Historical Development of Conservation Movements

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Historical Development of Conservation Movements
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Review

• Major cultural changes
• The Agricultural Revolution
• The Industrial Revolution
• The Information and Globalization Revolution
• New technologies
• Expansion of the population
• Increased resource consumption
• Increased environmental impact

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Conservation Movements in the U.S. 1600-today

• Expansion/Exploitation 1600 1900
• Early Warnings 1830s 1880s
• First Conservation Movement 1870s 1920s
• Second Conservation Movement 1920s 1940s
• Environmental Movement 1962 1976
• Pragmatism/Reassessment 1976 today
• This is the one time you need to know dates.

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Expansion/Exploitation 1600-1900
nationalgeographic.com

• Land Acquisition by Federal Government
• Indian Treaties
• Land give-away or Homestead Act
• Texas land settlement

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Early Warnings 1830s-1880s

• Resources not endless
• Romantic view of nature
• Writers and Painters
• Closing of the American Frontier

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First Conservation Movement 1870s-1920s

• Establishing national state parks
• Establishing national forests
• State regulation of fish and game

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Conservation of Natural Resources
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Conservation

• "There can be no greater issue than that of
  conservation in this country." Confession of
  Faith Speech, Progressive National Convention,
  Chicago, IL, August 6, 1912

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Conservation

• "The conservation of natural resources is the
  fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem
  it will avail us little to solve all others."
• Address to the Deep Waterway Convention,
  Memphis, TN, October 4, 1907

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Conservation Legacy

• 150 National Forests
• 51 Federal Bird Reservations
• 4 Natural Game Preserves
• 5 National Parks
• 18 National Monuments
• 24 Reclamation Projects
• 7 Conservation Conferences Commissions

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Conservation Efforts

• Boone and Crockett Club
• Protection of Yellowstone
• Pelican Island Bird Reservation
• 1905 Gifford Pinchot U.S. Forest Service
• 43,000,000 to 194,000,000 acres of national
  forest
• John Muir - Yosemite

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Second Conservation Movement 1930-1940

• Civilian Conservation Corp CCC 2
  million people
• Dam Building in the American West
• Tennessee Valley Authority

www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/
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Environmental Movement 1962-1976

• Quality of life
• Chemical threats -- Silent Spring
• Federal Legislation
• Earth Day

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Pragmatism/Reassessment 1976-today

• Climate Change
• Biodiversity
• Energy

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For further reading...

• Wilderness and the American Mind - Roderick
  Frazier Nash
• Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris
• John Muir Americas Naturalist - Thomas Locker