Conservation vs. Preservation
Two men who left their mark on U.S. environmentalism were Gifford Pinchot and John Muir. Pinchot became the fist professional forester in the United States. Muir was the president and co-founder of the Sierra Club. Even though both men were invaluable assets in the fight for wilderness, they had very different ideas concerning the environment. Pinchot coined the term conservation, and he believed that the natural resources that the country had should be used wisely and effectively. Muir on the other hand, believed that the environment should be preserved in its natural state, without human interference. The main goals of the Conservation and Preservation movements were the same: to protect the remaining wilderness. The means that the two movements used to obtain the end result were very different.
Conservation
To Pinchot, conservation was the only way to keep the natural resources of the United States from being exhausted. “Conservation, above all, was a scientific movement, and its role in history arises from the implications of science and technology in modern society.” Pinchot was well trained in the scientific aspect of conservation. He was also capable of bringing conservation to the average citizen. |
Preservation
Muir’s attitude towards the environment was different from Pinchot’s. While Pinchot desired the greatest good for the greatest number of people, Muir chose to embrace the spiritual side of Environmentalism. For Muir, the wilderness was a spiritual place: “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.” Muir’s beliefs were very similar to those of Henry David Thoreau’s. Nature was not a storage space for natural resources, but a sacred place that should be cherished because of its very existence. Muir felt that nature was a place where people could go to escape from the problems of everyday life. Muir believed that the wilderness should be left alone, because man could not know what was right for nature. Only God could, because he created it. Nature was Muir's temple, and his home. He lived in nature and also worshipped it, because it was given to humanity by God to enjoy. For Muir, the wilderness was a sanctuary, free from machines and the grind of city life. -Brian Manetta |
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John Muir and Gifford Pinchot were both great men. Their ideas have become the basis of the American Environmental movement. What can not be forgotten when reading about the Hetch Hetchy controversy is that despite the fact that Muir and Pinchot had differing views on how the problem should be solved, they were both fighting for the same cause. Nature was important to both men. It can be argued that what Pinchot was fighting for materially, Muir was fighting for spiritually. Pinchot wanted to build the dam so that the people of San Francisco could have water. Muir wanted to keep the dam from being built so that people could drink in the beauty of nature save their souls from the drudgery of everyday life in the cities. -Brian Manetta