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Show 306. THINKING LIKE A FOREST He had visited the southern Sierra in the summer of 1873, when he followed the Kings River Canyon and climbed Mount Whitney. Several months after he wrote "Wild Wool" he returned to this area with an altogether different perspective. First, he guided a couple of men through the region and led them to the summit of Mount Whitney. During this excursion he began to use his influence with the San Francisco Bulletin, sending letters which documented the destruction of the forests and meadows. He met woodsmen who were proud of felling a giant Sequoia. He read a notice posted by "land grabbers" who claimed the valley of the South Fork of the Kings River for raising stock. He advised his readers to "visit the valley at once while it remains in primeval order." He announced that . . . all the destructible beauty of this remote Yosemite is doomed to perish like that of its neighbors, and our tame law-loving citizens plant and water their garden daisies without concern wholly unconscious of loss. But this was only the beginning of his rhetoric. He now knew that he would have to make rapid progress in his own writing if he were even to keep up with the destruction that was going on in the Sierra. He feared most for the Sequoias, and set out again in September to inventory the groves. He was alone. It was typical of him that he would accumulate the necessary data first - though not slowly this time - and present a careful |