A Tale of Two

A Tale of Two❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖“When we try to Seeing the Light country, Muir had a spiritualpick out anything by conversion. “Everybody needsitself, we find it hitched Muir was born in Scotland beauty as well as bread,” he wrote,to everything else in the and raised on a farm in “places to play and pray in, whereUniverse.” Wisconsin. John and his nature may heal and give strength younger brother, David, looked to the body and soul.” He began to—John Muir (1838-1914) forward to rare occasions when they see every rock, plant, and creature could explore the countryside. “Keep as a thread in nature’s fabric—a❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ close to nature’s heart and break delicate tapestry that could easily clear away once in a while,” he be unraveled by man’s abuse of“The land is one would write in his journal, using ink the land and its wildlife. In the lateorganism. Its parts, like made from the cones of Sequoiaour own parts, compete trees. “Climb a mountain or spend a 1800s, America beganwith each other and week in the woods. paying a high price for itscooperate with Wash your spirit westward expansion.each other.” clean.” Because of overgrazing by herds of farm animals,—Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) Muir had little reckless hunting by fur formal education, but trappers, and unregulatedThese quotes represent the read a lot on his own, tree harvesting by thethinking of two of the greatest which helped him in timber barons, much ofpioneers in the American his studies to become our landscape andconservation movement. John an inventor. To avoid wildlife were beingMuir was founder of the Sierra being drafted into the destroyed.Club and father of the National Civil War—he said heParks System. Aldo Leopold valued all forms of life Muir’s passion forwas cofounder of The too much to kill, even nature and for protectingWilderness Society and father in war—the lanky, it made him a celebratedof ecology—the study of the bearded young man spent several champion of the wilderness. Hisinteractions between organisms years hiking through the woods of efforts and writings led to theand their environment. Although southern Ontario in Canada. While creation of the National Parksthe two men grew up a working at a factory, Muir suffered System, the U.S. Forest Service,generation apart and led very an injury that left him blind in both and the preservation of millions ofdifferent lives, they came to eyes. But after several weeks in the acres of land. More than 200share the same basic view: hospital he unexpectedly regained natural wonders, including aPeople are part of the natural his sight. From that moment on, he glacier he discovered in Alaska, areworld, not the center of it. was determined to enjoy the gift of named in his honor. But his the great outdoors. Carrying only greatest legacy is the idea that tea, oatmeal, and bread, he set out nature is an integrated whole— on a 1000-mile journey to the Gulf that the land and its creatures of Mexico. must be preserved for people to survive on Earth. Later, in the majestic mountains of California’s Yosemite highDISCOVERY EDUCATION SCIENCE CONNECTION

Visionaries❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖Understanding Nature’s Gift Aldo LeopoldAldo Leopold came to be the where fires burned freely John Muir of his without any permanent generation. He was raised damage to the land, andon the bluffs of the Mississippi where deer actually thrivedRiver near Burlington, Iowa, a among their predators. “Iplace that provided a wonderland first clearly realized,” heof wildlife. Like Muir, as a young wrote after seeing this, “thatboy Leopold had found joy in land is an organism.” Leopoldexploring the wilderness, began to challenge theparticularly in hunting. Yet unlike custom of controlling forestMuir, Leopold was formally fires. He argued that thistrained as a scientist. He earned an strategy did more harm thanadvanced degree in forestry and good because it alteredjoined the U.S. Forest Service. grazing patterns and increased erosion. While shooting wolves one day,he fired into a pack, later finding a Leopold believed that itdying mother and her wounded was not enough to simplycub. As he watched “the fierce leave the land alone. Peoplegreen fire die in her eyes,” he said had ravaged it, he reasoned,he suddenly discovered “something so it was up to people to restore andknown only to her and the protect it. But he also understoodmountain.” From that day forward, the challenges of preserving naturehis view of hunting changed. He in modern society. “All conservationno longer saw it as a sport, but as a is self-defeating,” he said sadly, “fordisrespectful act to nature. Yet he to cherish we must see and fondle,did not believe that hunting and when we have seen and fondled,should be controlled. “Game there is no wilderness left to cherish.conservation will never succeed We shall never achieve perfectmerely through repressive laws,” he harmony with land, any more thaninsisted. “It must be founded on a we shall ever achieve absolute justicerespect for living things.” or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations, the important thing is There were two other not to achieve, but to strive.”experiences that helped shapeLeopold’s ideas about GREAT OUTDOORS Take a trip to your favorite nearby outdoorconservation. In Germany hewitnessed a wilderness so spot. Make a journal entry of all the natural things you see thereartificially “managed” that it was and ways in which it could be improved or preserved. What makesno longer wild—“deprived of all this spot special? What would happen to the trees, grass, animals,exuberance.” In northern Mexico water, or land if someone decided to build on this spot?he saw the opposite—a region DISCOVERY EDUCATION SCIENCE CONNECTION