19． Look carefully at the back of a California state quarter (州纪念币). A man with a walking stick is pictured there. A bird called a California condor is flying overhead. Who is this man, and why is he on the back of a coin?
The man on this quarter is John Muir. Even as a child, Muir loved watching nature. As a young man, he spent much of his life exploring the beauty of the wilderness. He walked more than a thousand miles across the country, through fields and woods. John Muir liked writing about the places he visited, describing their beauty.
Muir also wrote about problems. In order to create more farmland for sheep and cattle, many trees were cut down. This made Muir unhappy and worried, because he knew that trees were important to forests and to the animals that lived in them. Muir believed that nature should be protected instead of being changed by human beings. He wrote articles in magazines and newspapers to spread the word about protecting forests, Soon, others began to listen.
Muir wrote letters to important people, such as President Theodore Roosevelt. The president admired Muir's love for nature. When Roosevelt came to visit Muir in California, Muir asked the president to go camping with him for three nights under the trees so they could talk about conservation (保护), Later, President Roosevelt set aside 148 million acres of land for national forests and built five national parks. This means that people cannot build homes or businesses there.
Though it has been over one hundred years since John Muir died, people continue his work today. His work helped us to see the beauty of our natural world. John Muir made us understand the importance of protecting our earth and our resources ﹣ then, now, and for the future.
