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Show 318. A MAN'S ROLE IN NATURAL HISTORY All three a r t i c l e s about the Sequoia f o r e s t argued that Man had r a d i c a l l y d i s r u p t e d the n a t u r a l community of the f o r e s t; "unfortunately man i s in the woods, and waste and pure d e s t r u c t i on are already making r a p i d headway." Muir could p r i o r i t i z e the seriousness of v a r i o u s methods of d e s t r u c t i o n men used. Indians set fires to "improve" deer h u n t i n g , but t h e i r f i r e s were l e ss frequent than those of the "muttoneers" who t r i e d to burn over the range each f a l l in order to "improve" i t . The Sequoias were f i r e - r e s i s t a n t , but r e p e a t e d burning and the added fuel left by the s l a s h of lumbering o p e r a t i o n s became f i n a l l y too much for them t o w i t h s t a n d . The combination of these factors was overwhelming. Neither could Muir understand the p o i n t l e s s and wasteful methods used by lumbermen. When a g i a n t Sequoia was f e l l e d, much of i t s h a t t e r e d i n t o u s e l e s s fragments. The long cycle of l i f e in the Sequoia f o r e s t - the almost e t e r n a l l i f e span of the Sequoia i t s e l f - would make even modern plans such as tree farming absurd and simple-minded. The l o g g e r ' s notion that a f o r e s t a t t a i n e d r i p e n e s s and then tended toward " s e n i l i t y" was simply not the t r u t h . Climax was a s t a t e of dynamic renewal. Sequoias were thousands of years old, but even the highly marketable lumber of the sugar pine came from t r e e s which were hundreds of years o l d . These f o r e s t s could never be |