Seed of the Future: Yosemite and the Evolution of the National Park Idea - Softcover

Duncan, Dayton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1930238428 ISBN 13: 9781930238428

Publisher: Yosemite Conservancy, 2013

Synopsis

It's now a given that Americans—and people the world over—would seek to preserve their sacred, special places. One hundred fifty years ago, however, it was definitely not a foregone conclusion that the awe-inspiring granite cliffs, astounding waterfalls, and sublime sequoias of Yosemite would be protected. This idea of preservation was the national park idea; an idea that started from a seed, a seed that was planted in Yosemite. It was through the efforts of people like James Mason Hutchings, Galen Clark, Frederick Law Olmsted, John Muir, and Theodore Roosevelt among others that the world learned of Yosemite, flocked to it, nearly destroyed it, and ultimately saved it. These fascinating characters and their remarkable stories are skillfully woven together in this beautiful volume, created expressly to capture the wonder of Yosemite and to inspire future generations to do their part for wild places.

About this title

About the Author:

Dayton Duncan is an award-winning author and filmmaker who has served on the boards of the National Park Foundation, Student Conservation Association, and Conservation Lands Foundation. He wrote and produced the acclaimed PBS series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, among others. This is his twelfth book. He lives in Walpole, NH.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

From the Prologue:
For me, someone more conversant in the workings
of history than environmental science, there was
a lesson the sequoias were trying to teach me. For
something as unique as the national park idea to be
born, it required a certain combination of conditions;
for the idea to survive and succeed, it needed
to evolve, while keeping most of its DNA intact. If I
wanted to understand the birth and evolution of the
national park idea, Yosemite and the Mariposa Grove
was the place to start. My understanding would be
deepened if I paused to give more thought to the life
of a sequoia, from seed to seedling to sapling to Grizzly
Giant—if I considered history as a process more
like biology than physics or mathematics, not an
orderly progression of events or an equation of additions
and subtractions but an evolution much more
organic and unruly and unpredictable. I needed to
think like a sequoia.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yosemite Conservancy
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1930238428
• ISBN 13: 9781930238428
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224