The work of the John Muir Trust

In the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, Britain possesses a wild land resource unsurpassed in Europe. Yet even in this apparently unspoilt and natural landscape, the impact of a long human occupation can be seen, most notably in the loss of most of the great Caledonian Pines - Britain’s share of the northern forests that once encircled the globe. The process of degradation has accelerated in recent times, with overgrazing and blanket forestry, tracks bulldozed onto fragile mountain summits, and hydro schemes drowning beautiful glens. Positive action was called for in the face of this erosion and destruction, and one response has been the formation of a Trust representing the values that John Muir pioneered worldwide.

John Muir was a young man when he first visited Yosemite Valley in 1886, and spent his first summer there working as a shepherd, before running a sawmill near the base of Yosemite Falls. But all the time he was working, he was studying nature, the great truths that he said were written in “magnificent capitals” - the awesome stones of the Sierra Nevada. He became a guide for some of the most famous of Yosemite’s visitors, including one of his idols, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson tried to entice Muir away from Yosemite, telling him the world was waiting to hear him teach the lessons he had learned, but he stayed in his mountains, working, studying and learning. His political and literary awakenings began after meeting Robert Underwood Johnson, editor of Century, one of the most prominent magazines in the country a hundred years ago.

Muir wrote two long articles on Yosemite, advocating a National Park to surround what was then the state-run Yosemite Valley. Johnson published the articles and lobbied energetically. Congress complied with this emotional and literary onslaught, creating the first Yosemite National Park. Another fruit of this budding friendship was the creation of the Sierra Club in 1892, with Muir as President, apostle, guide, and inspiration. The purpose of the Club was to preserve and make accessible the Sierra Nevada. Since then the Sierra Club has been politically involved in environmental issues and lobbyists for the preservation of all American wilderness including native forests, fragile geological and bio-diverse habitats, from the highest mountains to seashores, swamps, tundra and grasslands. Muir’s legacy is as a visionary, an inspirational founding father of conservation.

Today the John Muir Trust is committed to practical action to conserve Britain’s remaining wild places; for their own sake, for the wildlife that depends on them, for the benefit of the local communities, and for the enjoyment of future generations. The Trust has an integral approach to management, aiming to take account all aspects of the landscape - ecological, historical, cultural and social, and to cooperate with the many groups and individuals who have an interest in wild land. By concentrating on sufficiently large areas, whole hill ranges or watersheds can be retained or restored to their natural processes, and can provide the spiritual qualities which humans

The Trust is international in its outlook, having close links with the Sierra Club, but its work lies in practical action within the United Kingdom. The first area in which the Trust became involved was the remote peninsula of Knoydart in the west highlands of Scotland, buying 3000 acres from the sea to the top of Ladhar Bheinn in 1987. Here it carried out a variety of environmental work, including regeneration of the pine and oak woods. It is also a partner in the Knoydart Foundation, which recently succeeded in buying a 17,000 acre core of the peninsula including the village area and its mountain hinterland.

The Trust also owns the greater part of the magnificently rugged Cuillin range on Skye. The need to conserve sustainable communities alongside wild places is being increasingly recognised worldwide, and the John Muir Trust has always been an enthusiastic supporter of this view. The Trust manages its properties on Skye through local management committees for each crofting community, much like the Trust’s other crofting property, the spectacular coastal estate of Sandwood in NW Sutherland. Most recently, the Trust has bought two of Scotland’s most popular areas, Schiehallion, and the Ben Nevis estate. Schiehallion due to its isolation and symmetrical shape was the site of 1774 experiment that first measured the mass of the Earth, while The Ben Nevis estate includes three 4000 foot peaks and the ‘Himalayan’ gorge of Glen Nevis.

Their popularity has caused erosion, but fortunately active and involved Trust members willingly participate in practical conservation work. With only a small professional staff, the Trust is crucially dependent on the enthusiasm and expertise of its 10,000 members. Volunteers carry out most of the vital work including footpath repair, tree planting, seed collection, and ecological or archeological surveys. But perhaps the greatest tribute ever given to John Muir took place in a private conversation between two great contemporary mountaineers. Galen Rowell once asked Rheinhold Messner why the greatest mountains and valleys of the Alps are so highly developed, why they have hotels, funicular railways, and veritable cities washing up against sites that, in America, are maintained relatively unencumbered by development. Messner explained the difference in three words. He said, “You had Muir.”

« Back