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31 Jan 08

For Muir, this was not a matter of merely conservation of natural resources, but a matter of human physical and psychic survival. Muir wrote, "I know that our bodies were made to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found."

He advocated preservation of natural areas for reasons of mental health: "Come to the woods, for here is rest. There is no repose like that of the green deep woods. Here grow the wallflower and the violet. The squirrel will come and sit upon your knee, the log cock will wake you in the morning. Sleep in forgetfulness of all ill. Of all the upness accessible to mortals, there is no upness comparable to the mountains."

In1892, John Muir wrote to the editor of Century Magazine, "Let us do something to make the mountains glad." So they founded the Sierra Club, the first major organization in the world dedicated to using and "preserving" wild nature. It is from this act that the modern Ecology Movement was born.
Throughout his life, Muir was concerned with the protection of nature both for the spiritual advancement of humans and, as he said so often, for Nature itself. This dual vision still informs the ecology movement and inspires millions to reform their thought and minds, to orient themselves as part of nature. Though the arguments in favor of ecological thinking are often couched in scientific terms, the basic impetus remains as Muir stated it: "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything in the universe."