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Fred Last (President), Winifred Sillitto (Convener) and Carole Ross (JMT representative) have been the members of Council most heavily involved in the liaison with Dr Simon Woodward of ASH Consulting during the preparation of the John Muir Centre Scoping Report - the central plank of the Millennium Fund Bid. Graham White, too, has been busy with the production of the new, SNH-sponsored, display panels that are currently the centrepiece of the DJMA Exhibition at Dunbar Library. These panels will also form the basis of a travelling exhibition about John Muir and the work of DJMA. Also, as promised in the last issue, Graham's editorial about John Muir that was first published in the environment section of the Scotsman is reprinted here.
As usual the newsletter also contains details of forthcoming events. Please make a note of these events and dates in your new 1996 diaries as the (in)frequency of newsletter publication precludes up to the minute reminders!
The Council of DJMA would also like to take this opportunity to remind members of the Association that membership renewals are now due. Where appropriate, reminders will be included in this newsletter mailing. Please consider renewing your membership and, ideally, persuade others to join DJMA, since our Millennium Fund bid is being assessed under the 'Community Group' category. The support of the local community is absolutely vital if we are to succeed in our plans to establish the John Muir Centre in Dunbar.
DJMA has also organised a local petition in support of its bid. If you have not already done so, please make a point of signing this and mentioning it to your friends and colleagues. You do not have to be a member of DJMA to sign. Copies of the petition are available in a number of local shops and at 126 (Stefany Hawryluk's) and 138 (DJMA Shop) High Street. The petition will also be available for signing at the DJMA Exhibition in the Gibb Room of Dunbar Library. The Exhibition runs until January 29th. The petition will remain available in the library after that date. Extra copies can be made available to anyone who may be willing to canvass support. As ever, the Association is keen to hear from any individual or community group that may be willing to help further the aims of the DJMA.
Ed.
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Dunbar-born Muir (1838 - 1914) is widely acknowledged as the first advocate of a sustainable approach to resource management. Founder-President of the Sierra Club and 'father' of the American National Park system, his best writings used an entertaining story to put across a serious message.
The John Muir Centre in Dunbar will be a 'global environmental gateway' introducing, in an attractive and invigorating way, visitors of all ages and backgrounds to issues surrounding the wise use of the natural environment and the steps which need to be, and are being, taken to address the mistakes of the past. The building itself will demonstrate the latest 'green' building techniques.
The Centre will be open all year round, and will offer a programme of services and events tailored to the needs of individual markets, for example school-children or workers in land-based industries. There is already a wealth of local knowledge about different aspects of Muir's life, work and beliefs and their contemporary relevance (industries which supported the local economy in the past have collapsed in part because of non-sustainable approaches to resource exploit-ation); the Centre will be a focus for further discussion, research and dissemination.
Some of the Centre's facilities will be available for use by local and national conservation and environmental bodies, public and private. Linkages will be established with sites of natural history and environmental interest which will appeal to many of the visitors enjoying the interpretation provision in Dunbar; the Tourism and Environment Task Force set up in 1992 by the Scottish Office Minister of Tourism has found that the country's natural environment is a key element contributing to the enjoyment of almost 90% of the more than 10 million tourist trips to Scotland in 1994.
The Centre's meeting rooms will be available at nominal cost to local clubs and societies, and the film theatre will be capable of showing mainstream movies as well as wildlife films and travelogues.
Community participation in this project is essential to its success, and indeed the progress to date has been almost entirely due to the voluntary efforts of a group of local residents and others sympathetic to the subject of sustainable development and resource conservation.
The ASH Scoping Study identifies 5 main aspects of the Centre:
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By its function of Environmental Gateway and its links to other sites, the Centre will stimulate awareness not only of East Lothian and Berwickshire but also of the whole of Scotland as tourist destinations.
By its educational prog-rammes, the Centre will be a significant resource for teachers throughout Scotland and northern England.
By its Internet facilities, the project will have international significance.
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Members of DJMA have decided that the design should be subject to open competition under the aegis of the RIBA-RIAS (Royal Institute of Architects in Scotland). Competitors will be asked to take note of the requirement for an energy-efficient structure setting standards of excellence in the wise use of resources and materials, particularly those found locally. This competition is seen not only as a way of choosing the architect, but also as a way of spreading the Centre's ideals. The competition will be international, but it is hoped that within the terms of EC law it will be possible thereafter to appoint a British architect.
