems from the hills, to cut and hew, dig and plant, for homes and bread, as the birds are to pick berries from the wild bushes, and moss and leaves for nests. 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. Everybody on the dry side of the continent is beginning to find this out, and, in view of the waste going on, is growing more and more anxious for government protection. John Muir. 331-[365]; no. The whole continent was a garden, and from the beginning it seemed to be favored above all the other wild parks and gardens of the globe. It has been shown over and over again that if these mountains were to be stripped of their trees and underbrush, and kept bare and sodless by hordes of sheep and the innumerable fires the shepherds set, besides those of the millmen, prospectors, shake-makers, and all sorts of adventurers, both lowlands and mountains would speedily become little better than deserts, compared with their present beneficent fertility. In "The American Forests", John Muir's purpose is to reveal the disloyalty that Americans have towards their agriculture. John Muir (1838-1914) was born in Scotland and emigrated to Wisconsin as a young boy. (Boston, 1901), chapter 10, "The American Forests." Originally published as John Muir, "The American Forests," Atlantic Monthly 80 (August 1897): 145-57. NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window. By the act of June 3, 1878, timber can be taken from public lands not subject to entry under any existing laws except for minerals, by bona fide residents of the Rocky Mountain States and Territories and the Dakotas. He came to the San Francisco area in 1868 and there he discovered the Sierra Mountains. This paper looks at the roles that language had in the writings of John Muir, the father of American national parks and Gifford Pinchot, the father of American forest conservation. See also: no. The provisions of the code concerning private woodlands are substantially these: No private owner may clear his woodlands without giving notice to the government at least four months in advance, and the forest service may forbid the clearing on the following grounds: to maintain the soil on mountains, to defend the soil against erosion and flooding by rivers or torrents, to insure the existence of springs and watercourses, to protect the dunes and seashore, etc. In no other way than under some one of these laws can a citizen of the United States make any use of the public forests. Muir became politically active to protect Yosemite from being threatened by commercial developments. Few that fell trees plant them; nor would planting avail much towards getting back anything like the noble primeval forests. There was some virtuous effort made with a view to limit the operations of the act by requiring that the purchaser should make affidavit that he was entering the land exclusively for his own use, and by not allowing any association to enter more than one hundred and sixty acres. According to Muir, The trees are felled, and about half of each giant is left on the ground to be converted into smoke and ashes; the better half is sawed into choice lumber and sold to citizens of the United States or to foreigners . Listen to the trailer for. 1993. No traveler, whether a tree lover or not, will ever forget his first walk in a sugar-pine forest. In 1892, Muir and other private citizens banded together and established the Sierra Club to increase awareness about the potential destruction of the countrys wilderness. But this priceless land has been patented, and nothing can be done now about the crazy bargain. Upon this old law, as Mr. Bowers points out, having the construction of a wooden navy in view, the United States government has to-day chiefly to rely in protecting its timber throughout the arid regions of the West, where none of the naval timber which the law had in mind is to be found. The forest service does not rest satisfied with the present proportion of woodland, but looks to planting the best forest trees it can find in any country, if likely to be useful and to thrive in Japan. Accordingly, with no eye to the future, these pious destroyers waged interminable forest wars, 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 So far our government has done nothing effective with its forests, though the best in the world, but is like a rich and foolish spendthrift who has inherited a magnificent estate in perfect order, and then has left his rich fields and meadows, forests and parks, to be sold and plundered and wasted at will, depending on their inexhaustible abundance, Emerson says that things refuse to be mismanaged long. 2) Yosemite Glaciers. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada of California, have been read by millions. The great naturalist also visits the. They have so long been allowed to steal and destroy in peace that any impediment to forest robbery is denounced as a cruel and irreligious interference with vested rights, likely to endanger the repose of all ungodly welfare. Muir's nature was a pristine refuge from the city. John Muir was born on April 21, 1838 in the small rural town of Dunbar, Scotland. Of the total area of government forests, perhaps 70,000,000 acres, 55,000,000 acres have been brought under the control of the forestry department, a larger area than that of all our national parks and reservations. The forests of America, however slighted. The blackness is perfect. Any fool can destroy trees. My Account | 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. As a boy, Muir was "fond of everything that was wild" (My Boyhood and Youth 30) and took great pleasure in the outdoors. As for reservation and protection of forests, it seems as silly and needless to them as protection and reservation of the ocean would be; both appearing to be boundless and inexhaustible. