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. Everyone needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike - John Muir, 1869. 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. 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. (Boston, 1901), chapter 10, "The American Forests." Originally published as John Muir, "The American Forests," Atlantic Monthly 80 (August 1897): 145-57. Have you ever wondered why your favorite National Park is surrounded by a National Forest? Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Muir Woods National Monument, Download the official NPS app before your next visit. Trees go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far! 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. They went to the woods to escape aspects of. But light is surely coming, and the friends of destruction will preach and bewail in vain. This book deals with both of these key issues. Muir, John, "The American Forests" (1897). John Muir (1838 - 1914) was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. During his lengthy wanderings, Muir contemplated man's relationship to nature. Home 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." 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. 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. Listen to the trailer for Holy Week. In their natural condition, or under wise management, keeping out destructive sheep, preventing fires, selecting the trees that should be cut for lumber, and preserving the young ones and the shrubs and sod of herbaceous vegetation, these forests would be a never failing fountain of wealth and beauty. Nevertheless the Andes and the South American forests continued to fascinate his imagination, as his letters show, for many years after he came to California. 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 great forests of Northern United States captivated him and fueled . Through all the wonderful, eventful centuries since Christ's 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.''. 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. Chapter 2: How is Sustainability a Political Issue? Muir ended his life living in the care of his Chinese employees. Muir believes the forests must have been a delight to God, for "they were the best he ever planted" (145). Read more from, Butterfield & Co.: In Two Parts. Let them be welcomed still as nature welcomes them, to the woods as well as to the prairies and plains. The Russian government passed a law in 1888, declaring that clearing is forbidden in protection forests, and is allowed in others only when its effects will not be to disturb the suitable relations which should exist between forest and agricultural lands.. John Muir Papers Then he goes to work sawing and splitting for the market, tying the shakes in bundles of fifty or a hundred. John Muir, in The American Forests, speaks fondly of the American forests, calling them the "glory of the world." He discusses the genera of each coast, and describes the vast diversity between species, size, and some wildlife. Now it is plain that the forests are not inexhaustible, and that quick measures must be taken if ruin is to be avoided. It is the citizens of this country who are robbing from and destroying the beautiful forest. I suppose we need not go mourning the buffaloes. 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. In 1913, Congress passed a law that approved the construction of the dam in Hetch Hetchy Valley. Every tree heard the bodeful sound, and pillars of smoke gave the sign in the sky. But, busied with tariffs, etc., Congress has given no heed to these or other appeals, and our forests, the most valuable and the most destructible of all the natural resources of the country, are being robbed and burned more rapidly than ever. Thus, the prospector, the miner, and mining and railroad companies are allowed by law to take all the timber they like for their mines and roads, and the forbidden settler, if there are no mineral lands near his farm or stock-ranch, or none that he knows of, can hardly be expected to forbear taking what he needs wherever he can find it. not unlike those which confront us now. See also: no. To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately, 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. 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. Poem About Beauty Of Forest And Trees Naturalist John Muir and my love of trees inspired this poem. At university, Muir focused his studies on chemistry, geology and botany. One of the reasons why John Muir and other naturalists would have believed that the grandeur of Western America was shaped entirely by natural forces is that they had no idea how many Native. President Theodore Roosevelt was one of the most powerful voices in the history of American conservation. The redwood is one of the few conifers that sprout from the stump and roots, and it declares itself willing to begin immediately to repair the damage of the lumberman and also that of the forest-burner. Timber is as necessary as bread, and no scheme of management failing to recognize and properly provide for this want can possibly be maintained. The redwood is restricted to the Coast Range, and the big tree to the Sierra. Likewise many of natures five hundred kinds of wild trees had to make way for orchards and cornfields. From poetry, novels, and memoirs to journalism, crime writing, and science fiction, the more than 300 volumes published by Library of America are widely . The disappearance of the forests in the first place, it is claimed, may be traced in most cases directly to mountain pasturage. The ground will be glad to feed them, and the pines will come down from the mountains for their homes as willingly as the cedars came from Lebanon for Solomons temple. 357-[393]. Even the fires of the Indians and the fierce shattering lightning seemed to work together only for good in clearing spots here and there for smooth garden prairies, and openings for sunflowers seeking the light. 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. Lerner Publications Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1992. The blackness is perfect. So we confidently believe it will be with our great national parks and forest reservations. Ours is the blackest. 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. 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. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. After several legal battles, Congress established Yosemite National Park in 1890 in order to protect thousands of acres of forest land from further destruction. 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,. 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 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. 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. Uncle Sam is not often called a fool is business matters, yet he had sold millions of acres of timber land at two dollars and a half an acre on which a single tree was worth more than a hundred dollars. University Libraries Under these circumstances, the bawling, blethering oratorical stuff drowns the voice of God himself. 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 . The volume is from the press of Houghton . 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. 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. A leaf, a flower, a stone - the simple beauty of nature filled John Muir with joy. They buy no land, pay no taxes, dwell in a paradise with no forbidding angel either from Washington or from heaven. 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 wonderful advance made in the last few years, in creating four national parks in the West, and thirty forest reservations, embracing nearly forty million acres; and in the planting of the borders of streets and highways and spacious parks in all the great cities, to satisfy the natural taste and hunger for landscape beauty and righteousness that God has put, in some measure, into every human being and animal, shows the trend of awakening public opinion. Of course a way had to be cleared through the woods. No traveler, whether a tree lover or not, will ever forget his first walk in a sugar-pine forest. Flying Spur Press, Yosemite, California. 237, pp. Each article originally printed in this magazine is available here, complete and unedited from the historical print. Conservation generally refers to the act of consciously and efficiently using land and/or its natural resources. The axe is not yet at the root of every tree, but the sheep is, or was before the national parks were established and guarded by the military, the only effective and reliable arm of the government free from the blight of politics. Railroad tracks were just . John W. Winkley, M.A., D.D. Publisher's Summary During the past twenty-five years, North American forestry has received increasingly vigorous scrutiny.
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