Within the Centre, there will be scope for British designers to develop exhibits, displays, and relevant advanced technology. Already the Association's Internet link has been developed, with the setting up of a fledgling 'John Muir Centre on the Internet', under the aegis of the University of Strathclyde's Department of Computer Science.
The audio-visual component of the John Muir Centre will provide a showcase for skilled designers who have demonstrated their talents in other visitor attractions throughout the country. Fitting-out costs are likely to approach £2 million.
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These estimates might be significantly surpassed if the John Muir Centre entered into agreement/reciprocal arrangements with other environmental attractions in the public (Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh; Dynamic Earth; John Muir Country Park; St Abbs Marine Nature Reserve, etc) and private (Butterfly Farm, Lasswade; Deep Sea World, etc) sectors. The concept of environmental packages will be explored.
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NB Since the Centre will highlight the importance of sustaining National Nature Reserves (NNRs), Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), etc, DJMA with its partners will make and respond to an environmental assessment of the potential impacts, particularly within 50 miles of Dunbar.
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Day to day running of the Centre will be by a team of 23 staff (20 full time and 3 part time). A possible staffing structure is available.
Jobs created or supported by the indirect and induced effects of this spending will be fewer but just as important.
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On June 14th 1995, The John Muir Centre, Dunbar, is B-listed by the Commission. They comment: "...having the required millennial potential but requiring further work before funding could be considered."
Of nearly 200 applications from Scotland, only 14 were on the B-list with another 14 on the A-list for immediate detailed appraisal. All the others were rejected. The B-listing of DJMA's project was a major achievement for a small, fledgling, voluntary organisation.
On August 31st 1995, Council member Carole Ross met with Millennium Commissioners to learn requirements for the next stage of application. To stay in the running, DJMA must show, by November 30th: progress with partnerships, unique identification of site, timetables for commercial, technical and architectural studies, and evidence of broad public support.
On October 16th 1995, ASH Consultancy was contracted to prepare a 'scoping report'. A draft report was to be ready by November 10th.
By November 30th 1995 the Millennium Commission receive DJMA's 3rd-stage application for The John Muir Centre, Dunbar.
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These displays form the centre-piece of the DJMA Exhibition currently on view in the Gibb Room of Dunbar Library. The exhibition incorporates the DJMA proposals for the John Muir Centre and a full copy of the Scoping Study setting out the project is available for reference. As part of its public consultation exercise, DJMA would welcome feedback on its proposals and a visitors to the exhibit are encouraged to make their comments known in the 'visitor book'.
Mr Stephen Bunyan (District Councillor for Dunbar) formally opened the exhibition on Tuesday, 9th January. Mr Chris Badenoch, (SNH Area Manager for Lothian and Borders), Mr Norman Hampshire, (East Lothian Councillor for Dunbar), Peter Crichton (District Councillor for Innerwick) and Michael Bowe (Dunpender Community Council) also attended the opening ceremony. DJMA Convener, Winifred Sillitto welcomed the visitors, and the exhibition organiser, Graham White, was on hand to answer questions about the exhibit.
The DJMA exhibition is open during normal library hours until Saturday, 27th January.
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Many of us suffer from environmental doom-fatigue but millions of people are stubbornly optimistic and still do their bit: they recycle glass, paper and aluminium; they buy environ-mentally friendly washing up liquid; they try to find energy efficient fridges and washing machines; they abhor CFC's and spurn mahogany hacked from virgin rainforests.
So, many of us are aware of "Sustainability" issues: can we use the earth's resources sustainably? Can we live off the earth's interest rather than the capital? Are we willing like Mr Micawber to live within our means or do we eat the egg and kill the goose as well? The quality of life which our children and grandchildren will enjoy or suffer in coming decades depends very much on the environmental choices which we and our political masters make or avoid today. Friends of the Earth point out that "We do not inherit the earth - we borrow it from our children".
"Sustainability" then is the buzzword and criterion by which all development proposals in Scotland and in the rest of the world will be judged.
