A dynamic examination that traces the lives of two of the most
influential figures--and their dueling approaches--on America's natural
landscape.
John Muir, the most famous naturalist in American history, protected
Yosemite, co-founded the Sierra Club, and is sometimes called the Father
of the National Parks. A poor immigrant, self-taught, individualistic,
and skeptical of institutions, his idealistic belief in the spiritual
benefits of holistic natural systems led him to a philosophy of
preserving wilderness unimpaired.
Gifford Pinchot founded the U.S. Forest Service and advised his friend
Theodore Roosevelt on environmental policy. Raised in wealth, educated
in privilege, and interested in how institutions and community can
overcome failures in individual virtue, Pinchot's pragmatic belief in
professional management led him to a philosophy of sustainably
conserving natural resources.
When these rivaling perspectives meet, what happens? For decades, the
story of their relationship has been told as a split between the
conservation and preservation philosophies, sparked by a proposal to dam
a remote Yosemite valley called Hetch Hetchy. But a decade before that
argument, Muir and Pinchot camped together alongside Montana's
jewel-like Lake McDonald in, which was at the heart of a region not yet
consecrated as Glacier National Park.
At stake in 1896 was the new idea that some landscapes should be
collectively, permanently owned by a democratic government. Although
many people today think of public lands as an American birthright, their
very existence was then in doubt, and dependent on a merger of the
talents of these two men. Natural Rivals examines a time of
environmental threat and political dysfunction not unlike our own, and
reveals the complex dynamic that gave birth to America's rich public
lands legacy.
