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Show 303. the forests of the Sierra at an amazing rate. Muir had argued well that Man's attempt to redeem Nature to his own uses was doomed to failure, but men in the woods did not seem to be involved in any kind of moral quest at all. They were not farmers but rapists, and if they attempted to justify themselves, they scarcely covered their greed with the rationalization that Nature' s day was over in any case. When he began to write about the forests, the Sequoia forests in particular, Muir attempted to demonstrate that Nature's realm was self-perpetuating and worth protecting. Men needed forests for water, lumber, and more. Their health depended on the well-being of an entire community of life. Muir's thinking about Sierran forests began with theories Marsh had argued, but also included themes which would be worked out in theoretical detail during the next twenty years by men like Merriam, Clements, and Warming. He was creating an ecological model of the Sierran forests at least fifteen years before such models were introduced as scientific theory in the 1890's, yet he has rarely been recognized as a pioneer ecologist because he spoke of forests in such personal terms. When he saw the impending destruction of the Sierran forests and meadows, it was a personal tragedy for him. This is the nature of ecological conscience. Late in the seventies he dramatized the kind of conversion he had undergone when he discovered that his own sacred places were being desecrated. It was a surprisingly personal revelation, |