Some issues are more pressing than others. In September 1995 biologists from 50 countries met in Cardiff to sound the alarm about the global extinction of entire species. Professor Michael Claridge of Cardiff College at Wales University, presented a chilling analysis; we have catalogued only 1.8 million of the earth's estimated 30 million species of plants and animals, and they are vanishing faster than we can describe them. According to Professor Wilson of Harvard, we are losing plant and animal species at the "conservative" estimate of 27,000 per year. Fifty species perished in the 16 hours you were up and at work; a further 24 will die in the 8 hours you are asleep. A quarter of all the species on earth could be exterminated within 50 years. Whether humanity can survive such an avalanche of extinctions and the massive loss environmental quality which would result is the Big Question. If Professor Wilson is right, today's children have a good chance of seeing it answered within their lifetime. Local extinctions and loss of environmental quality are not a new process; when the Roman army marched into what is now Scotland it traversed a landscape of dense forests that were home to brown bears, elk, moose, lynx, wildcat, beaver, wolf and wild horse, all of which are now gone. Even so, when the ancestors of today's Scots spread across from Ireland in the 6th century they found a land teeming with game and rivers bristling with salmon and sea trout. Even in the 18th Century the Tay and the Tweed are estimated to have provided salmon catches in excess of 200,000 fish annually; today it is nearer 2,000 and still falling. We have witnessed the decline of traditional fishmongers in the High Street in the last decade as fish stocks crashed and prices rose. The herring went in the late '70s; the Forth Sprat fishery in the late '80's and in the '90's the price of haddock rose until it was dearer than salmon.
In Lothian, the fishing fleets of Granton, Newhaven, Leith, Port Seton, Cockenzie and Dunbar dwindled along with the whitefish. It is not just cod, herring, haddock and plaice stocks which have been erased from the inshore fishery charts - it is entire fishing communities.
But Sustainability's not just about wildlife, woodlands or fisheries; it's what we eat and what we wear; the cars we choose and the motorways we drive on. The rising tide of traffic in every city in the world has drastically affected the quality of life for all people; Heathcote Williams' epic poem "Auto-geddon" chronicled the death or crippling of 100 million people by cars this century in the "greatest undeclared war of all time". Climb Arthur's Seat on a bright frosty day and look down on the capital city at 9.30am and you will rise from the yellowish sea of gases that is the exhalation of the morning's rush hour; it blankets Edinburgh like a great petroleum fart. The epidemic of asthma affecting children in both town and countryside is the direct result of our unsustainable addiction to the single person car.
It is obvious that a great new Millennial Vision for environmental survival is urgently needed, the question is: where are we going to find it? It will surprise many Scots to find that the seeds of such a Vision were sown as long ago as 1870 by a Scot- John Muir (1838-1914). Virtually unknown in Britain, Muir casts a shadow of almost mythic proportions in California and occupies a seat among the American pantheon alongside Thoreau, Emerson, Kennedy and Lincoln. His birthplace at 128 High Street Dunbar has been restored as a small museum although the bronze street plaque wrongly titles him as "American Conservationist". Like many other great Scots he is a prophet without honour in his own country, despite the fact that he spoke and wrote in Scots dialect until his death in 1914.
Contrastingly, in California he is revered and Americans have named over 200 places in his honour including Muir Woods, Muir Beach, Mount Muir and Muir Glacier. A true polymath, he won international respect as a botanist, ecologist and geologist but ultimately found world fame as the inventor of what we now call "Conservation". In the America of the 1860's Muir witnessed the destruction of forests, meadows, river valleys, mineral resources and wildlife on a colossal scale. He saw the annihilation of the buffalo and the extinction of the passenger pigeon in the Midwest; he mapped the felling of the giant redwoods, the damming of the Sierra rivers and the ploughing of every fertile river flat for 3,400 miles from Canada to Mexico. At the end of the frontier Muir was among the first to recognise the limits of what had seemed limitless; from 1870 to 1900 he pioneered and perfected a political movement which we now call "Conservation".
