San Francisco -- The Avenue of the Giants runs through the greatest remaining old-growth forest of redwood trees on Earth. Last weekend, while I was in Tokyo, one of the giants fell. Former Sierra Club President Dr. Edgar Wayburn passed away at 103. When President Clinton awarded Dr. Wayburn the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he commented that Ed had "saved more of our wilderness than any person alive."
In fact, you'd have to go back to Teddy Roosevelt to find a conservationist who made a comparable impact, and Roosevelt could do his part by sitting down with maps and Gifford Pinchot to create National Forests and Monuments. Ed Wayburn had to create a vision, recruit an army, and then persuade policy makers to become his allies -- as a part-time volunteer.
His greatest wilderness legacy lies in the 100 million acres of Alaska that were set aside for posterity. But the battle that forged his mettle and shaped his strategies was the fight for Redwood National Park. He showed in that battle that his combination of southern courtesy, arching ambition, and unyielding tenacity could reshape the national political landscape and create the public sentiment that turned his lines on the map into realities just as solid as Teddy Roosevelt's.
He kept making a difference even into his second century. It's up to the rest of us to carry on his tradition -- new giants grow from the trunks of redwoods, and Dr. Wayburn's legacy should reach skyward.
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