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Defending John Muir’s Legacy

NoMuir

We received a copy of an email this week, and we’re happy to publish it here. In a nutshell, the Sierra Club comes forward with their thoughts about the proposed developments at Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows, and about Andy Wirth’s use of John Muir in support of his development plans :

Subject: John Muir and your proposed over-development of Squaw Valley

Dear Mr. Wirth:

You invoke the legacy of John Muir as you pursue destruction of his beloved Sierra, and we are asking you to stop.

Sierra Club does not own a copyright on John Muir; his legacy is shared by all.  But we do celebrate his role as a founder of Sierra Club and feel a sense of responsibility to ensure the integrity of his name.

Thelatest edition of Squaw magazine begins with an open letter in which you repeatedly quote Muir and seek to wrap yourself in his legacy.  But the magazine goes on to tout your proposal to mechanize the wilderness – with a gondola through land federally designated as Granite Chief Wilderness.

We understand the gondola as only one of your destructive proposals; you also seek entitlements to urbanize Tahoe’s Squaw Valley with a series of ten-story tall highrises and, amazingly, a massive indoor water park.

You insist on seeking to associate yourself with John Muir when, clearly, your development schemes represent the misguided destruction he fought to keep from diminishing the irreplaceable value of our namesake mountain range, Muir’s beloved Sierra.

Local Sierra Club representatives have already joined Sierra Watch and others to ask you to pull your proposed gondola from the wilderness and have urged decision-makers to deny approval of your highrises.

If you continue to pursue those projects, we ask that you, at least, stop invoking the name of John Muir as if he were on your side.  He’s not.

Sincerely,

  • Bruce Hamilton
  • Deputy Executive Director
  • Sierra Club
  • San Francisco, Calif.

Bravo Mr. Hamilton. Thanks for taking a stand.

SquawMag
Here’s the page mentioned in the November 2015 issue.

See the full copy of the online edition of Squaw magazine here.

1 We changed this word from “In” to “The” as it made better sense. Just being transparent about that one change. We make little mistakes like that too.

33 thoughts on “Defending John Muir’s Legacy”

  1. Thank you Bruce Hamilton and Sierra Club for that letter. Audacious is not a strong enough word to describe Mr. Wirth’s statements concerning John Muir.

  2. When will Andy’s handlers sit him down to address his narcissism and how it is negatively affecting his effectiveness as a CEO?

    1. Edited to remove some other stuff that didn’t need to be said here.

      Wirth’s legacy if plans r successful will be he created and caused irreversible negative environmental harm to air and water. Destroyed scenic views in and destroyed historical buildings in a designated historical site.

      Such a great guy.

      Granddaddy Wirth must be rolling in grave.

  3. Andy Wirth is driven by money and money alone obviously. Wirth and John Muir are polar opposites! I am glad to see the community rally around what’s right and not what’s profitable!

    1. Andy doesn’t care about what’s right, or even what is legal. He only cares about the fatness of his wallet…that and screwing people over to add to its girth.

      I know people who rent from Squaw, and he illegally goes out of his way to cause ‘restraint of trade’ while threatening to boot out anyone who pushes their legal rights. Not only is he an ________, he’s a gutless one at that since he doesn’t even have the _______ to face the people he screws over.
      Completely ‘wirth-less’ ….

  4. “Don’t it always seem to go? That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot!” J. Mitchell
    My dear Mr. Wirth, Please do not execute this proposed development to our beloved Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows
    I do not have the money you do nor do I have the desire to make my mark as a developer.
    Please stop.

  5. But don’t any of you understand not only the fact that Andy Wirth’s grandfather was a past head of the National Park Service but also that at one point he himself worked for the park service, in Rocky Mountain National Park, so he has more right to assert that John Muir is on his and KSL’s side than all of you uncredentialed nobodies do?

    1. no rick, you’re wrong.
      none of us are even close to john muir.
      especially not andy’s greedy self.
      he needs to go back to colorado where he came from and take his stupid capitalist ideas with him.

  6. Didn’t John Muir believe that one of his biggest mistakes/regrets was losing out on preserving Lake Tahoe and the surrounding area as a National Park? He basically lost it to Bay Area developers.

    1. Yes. Not securing Tahoe as a National Park was his biggest loss. However, he was able to secure massive swaths of the Sierra for the people to enjoy responsibly and preserve. Not for Wirth and KSL to come along 100 years later and manipulate under some loophole. You’ve run out of room (a lot of room) Squaw…STOP.