He wrote prophetically:
"The wedges of development are being driven hard and no aspect of Nature can long withstand the onrush of such immeasurable Industry"As first president of the Sierra Club he played a key role in the creation of Yosemite National Park in 1903 and his influence on Teddy Roosevelt and other presidents was such that by his death in 1914 over 50 national parks had been created and over 140 million acres of national forest were protected. This set the political agenda for the rest of the world.
Muir has inspired a new generation of conservationists in Scotland. The John Muir Trust was formed in 1983 as a Scottish charity; heeding Muir's exhortation to "do something for wildness and make the mountains glad". In 1994 another new charity was created by the citizens of Muir's original birthplace in East Lothian; Dunbar's John Muir Association has set itself the task of bringing John Muir back home as a living spirit to inspire new generations of Scots with the vision of a sustainable future for Scotland and the planet.
The Association aims to reclaim Muir as the Scottish pioneer of World Conservation and to create a John Muir Centre in Dunbar - a world class building that will inspire tourists and school-children alike with the story of Muir's life and work. The building will have to exemplify "sustainability" in every aspect of its fabric and operations, from the way it uses materials and energy to how it recycles its water and sewage.
It will offer a natural showcase for every environmental agency and issue in Scotland and it will have to enthral and entertain as well inspire and educate. It is hoped that it will serve as an environmental beacon for Scotland into the next century and as an environmental gateway for all visitors to Scotland. The Millennium Commission has invited the Association to submit a third-stage application with a complete feasibility study by April 1996 and if successful the aim is to bring John Muir back on home to Scotland by 1999 - the 150th anniversary of his emigration by sailing ship.
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This is not some rhetorical question; it is affecting your quality of life right now and will determine Scotland's prosperity and survival in the next millennium. North Sea Oil is running out, and one day, perhaps within your lifetime it will dwindle to a trickle. Britain's fishing villages have resounded to the crash of stock after stock of herring, cod, salmon and mackerel. Car ownership in Edinburgh almost doubled between 1981-91 while air-quality plummeted in the same period. Glasgow's motorway builders continue to squirt concrete across the city, engendering an ever more bitter fight for a sustainable transport vision. Does any of this persuade you that our politicians are planning a sustainable future? When we look at the world appetite for land, water, timber, coal, metals, oil, gas or fish - the pattern is always the same: go for growth. The compelling image is that of a global riot, in which short-term advantage is the motive and the only prevailing ethic is greed. The survival of any indigenous peoples, wildlife or fragile natural habitats seems increasingly unlikely unless there is a global shift in environmental values.
If sustainability is the issue which increasingly dominates every aspect of our lives, where is the national focus for education and inspiration on this fundamental question? Think of Cinema in Scotland and Edinburgh's Filmhouse immediately springs to mind as the major showcase and home of the International Film and Television Festival. Mention Drama and the Citizens, the Tramway and the Traverse are the evident fountains of talent, ideas and new productions. But when we come to Environment, and Sustainability - which will determine whether we still have theatres and films (or even food) in a hundred years time, where do we find the national forum for discussion and education?
Dunbar's John Muir Association (DJMA) believes that if Environment is to compete in the marketplace of ideas alongside a hundred other issues then a national powerhouse and environmental beacon must be created here in Scotland. Their proposal to the Millennium Commission is to use John Muir as the catalyst to start the process. But how can a Scot who emigrated to the USA in 1849 and spent most of his life there, help us envision a more sustainable future?
The Dunbar Association would answer that John Muir is not just a dead white male, waiting to be enshrined in yet another small-town museum;. He is a world figure - an environmental zeitgeist, a living spirit to conjure with; they add that the momentum of his achievements is so strong that, even 80 years after his death, he is capable of manifesting a unique international institution here in Scotland.
At Wisconsin's John Muir Memorial Park in Marquette County, there is a succinct testament to how Americans regard the boy from Dunbar. A slab of black granite inlaid with a text of gold stands among the wildflowers:
"John Muir, Foster Son of Wisconsin, Born in Dunbar Scotland April 21st 1838. He came to America as a lad of eleven, spent his 'teen years clearing the farm across this lake, carving out a home in the wilderness. In the sunny woods, overlooking a flowery glacial meadow and a lake rimmed with water lilies he found an environment that fanned the fire of his zeal and love for all Nature, which drove him as a man to study, alone, afoot and unafraid, the forests, mountains and glaciers of the West, to become the most rugged, fervent naturalist America has produced and the Father of the National Parks of our country."But it's not just 250 million Americans who revere John Muir. Stefany and Daisy Hawryluk ,the owners of John Muir House in Dunbar have daily evidence of his global appeal. Not long ago they opened their door to find a Japanese professor kneeling to pray on a square of white silk outside 128 High Street. He had travelled 10,000 miles to do homage at the birthplace of a great soul, who had helped save so much of the worlds wild places.
