The Next John Muir Is Chasing Butterflies in the Heart of L.A.

The Conservationists of the 21st Century Will Be City Kids

The pioneering environmentalist John Muir was no great fan of cities. In 1868, he hightailed it out of San Francisco as fast as he could for the Sierra Nevada. He later referred to Los Angeles as “that handsome conceited little town” and similarly skedaddled away pronto to the San Gabriel Mountains. Yet it was in Los Angeles, on Christmas Eve 100 years ago, that Muir took leave of this world. A century after Muir’s death, will the cities of California serve as the graveyard of his legacy or a place …