Back in 1913 there was a war going on that is still raging today.
It was not the start of World War I, or the Balkan Wars, but the war over Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite Park.
It was the war between John Muir and Gifford Pinchot.
John Muir was the romantic environmentalist (preservationist). Gifford Pinchot was the progressive environmentalist (conservationist).
With John Muir, nature was his sanctuary, his refuge. It was his escape from the ravages of industrialization. To impinge upon nature was to him blasphemy. For him, going to the mountains was going home. He said:
In God’s wilderness lies the hope of the world.
Then there was Gifford Pinchot, adviser to President Roosevelt, whose famous line was “the greatest good for the greatest number of people for the longest time.” He too valued nature, but in a different way than John Muir. To oversimplify, nature was for the good of man. He said:
Conservation means the wise use of the earth and its resources for the lasting good of men.
and
The earth and its resources belong of right to its people.
These two men usually get caricatured. One is the villain, while the other is sitting on a cloud with a halo in their hands.
But although they had their differences, they agreed about a good deal. John Muir did not think every wilderness landscape should be protected by the government from human corruption. He believed in “not blind opposition to progress, but opposition to blind progress.” Pinchot also strongly believed in the preservation of nature. He was a champion for National Parks, but his buck would stop when the general welfare of the people came into play.
I think we as Christians need to have an opinion about these matters. And maybe, we have vested interests in both men.
With Pinchot, we can relish in his elevation of mankind above nature. With Muir, we can grasp firmly his reckless love for nature in itself.
Muir certainly spiritualized nature in a way I am uncomfortable with. But something stirs within me when he says:
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.
In the end Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite Park was damned up for water supply for those living in San Francisco. John Muir died feeling he had lost.
But without John Muir, the unadulterated National Parks would not be able to be gloried in by you and your children’s children.