Incidents like this, plus a rising global membership drawn from the Internet, gives DJMA confidence that a Centre celebrating Muir's life and work will draw eco-tourists from around the globe. They are also convinced that Muir provides an inspirational role model for all children everywhere, but particularly for Scottish children. He deserves to be honoured and we need him back here.
So, what would the function of a John Muir Centre be and how could it benefit Dunbar, East Lothian and Scotland? The members of the DJMA are a pragmatic bunch who are acutely aware that any bid for Millennium funding has to combine economic viability with visionary zeal. They see the project as a flagship for the economic regeneration of Dunbar through the contracting of local businesses and the creation of permanent jobs.
They know that the John Muir Centre will have to be a major tourist attraction in addition to being the educational beacon on environmental issues for the whole of Scotland. It will have to draw tourists from all over Britain as well as siphoning off international visitors from Edinburgh and Glasgow. They point out that Dunbar, straddling the A1 tourist route and the East Coast Inter-City line enjoys a strategic location; a fact appreciated by William Wallace, Edward the 1st, Robert the Bruce and Oliver Cromwell. They believe East Lothian's pristine beaches, its historic sites like Traprain, Tantallon and Dirleton, together with the environmental gems of the Bass Rock and Belhaven Bay will provide a stunning backdrop to the proposed Centre. Undoubtedly it was Muir's childhood years on East Lothian's "Conservation Coast" that framed his character, inspired his life-work and fired his missionary zeal to "do something for Wildness".
In the proposed Centre, Muir's life and adventures will provide a background context to the history of environmental awareness, but modern issues will be in the foreground, and they will be conveyed in a way that is truly world-class. The Centre will have superlative audio-visual facilities, possibly based upon an IMAX cinema or its technological successor. And since Muir helped save wildernesses all over the world, the Centre must be capable of visually transporting people to any wilderness from the Antarctic or the Sahara, to the depths of the Atlantic.
This "global environmental gateway" will orient visitors to the mountains and nature reserves of Torridon and the beaches of East Lothian as well as the coral reefs of the Pacific. Educationally, it will serve Scotland's 3,000 schools as the national environmental venue par excellence with libraries, computer galleries and multi-media access points, linking children globally to work on environmental projects together.
The Association's major challenge is trying to envision the fabric of the John Muir Centre itself; what will be the characteristics of a 21st Century building that aims to set new standards of environmental excellence for Scotland and Europe? How will it display the environmentally sensitive use of materials in its visible structure? How will it demonstrate the futuristic use of renewable energy? Will it use passive solar heating, solar cells or wind and wave generators? Who knows what a 21st century water and sewage system will look like? And how will a Millennial AV system give children a compelling visual experience of orbiting the planet or exploring the rainforest? Will it be a virtual reality studio, a 21st century cinema or a global computer network?
The Association is hoping to brief consultants on all this imminently but would like the involvement and advice of visionaries everywhere whether they be architects, engineers, planners, environmentalists, media specialists or teachers. All ideas are welcome and will be used to inform the consultants brief prior to an international architectural competition.
Please contact DJMA at John Muir House, 128 High Street, Dunbar, East Lothian if you would like to help by becoming a member. If you do, you could help bring John Muir home to Scotland and be a founder of the Scottish Centre for Sustainability and World Conservation in time for the Millennium.
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www.cs.strath.ac.uk/Contrib/JMC/
which appears on the DJMA brochure. DJMA is at the leading edge in the use of this technology to support, for example, small charitable groups and is in many ways more advanced than many much larger organisations.
The VJMC is already woven into the fabric of the Internet &WWW as it is registered with all of the major Internet/WWW search engines. For example, searching on the words Dunbar and/or Muir will 'hit' the VJMC and DJMA. Readers who have access to the WWW may like to try this as an experiment.
