John Muir’s legacy

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. That trip was the inspiration for the National Park System, which has been a model around the globe.

Federal as well as state programs are essential to the preservation of such natural treasures as Yosemite National Park and Malibu Creek State Park, not to mention such national monuments as the sculptures on Mt. Rushmore, which derive much of their patriotic sensibility from their setting in the American landscape.

Philip Walsh

Northridge