Sierra club john muir biography conservationist

The marriage brought him domestic happiness but did not prevent him from leaving home in between harvests to explore new wilderness, especially the coast of Alaska, where he pursued his interest in glaciers as agents of continuous geological change, a view that was controversial at the time. Muir immediately persuaded Johnson to decamp via train to Yosemite Valley, where the men marveled at the majestic mountains peaks and deplored the squalid valley community they encircled.

At the time, Yosemite was under the control of a California state commission.

Sierra club john muir biography conservationist: John Muir - farmer, inventor, sheepherder,

Johnson began urging Muir to write a series of articles for the Century that would persuade Congress to designate the area as a national park. In the meantime, others had been lobbying to protect the area, home to trees that predated the Christian era, a marvel that, once cut, could not soon be regrown. Those interested in promoting railway tourism supported the effort, as did lowland farmers who depended for irrigation on the Merced and Twolumne Rivers that flowed down from the area around Yosemite.

Although nearly two million acres of forested land were thus protected, the valley at the center remained under control of the California state commission. Politicians would be subject to lobbying by commercial interests. Indeed, the Sierra Club was soon lobbying Congress to defeat a proposal to reduce the acreage of Yosemite National Park.

The proposal, sprung from local business interests who were angry about the use of military patrols to protect the park from sheepherders and timber cutters, was defeated. Congress had voted to give the President authority to create national forest reserves inand Republican President Benjamin Harrison had soon thereafter used his power to set aside thirteen million acres.

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Sierra club john muir biography conservationist: Muir traveled extensively in North America,

Elton John. Ralph Fiennes. Daniel Day-Lewis. Maggie Smith. Alan Cumming. Olivia Colman. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter. Watch Next. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below. A series of articles titled "Studies in the Sierra," published inlaunched his successful career as a writer.

Sierra club john muir biography conservationist: John Muir was a

In he married Louie Wanda Strentzel and moved to Martinez, California, where they raised two daughters and managed a family fruit ranch. In Muir and his supporters founded the Sierra Club, with Muir serving as president. He also took more seriously to writing, publishing articles and 10 major books that recounted his travels and his developing philosophy of nature.

His series of articles in The Century Magazine drew attention to the devastation of mountain meadows and forests by sheep and cattle — and led, in large part, to the creation of Yosemite National Park. His book, Our National Parkspublished inattracted the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt who, after meeting Muir, began promoting a series of innovative conservation programs.

Muir and the Sierra Club fought many battles to protect Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada, including an ultimately futile battle to prevent the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley within Yosemite.