The VJMC has also established reciprocal links with major WWW 'jump-off point' such as Yahoo! as well as with other major environmental sites such as EnviroLink in addition to those with a specific John Muir slant. In particular, the John Muir Exhibit at UC Davis, the Sierra Club and, via e-mail, the John Muir Center for Regional Studies at the University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA - the current repository of the original John Muir Papers.
Visitors to the VJMC are encouraged to leave an entry in the 'visitor book' by sending an e-mail to djma@cs.strath.ac.uk and recent messages have included the following (reproduced here under the pretext of Letters to the Editor. - Ed.):
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I was pleased to find your site. Those of us on the treeless
flatlands of the American central plains have great respect for John
Muir and his love of the forested, mountainous American Northwest.
Please put me on your mailing list.
Best regards,
Charles L. "Chuck" Oates
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Dear DJMA Directors,
We are two 13 year-old boys from Cambria, California and we are doing
our National History Day Project on John Muir. The theme for History
day research this year is "The Individual, the Group, the Movement -
Taking a Stand & Making a Change in History". We have selected to
research about John Muir because of the stand that he took for
conservation and how his stand has grown to be worldwide.
We found your Homepage on Netscape and hoped that you would be able to
answer a few questions for us.
1) We have read that John Muir's father was very strict with John &
his brother during their childhood. Did John escape into Nature to
find freedom from his father - or did he always just love Nature -
or was it a little of both?
2) We are looking for specific examples of how John Muir's work
continues today worldwide. Can you give us some examples that you
might know of?
We just read about Ken Saro-Wiwa who was just hanged in Nigeria for
environmental action there. The fight for the environment has grown
worldwide. Do you think that conservation efforts are winning?
When we started this project we thought that the Environmental Movement
was strong, and maybe because it is worldwide now, that is what is
causing problems in some of the countries that don't want to deal with
it because it gets in the way of business and money-making.
We thank you very much for any time that you take answering our
questions.
We appreciate any help from specialists and researchers especially
hearing from people across the globe from us.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey C. Horn Nathaniel Bittner
Santa Lucia Middle School
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Dear DJMA Gang:
...I am pleased to see you are so active on the web. Have you had many
people contact you about the association?
Things here in Madison are great. School is wonderful and the research
is going very well. Hope to have a chance to hook up with the John Muir
tour if they come to Madison this spring.
Thank you again for hosting my mother and me last April. We had the
time of our lives and hope to do it again soon.
Take care.
Jaimie Powell
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My name is Earl Dunbar. I am a Canadian, currently living in Walworth,
New York, which is near Rochester.
As an obvious descendant of the Dunbars (Robert Dunbar emigrated to
Massachusetts about 1651; he is my 7x great grandfather), and an
environmentalist, I am interested in becoming a member of the DJMA.
Please mail me a registration form. If I can enroll electronically,
that is fine.
Earl Dunbar
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From: Rick Sturtz
Good to see an oasis of public good such as your site represents. i
attended the university of wisconsin in madison, wisconsin and was the
daily beneficiary of opportunities to witness the legacy of John
Muir...from seeing where he lived as a young student to witnessing his
genius in the state historical library where i studied daily (e.g. his
desk that would retrieve and replace books automatically...along with
telling time). by the way...the state historical society of wisconsin
would be a great source of information for anyone pursuing study of John
Muir's life.
a wonderful man...Dunbar should be proud.
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I have for the 1st time logged on to your home page. My name is
John Muir. And I am related to John Muir. I only have begun to learn
concerning his views. And your site will help me to do
so. I just wanted to say thanks......
John
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From: Gerald Taylor
Stopped by your home page tonight and enjoyed my stay. I wish you
continued success. Remember "no problem can stand the assault of
sustained thinking" I'll be back!!!
