John Muir

John Muir loved plants. He loved their individual microscopic parts. He loved each one's totality. He understood their essential role in the vast, interconnected web that forms the fabric of our natural universe. Extinguish even the most seemingly minor plant, he wrote, and the fabric starts to unravel. Muir (1838-1914) is best known as an environmental activist, a founder of the Sierra Club and arguably America's earliest and most effective conservationist.

The rangy young hiker trudged along the narrow shoulder of Pacheco Pass. Trucks clanked loudly by, close enough to make his baggy pant legs flap in their wake. Grit blew. Trash swirled. And the smells! Car exhaust. Smoking tires. Overheated clutches. When you walk in John Muir's footsteps, it's not supposed to be like this.

The documentary filmmaker Ken Burns has a story he clearly loves to tell. He was walking in New York City a few years ago -- on a date -- when he heard a man he'd just passed yell violently back at him: "What about Mingus?!" Preceding the name of the protean jazz bassist was a pungent (and unprintable) expletive. Burns turned to his date and reassured her. "It's just about 'Jazz,' " he said, referring to his 10-part history shown on PBS in 2001, which drew big audiences and critics' complaints that he overlooked key figures.

Re "On Earth Day, think Thoreau," Opinion, April 22 On Earth Day, we ought to remember John Muir as well as Henry David Thoreau, and not allow ourselves to be misled by false issues of local versus federal government. Thoreau was more concerned with limiting government, both local and federal, than he was with making use of its power. Muir, like Thoreau, spent much time in the woods; unlike Thoreau, however, he took his love of the forests, mountains and meadows to Washington and persuaded Theodore Roosevelt to camp with him in the Sierra.

Glaciers advance and retreat, but the joie d'esprit of John Muir is eternal. Anyone who today hikes the Sierra Nevada -- or, for that matter, their own special wild place -- is honoring Muir's environmental activist legacy. To Muir, sequoias were God's great spires, spruce groves all-season cathedrals and mountains his wayward home. Not only did Muir write with the poetic authority of Thoreau, but he also joined the U.S. Forestry Commission, offering practical land management.

Stunning is the only word to describe Richard Long's photo and the accompanying text ("Donner Pass Circle," by Colin Westerbeck, Photo Synthesis, March 5). Responsible visitors to the backcountry observe and promote an outdoor ethic that emphasizes minimizing the impact of human visitation. Long's defacing of remote places to indulge his personal sense of the artistic is bad enough, but leaving such scars "for the weather or other walkers to undo" is unconscionable. How different are Long's actions from those of another self-described "artist" who would leave, in the form of graffiti, his inspiration "for others to undo" on the walls of a synagogue, mosque or church?

After nearly a century, John Muir is back. He has trimmed his beard and doesn't spar with the president. But he is still angry about the Hetch Hetchy dam and would like to see wilderness protection for more of the Sierra countryside near his beloved Yosemite National Park. And though the original Muir was content to harangue the politicians, his double has joined their ranks.

Here's a tougher challenge than scaling Half Dome: Ring up the president of the United States and invite him to go camping in Yosemite -- with the sole intent of pestering him to protect the wilderness. That's pretty much what John Muir did in 1903, when he and Teddy Roosevelt took off on mules with only a packer and a cook on a four-day trip from Yosemite Valley to Glacier Point.

"Stickeen: John Muir and the Brave Little Dog" by John Muir as retold by Donnell Rubay This book is about a puppy named Stickeen who goes with John Muir to the mountains of Alaska. John Muir is an explorer. Stickeen is brave and always follows John Muir. He and Stickeen are in great danger but Stickeen never gives up. He always takes a chance. I liked this story because you can learn about John Muir. You can also learn some new words about mountains.