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions. Muir believes the forests must have been a delight to God, for "they were the best he ever planted" (145). This book deals with both of these key issues. John Muir was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. Working in concert with many individuals and organizations, the Roosevelt administration was responsible for the following: the Newlands Act of 1902 . Abstract. He explains that "any fool can destroy trees" as "they cannot run away" (Muir, 2006, p. 364). In any case, it will be hard to teach the pioneers that it is wrong to steal government timber. The half dozen transcontinental railroad companies advertise the beauties of their lines in gorgeous many-colored folders, each claiming its as the scenic route. The route of superior desolation the smoke, dust, and ashes route would be a more truthful description. But the state woodlands are not allowed to lie idle. Enthralled by nature from a young age, Roosevelt cherished and promoted our nation's landscapes and wildlife. To show the results of the timber-planting act, it need only be stated that of the 38,000,000 acres entered under it, less than 1,000,000 acres have been patented. Surveyed thus from the east to the west, from the north to the south, they are rich beyond thought, immortal, immeasurable, enough and to spare for every feeding, sheltering beast and bird, insect and son of Adam; and nobody need have cared had there been no pines in Norway, no cedars and deodars on Lebanon and the Himalayas, no vine-clad selvas in the basin of the Amazon. Critics including the . Publisher's Summary During the past twenty-five years, North American forestry has received increasingly vigorous scrutiny. In crafting a sense of place for the forests, Muir is passively working his readers . Old grizzlies I despise, they want cannon to kill em; but the blacks and browns are beauties for grease, and when I get em just right, and draw a bead on em, I fetch em every time. Another said he was going to catch up a lot of mustangs as soon as the rains set in, hitch them to a gang-plough, and go to farming on the San Joaquin plains for wheat. Even Japan is ahead of us in the management of her forests. Have you ever wondered why your favorite National Park is surrounded by a National Forest? They buy no land, pay no taxes, dwell in a paradise with no forbidding angel either from Washington or from heaven. The making of the far-famed New York Central Park was opposed by even good men, with misguided pluck, perseverance, and ingenuity; but straight right won its way, and now that park is appreciated. A leaf, a flower, a stone - the simple beauty of nature filled John Muir with joy. But timber-thieves of the Western class are seldom convicted, for the good reason that most of the jurors who try such cases are themselves as guilty as those on trial. The American Forests In decrying the destruction of woodlands by loggers, settlers, and industrialists, Muir, the father of America's conservation movement, advanced the notion that. Muir fell in love with the immense beauty of the mountain landscape. John Muirthe surprise star of Ken Burns's recent PBS documentary, The National Parks is most remembered for founding the Sierra Club in 1911 and for the preservation of Yosemite, but another of his great legacies is his prose, which introduced a new vocabulary to the genre of nature writing. Sapling poles form the frame of the airy building, usually about six feet by eight in size, on which the shakes are nailed, with the edges overlapping. 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. For many a century after the ice-ploughs were melted, nature fed them and dressed them every day; working like a man, a loving, devoted, painstaking gardener; fingering every leaf and flower and mossy furrowed bole; bending, trimming, modeling, balancing, painting them with the loveliest colors; bringing over them now clouds with cooling shadows and showers, now sunshine; fanning them with gentle winds and rustling their leaves; exercising them in every fibre with storms, and pruning them; loading them with flowers and fruit, loading them with snow, and ever making them more beautiful as the years rolled by. 14 minutes. A Wind-Storm in the Forests. That a change from robbery and ruin to a permanent rational policy is urgently needed nobody with the slightest knowledge of American forests will deny. Twenty-First Century Books, New York, New York. Shirley Sargent. Timber is as necessary as bread, and no scheme of management failing to recognize and properly provide for this want can possibly be maintained. A Wind-Storm in the Forests. But light is surely coming, and the friends of destruction will preach and bewail in vain. 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. FAQ | President Teddy Roosevelt was profoundly influenced by Muir and the conservation movement. Notwithstanding all the waste and use which have been going on unchecked like a storm for more than two centuries, it is not yet too late, though it is high time, for the government to begin a rational administration of its forests. Then he advertises, in whatever way he can, that he has excellent sugar-pine shakes for sale, easy of access and cheap. The gigantea attains a greater girth, and is heavier, more noble in port, and more sublimely beautiful. 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. 1971. Muir constantly brings up the burning of the forests. Muir made extended journeys throughout America, observing both scientifically and enthusiastically the beauties of the wilderness. As is shown by Mr. E. A. Bowers, formerly Inspector of the Public Land Service, the foundation of our protective policy, which has never protected, is an act passed March 1, 1817, which authorized the Secretary of the Navy to reserve lands producing live-oak and cedar, for the sole purpose of supplying timber for the navy of the United States. 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