the american forests john muir summarythe american forests john muir summary

Lerner Publications Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1992. A Wind-Storm in the Forests. Read more from, Butterfield & Co.: In Two Parts. John Muir (1838-1914) was born in Scotland and emigrated to Wisconsin as a young boy. 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. 237, pp. John Muir was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. Ginger Wadsworth. With such variety, harmony, and triumphant exuberance, even nature, it would seem, might have rested content with the forests of North America, and planted no more. 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. 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. The great forests of Northern United States captivated him and fueled . In the nature of things they had to give place to better cattle, though the change might have been made without barbarous wickedness. As a boy, Muir was "fond of everything that was wild" (My Boyhood and Youth 30) and took great pleasure in the outdoors. Many of his ideas merely echoed the thoughts of earlier deists and Romantics, especially Thoreau, but he articu- lated them with an intensity and enthusiasm that commanded widespread attention. The conservation/preservation battle first played on the Likewise many of natures five hundred kinds of wild trees had to make way for orchards and cornfields. Once, in a company of this kind, I heard a man say, as he peacefully smoked his pipe: Boys, as soon as this jobs done Im goin into the duck business. Then he chops into one after another of the pines, until he finds one that he feels sure will split freely, cuts this down, saws off a section four feet long, splits it, and from this first cut, perhaps seven feet in diameter, he gets shakes enough for a cabin and its furniture, walls, roof, door, bedstead, table, and stool. The Forests of the Yosemite Park . The Arctic Refuge is a crucial refuge as it is one of the few left in the Arctic and around the world. At university, Muir focused his studies on chemistry, geology and botany. He was a strong voice in preserving the area known today as the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. Only the lower, perfectly clear, free-splitting portions of the giant pines are used, perhaps ten to twenty feet from a tree two hundred and fifty in height; all the rest is left a mass of ruins, to rot or to feed the forest fires, while thousands are hacked deeply and rejected in proving the grain. The big tree is also to come extent being made into lumber. With such variety, harmony, and triumphant exuberance, even nature, it would seem, might have rested content with the forests of North America, and planted no more. The sempervirens is certainly the taller of the two. Have you ever wondered why your favorite National Park is surrounded by a National Forest? John Muir was one of the country's most famous naturalist and conservationist and Muir Woods, part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, is named in his honor. Of all the destroyers that infest the woods the shake-maker seems the happiest. Tule Joe made five hundred dollars last winter on mallard and teal. The outcries we hear against forest reservations come mostly from thieves who are wealthy and steal timber by wholesale. 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. In "The American Forests", John Muir's purpose is to reveal the disloyalty that Americans have towards their agriculture. In one case which came under the observation of Mr. Bowers, it was the practice of a lumber company to hire the entire crew of every vessel which might happen to touch at any port in the redwood belt, to enter one hundred and sixty acres each and immediately deed the land to the company, in consideration of the company's paying all expenses and giving the jolly sailors fifty dollars apiece for their trouble. His family immigrated to America in 1849 and settled into farm life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions. My Account | Here the forests reached their highest development. In India systematic forest management was begun about forty years ago, under difficulties presented by the character of the country, the prevalence of running fires, opposition from lumbermen, settlers, etc. This excerpt from "The American Forests," was part of John Muir's 1897 campaign to save the American wilderness. These residual forests are generally on mountain slopes, just where they are doing the most good, and where their removal would be followed by the greatest number of evils; the lands they cover are too rocky and high for agriculture, and can never be made as valuable for any other crop as for the present crop of trees. 357-[393]. The legitimate demands on the forests that have passed into private ownership, as well as those in the hands of the government, are increasing every year with the rapid settlement and upbuilding of the country, but the methods of lumbering are as yet grossly wasteful. No traveler, whether a tree lover or not, will ever forget his first walk in a sugar-pine forest. 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. Merely what belongs to all alike is reserved, and every acre that is left should be held together under the federal government as a basis for a general policy of administration for the public good. Theres big money in it, and your grub costs nothing. 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. It seems, therefore, that almost every civilized nation can give us a lesson on the management and care of forests. And you are your own boss in my business, too, if the bears aint too big and too many for you. In its reading, one must keep in mind that compared with today, very little was known about glacial activity. They are invited to heaven, and may well be allowed in America. The prospector deliberately sets fires to clear off the woods just where they are densest, to lay the rocks bare and make the discovery of mines easier. Rachel Carson, The Obligation to Endure. Muir enumerates the forest regulations of the principal countries of the world, and then reviews the abuses this country has allowed, detailing the fraudulent methods used by the timber thieves to gain title to thousands of forested acres. Honest citizens see that only the rights of the government are being trampled, not those of the settlers. The blackness is perfect. It has, therefore, as shown by Mr. Pinchot, refused to deliver its forests to more or less speedy destruction by permitting them to pass into private ownership. Starting in the i87os, Muir made exploring wilderness and extoling its values a way of life. See All test questions. 14 minutes. With a cheap mustang or mule to carry a pair of blankets, a sack of flour, a few pounds of coffee, and an axe, a frow, and a cross-cut saw, the shake-maker ascends the mountains to the pine belt where it is most accessible, usually by some mine or mill road. He closes his long essay with his now-famous statements: "Any fool can destroy trees. T he Mountains of California, published in 1894, is John Muir's first book. Only by gift or purchase, so far as I know, can the government get back into its possession a single acre of this wonderful forest. Born April 21, 1838, Muir has become America's most famous naturalist and conservationist. 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. Chapter 2: How is Sustainability a Political Issue? 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. It is the citizens of this country who are robbing from and destroying the beautiful forest. It is not a book of forestry, but the forest is the most . 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. 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. On the contrary, all the brains, religion, and superstition of the neighborhood are brought into play to prevent a new growth. Hence they went wavering northward over icy Alaska, brave spruce and fir, poplar and birch, by the coasts and the rivers, to within sight of the Arctic Ocean. 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. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada of California, have been read by millions. 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. John Muir; At Home in the Wild. From an early age, Muir was fascinated by nature and was eager to learn about his environment. Our National Parks, by John Muir (1901, c. 1909) - The Writings of John Muir - John Muir Exhibit (John Muir Education Project, Sierra Club California) Our National Parks by John Muir Contents List of Illustrations Preface The Wild Parks and Forest Reservations of the West The Yellowstone National Park The Yosemite National Park The United States government has always been proud of the welcome it has extended to good men of every nation, seeking freedom and homes and bread. 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. Over nearly all of the more accessible slopes of the Sierra and Cascade mountains in southern Oregon, at a height of from three to six thousand feet above the sea, and for a distance of about six hundred miles, this waste and confusion extends. > 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. Of forests fascinated by nature and was eager to learn about his environment he a... Bears aint too big and too many for you a book of forestry, but the forest is the.. The nature of things they had to give place to better cattle, though change. 1894, is john Muir & # x27 ; s first book john Muir ( 1838-1914 ) born! Nation can give us a lesson on the contrary, all the,. 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