  7. WTF?! Andy Wirth, don’t you blaspheme here! Don’t you blaspheme in here! This is MY mountain, and John Muir is MY hero, so you can just walk on out that door, without your fancy-ass waterpark and without your high-rises! Just stop it! I’m hoppin’ mad now!!

  8. Hahaha. I love reading all the comments from all you C.A.V.E. people. I find it funny that the sierra watch is based in San Francisco. You would think that they would have their facts right before publishing a letter. The proposed gondola does not go through the Granite Chief Wilderness. That is private land that was not turned over to the Government.

    1. Maybe get your facts right before writing a comment? Sierra Watch is based out of Nevada City, which is as close to Tahoe as you are. The Sierra Club is indeed based in San Francisco, and that makes complete sense as they are interested in protecting much more than our little bit of the world.

    2. Obviously you ARE a caveman…..
      That gondola route goes right thru the protected area, and even if you move it a few hundred feet to get outside the boundary, its still ruining the surround wilderness by destroying the community around it! Even if they have the right to do it…. should they?! i say no way, Just cuz capitalism says you can do it, doesn’ t make it right, and it doesn’t exempt you from being a dick…. Andy wirthless does not seem to understand this. Worse yet is, he does understand that, and just does’t care as long as he collects checks. I guess some folks just lack morals….

      1. If is is legal and properly permitted, they should do it if they want to. That is the best part about living in the United States Of America.

        1. Big difference between right /wrong and legal /illegal. Would you want your neighbor to push the limits of every building code and noise /air quality ordinance? People (and animals) actually live here. Tahoe is more than just a playground /country club /investment opportunity for 1%ers. One of the great things about America is the ability of people to stand up for themselves and tell the big guys to GTFO, and have it actually work sometimes.

  9. If a black voter in America saw that Donald Trump referenced the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. for the sake of promoting himself as ethical, after hearing all his elitist, racist comments, they’d feel just as I do now.

    Steal our idols, our teachers and leaders, and re-purpose their messages of love and humanity for the sake of pure profit (with a disregard to others needs).

    Anyone have real examples of this previously happening in history?

  10. How to lay it on extra thick:

    http://blog.plumpjack.com/conversations-with-hilary-andy-wirth-ceo-squaw-valley/

    If you could have lunch with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?

    Andy Wirth: My grandfather, Conrad Wirth. Gramps was a truly remarkable man and the patriarch of our family – he was also, in his career, Director of the National Park Service for Eisenhower, JFK (JFK and Gramps were good friends) and Johnson. Gramps passed away on the night of my thirtieth birthday and I miss him more than words can describe. I would then ask for Martin Luther King and John Muir along with my wife Karen to join in. If there were room at the table, I would likely also invite Johnny Cash and a famous fighter pilot, who I got to know towards the sunset of his life, General Robin Olds.

  11. What is most sobering is that this just a simple reflection of a much deeper leadership style that has successfully courted many of the most powerful people in Tahoe and beyond. Our community has been way too complacent. Voicing concerns online and likes on Facebook serve their purpose and are a great way to foster discussion and keep the energy rolling. But then we have to channel that energy into letters to the papers, to the local leaders and athletes who have been wooed, and to government officials. It’d be interesting to see what kind of creative avenues people come up with.

    1. Robb G
      Your comment speaks truth, but it is going to take more than waiting to see what “creative avenues people come up with”. That is the key…how to inspire and motivate folks to take action…every day we look around so grateful to be living in such beauty, but what are we willing to do to protect it…to move from complacency and get in the ring?
      Thanks for your post.

  12. Thank you for continuing to expose the ridiculousness of this proposed Gondola and further capitalistic dessicration of our Sierras. Please let us, tahoe community members, know what we can do to take constructive action against this and other such projects.

  13. Andy correctly stated that Mr. Muir is the godfather of preservation and wilderness. The gross distortion of this reality in Andy’s pious letter is appalling. Wilderness requires land be preserved as WILD. Get it? WILDerness! The developers at Squaw are contrary to preservation and wilderness. Disgusting.

  14. Pingback: Andy Wirth Wants Us To Believe He Knows John Muir Better Than The Sierra Club – UnofficialAlpine.com

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