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For more information: Harold Wood (209) 739-8527
E-mail: harold.wood@sierraclub.org
News from
SIERRA CLUB CALIFORNIA
John Muir Education Project
P.O. Box 3543
Visalia, CA 93278
December 28, 1995
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The Sierra Club announces the publication of an exciting new environmental education tool -- the John Muir Day Study Guide, simultaneously published in traditional print and in online format on the World Wide Web. * Who: John Muir was the noted 19th century naturalist and conservationist whose writings and efforts to establish Yosemite National Park are credited with doing much to launch the modern-day environmental movement. * What: The John Muir Day Study Guide presents a curriculum covering all grades from Kindergarten to 12th grade, with exercises keyed to fit the California Department of Education curriculum guidelines for social studies and environmental education. * Why: To foster environmental awareness by young people through teaching them about the noted 19th century naturalist and conservationist John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club and Father of our National Parks. State law (Education Code Section 37222), encourages all public and private schools in California to annually recognize John Muir Day, April 21 (the anniversary of Muir's birth)., by conducting appropriate exercises. The guide is intended especially to help teachers make this a special day for their students, but may be used throughout the school year, and integrated into a variety of other curriculum topics. The new study guide provides teachers with photocopy-ready classroom exercises, including writing activities, learning games, and hands-on student projects. There is also a list of additional resources and extension activities. The curriculum covers all ages from Kindergarten to 12th grade, and addresses the topics designated by the California Department of Education curriculum guidelines for social studies and environmental education for each grade level. It provides a human/social/historical perspective as an alternative to the typical more science-oriented environmental education curricula. Harold Wood, coordinator of Sierra Club California's "John Muir Education Project", explains, "the purpose of the John Muir Day Study Guide is to raise awareness of John Muir as "conservation's exemplar," the person whose values and actions virtually led to the modern environmental movement, and whose vision is still being followed today." ---- Dear DJMA: I am a Sierra Club member and editor of three books on JM, published here in the USA by the University of Wisconsin Press. Perhaps we could begin some sort of communication via this internet, if you are interested. There is to be a John Muir Conference this Spring at the University of the Pacific, that I will attend. I would be happy to spread news about your organization. Best, Robert Engberg ----
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One Day Conference - Friday 19th January 1996 Venue: Swallow Hotel, Bristol Conference in Context Planning and implementation of sustainability is central to the urban policy agenda of the European Union. The European Sustainable Cities Project of the European Commission is developing new policy frameworks for sustainability and supporting a diversity of initiatives to develop innovative models of implementation at the local level. Local Agenda 21 provides an organisational framework for much of this work and the experience of experimentation in a pan European context is increasingly applied in the implementation of Local Agenda 21 plans. Conference Aims and Objectives This one day conference will: * provide an overview of the latest developments in urban policy at the European level; * report on the development of new policy concepts for urban sustainability based on the European Sustainable Cities report; * report on the 1996 programme of European network implementation initiatives to be developed by EUROCITIES, UTO, EURONET, and CEMR in the context of Local Agenda 21; * focus on Dutch, German and UK examples of action research projects with a focus on the implementation of sustainability principles; * relate the wealth of pan European experience to the specifics of sustainable urban planning in UK.
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Renewal reminders should also be enclosed for those memberships that have either recently lapsed or are about to. As membership subscriptions and donations are the main source of recurrent income for the Association it is important that DJMA achieves a high renewal rate and increases its roll of members. Apart from the financial aspects, a strong and enthusiastic membership is also vital to our future plans for a John Muir Centre. So please renew - the effort that DJMA Council and ordinary members of the Association are putting in on behalf of the future generations that inherit the world from us is rewarded by every existing member we retain and every new member we recruit.
Enquiries about membership can be addressed to:
The Membership Secretary Dunbar's John Muir Association 126 High Street, Dunbar East Lothian EH42 1JJ
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There is scope for other forms of voluntary work. ranging from stuffing of envelopes for mail-shots and distributing posters to local shops to professional services such as public relations, photography, artwork, word-processing, etc. For example, recent suggestion for a one-off piece of voluntary work is for someone to fabricate (sew?) a set of protective covers for the display panels in the new DJMA Exhibition.
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Talking of which...
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Adult: £5 Child £3.50.
To purchase tickets (first-come first-served) you may send a cheque, payable to Dunbar's John Muir Association with the slip below (or include the relevant details)
Tickets are also available for purchase at Stefany Hawryluks' shop at 126 High
Street or from members of DJMA Council.
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