AllMovie

Two brilliant men and the battle that drove them apart are at the heart of this beautiful documentary. In 1913, the first controversy over America's natural resources erupted over the flooding of a valley in Yosemite National Park in order to create a reservoir for the city of San Francisco. The Wilderness Idea explores this important chapter in American environmental policy, using the lives of John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club, and Gifford Pinchot the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service, as touch points. Employing both archival footage and on-location cinematography, The Wilderness Idea tells the dramatic story of the American conservation movement and the men whose relationships were torn apart by the historic battle.