John Clayton
Sep 12, 20192 min
I started with Donald Worster’s great bio of John Muir https://amzn.to/2ye0j1A
Char Miller’s bio of Gifford Pinchot gave me the bones of the counterpoint for #NaturalRivals https://amzn.to/314hyz3
The #NaturalRivals Muir and Pinchot shaped American public lands. Here’s a catalog of those lands: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42346.pdf
The #NaturalRivals Muir and Pinchot are relevant today because the official 2016 Republican party platform was to “convey certain federally controlled public lands to states” https://gop.com/platform/americas-natural-resources/
Trump’s 2017 call to shrink national monuments should draw our attention to the #NaturalRivals who helped establish public lands. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/04/25/zinke-to-review-large-national-monuments-created-since-1996-to-make-sure-the-people-have-a-voice/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2a37b29a4ea5
The 2016 “Malheur mess” highlighted Western tensions over public lands, which are a legacy of #NaturalRivals Muir and Pinchot http://www.hcn.org/articles/malheur-occupation-oregon-ammon-bundy-public-lands-essay
As this search showed, in 2017 public lands were a big part of the #resist movement. But where did they come from? #NaturalRivals https://twitter.com/search?l=&q=resist%20%22public%20land%22%20since%3A2017-01-01%20until%3A2017-12-31&src=typd
Some hope that undoing the 120-year legacy of public lands would bring back good rural jobs, but this great story convinced me otherwise. #NaturalRivals https://www.hcn.org/issues/49.18/timber-how-the-outsourcing-of-forestry-jobs-seeps-into-our-public-lands-debates
When I wrote a #NaturalRivals story about the history of national park campground concessionaires, and Newsweek titled it, “Is Trump about to Sell Off our National Parks?”, I wondered if public lands debates were overblown. https://www.newsweek.com/trump-about-sell-our-national-parks-687911
Like me in #NaturalRivals, author Stephen Fox used John Muir’s life to look at bigger issues. https://amzn.to/2SMsE8P
After studying this book to write #NaturalRivals, I learned that the author’s son is a friend of mine https://amzn.to/2SFNFCd
An invaluable resource on the life of Gifford Pinchot #NaturalRivals https://amzn.to/2JVZi4Z
Muir and Pinchot were #NaturalRivals the way Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were. And the Magic/Bird rivalry turned the NBA into an international sport. http://www.nba.com/history/dreamT_moments.html
For the critical difference between “public lands” and “the public trust,” I found this article essential. https://www.thenation.com/article/the-plot-to-sell-americas-wilderness/
Amazingly, all of John Muir’s journals are online. Here’s a scrap from when he and Gifford Pinchot met. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmj-all/2461/
I decided to frame these as a series of tidbits, which have gone out via https://twitter.com/JohnClaytonMT and https://www.facebook.com/NaturalRivalsBook over the last few weeks. To get 'em in real time, feel free to follow!