Missouri Headwaters Summer Speaker Series: Into the Wild with Gifford Pinchot & John Muir

Missouri Headwaters State Park will host a free presentation featuring guest-speakers Marisa Diaz-Waian and John Clayton on Saturday, July 3, at 7 p.m. in the park’s campground. Bring your own lawn chair. A marshmallow roast follows each program, weather permitting.

Marisa Diaz-Waian and John Clayton will co-lead a discussion about the unique lives of John Muir and Gifford Pinchot, including the questions their contrasting philosophies raise about “the wild” and our place in it. Preservation-based philosophies associated with Muir celebrate the spiritual benefits of holistic, unimpaired natural systems. Conservation-based philosophies associated with Pinchot highlight management and sustainability of natural resources for all.

The park will host a different speaker every Saturday until Aug. 14, with various topics connected to this year’s main theme of the significance of public lands.

Missouri Headwaters State Park is about 5 miles north of Three Forks on Trident Road. For more information about the park, please visit fwp.mt.gov/stateparks/missouri-headwaters or call 406-285-3610.

About the speakers: Marisa Diaz-Waian is the founder and executive director of Merlin CCC, a public philosophy non-profit based out of Helena. She presents and contributes regularly on ways in which philosophy can help enrich lives and strengthen our communities and environment.

John Clayton is a nonfiction writer who is particularly drawn to the intersection of history, nature and culture. This presentation draws from his latest book, “Natural Rivals: John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and the Creation of America’s Public Lands.”