John Muir Wilderness

Wilderness or Nature as many generations have called it. Has been a great source of resource and caused many great dilemmas throw-out time. We have to realize many people have different mentalities and we will not always agree. The three readings point out how many ideologies, religion, beliefs, and necessity can cause the destruction of wilderness. John Muir had a great amount of passion for the environment. His beliefs where that nature is a temple, God created it and we should embrace it, love it and take care of it. As for Gifford Pinchot He believed that humans have the right to use up the resources as we stand at the top of the food chain. Of course we were meant to use them responsibly. Despite that he created the most amount of protection

Muir made a promise to God, that if he were to gain his sight back he would devote himself to his creations. When he regained his sight after a month, Muir decided to devote himself to the conservation of land and forests. At that time he began his wanderlust. He walked 1,000 miles from Indianapolis to the Gulf of Mexico, crossed to Cuba and then to Panama, crossed the isthmus and sailed boat on the west coast, arriving in San Francisco in March 1868. Since then, although travel around the world, California became his favorite ground. The mountains of Sierra Nevada in California and Yosemite captivated him.

In 1880 he married Louie Wanda Strentzel and moved to Martinez, California, where they raised their daughters, Wanda and Helen. Getting used to domestic life, Muir was associated with Louie’s father and led the family ranch and fruit production with great success. But ten years on the ranch did not exhaust his wanderlust. He traveled to Alaska many times and also to Australia, South America, Africa, Europe and of course back to his beloved Sierra

In 1901 Muir published Our National Parks, which caught the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1903 Roosevelt visited Muir in Yosemite; there, under the trees, together developed programs conservation of Roosevelt.

Muir and the Sierra Club fought many "battles" to protect Yosemite and Sierra Nevada. The most dramatic campaign was to prevent a dam at Hetch Hetchy Valley, part of Yosemite National Park. In 1913, within four months of years of struggle, they lost the battle and the dam flooded the valley to supply the city of San Francisco with water. The next year, after visiting his daughter in the Mojave Desert, Muir died in a hospital in Los Angeles.

John Muir was the most famous and influential naturalist and environmentalist from the United States. He taught us the importance of direct experience and nature protection. His words increase our perception of the world of nature. His life is an inspiration to environmentalists