Overview

WIP. TO BE COMPLETED LAST, BUT THE SECOND, LONGER LIST OF THEMES BELOW THE INTRO ARE USED THROUGHOUT

INTRODUCTION

Histories of the American environmental conservation movement frequently focus on dualities, often but not always conflicting. The obvious one is the conflict between those who would fight for conservation vs. those who seek to exploit, and often befoul, our environment. But within the movement itself, the push and pull between sustainable use vs. preservation, private vs. governmental action, amateur vs. professional, recreation vs. protection, National Park Service vs. US Forest Service, etc. are critical to understanding the shifts in focus, emphasis and effectiveness of the movement over time. Most of these come down to the question of where humanity fits within the hierarchy of the current priorities of the time - i.e. should nature and natural resources be managed solely to maximize human utility and if so, how is this utility measured - in terms of access and dollars, or psychology and aesthetics. This is ultimately a question of ethics and will always arch over the specific conservation questions faced at any given time.

I discuss all this and more throughout this site, but without, I trust, losing sight of what I consider to be first principles. Foremost among them is that the authors and advocates represented in the Collection are generally on the side of the angels - seeking to improve the planet relative to alternatives. Views regarding those alternatives are necessarily subjective and are often the subject of disagreement - but most of these people are doing their best most of the time. A corollary is that they are in fact people, and as such are flawed and never acting without a certain level of self-interest, whether intrinsic or extrinsic. Some are more selfish than others, some have better judgement than others, and some are frankly not very good people at all, irrespective of the undeniable value of their conservation activities. But with rare exceptions, they come with good intentions, and I try to give credit where credit is due and to celebrate contributions and achievements, while also acknowledging the warts.

The American conservation movement, from its inception in the latter half of the 19th century until the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962, was a singular phenomenon. Unlike most American reform movements of the time, it was almost entirely "top down," driven largely by the privileged classes. Indeed, it was typically imposed on a public that was largely indifferent at best and, in the immediate areas affected by specific conservation measures, actively hostile at worst. Not until the 1960s did anything approaching a mass, grassroots environmental conservation movement emerge.

"Conservation was never more an elitist conspiracy than at its birth" writes Stephen Fox in John Muir and His Legacy (p. 110). For example, as discussed elsewhere on the site, the 1891 legislation authorizing the president to unilaterally create forest reserves was snuck at the last minute into a much larger bill and passed with virtually none of the legislators knowing what they'd done. When Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt created huge reserves, they "acted with neither public knowledge nor congressional assent." The early conservationists "were leaders without portfolio, often pulling strings without taking their case to the public. When the reaction came, it spoke the language of bypassed democracy." Congress finally acted to curtail the president's authority under TR - he responded by creating massive increases in forest reserves the night before that legislation became effective.

This unusual characteristic is one reason why the literature of the conservation movement was and is so uniquely critical. The ideas and ideals that drove the movement spread largely through the written word, building over generations. Its leaders and adherents were readers. They were the authors, artists and intellectuals; the wealthy hunters and landowners; the politicians and policy makers. They not only read and absorbed the literature of their antecedents and contemporaries but often added to it themselves. The authors represented in the Collection not only read one another's work, they corresponded and were often linked both socially and professionally. The myriad associations detailed in the Master Lists and Catalogue entries amply demonstrate this interdependency.

"It is all well enough to talk about preserving our national resources, reforesting our denuded plains and mountain sides, and refilling our river basins; but we doubt very much that the masses of our people are vitally concerned in that aspect of conservation, which really seems almost irrelevant to their interests. It is the sentimentalist like Mr. Muir who will rouse the people rather than the materialist." (From a 1909 NYT piece on a revised edition of Muir's Our National Parks).

The unique importance of literature to the EC movement is made manifestly clear when reading the histories focusing on the EC movement's evolution. From Roderick Nash to Douglas Brinkley to Stephen Fox to Paul Brooks, their accounts are largely structured as sequential descriptions of the impact of key authors. Pure practitioners and governmental figures get their due, particularly the latter, but overall, the history of the movement is the history of the authors represented in this Collection.

I note in the Introduction to this site that virtually every 19th century conservationist read Gilbert White, William Bartram and Alexander von Humboldt. Expanding on the point, Theodore Roosevelt did not protect tens of millions of acres of this country because his constituents demanded it. He did so because he read and absorbed the principles of Henry David Thoreau and John Burroughs, Charles Hallock and Clarence King.

I discuss in the Introduction the importance of magazines to the early conservation movement. Many of the books in the Collection, particularly those of the literary naturalists, are collections of previously published articles and essays. Robert Underwood Johnson used his Century Magazine to advocate for the creation of Yosemite National Park, exhorting John Muir to contribute to the cause by writing advocacy pieces himself. The law creating the original park passed in 1890. The conservation movement was not driven by the people - instead the leaders of the movement wrote with a goal of influencing their peers, while also educating and persuading the general public to support the cause, with mixed results.

I am writing with a necessarily broad brush. Certainly not every author from the movement's first century was from the patrician class - John Muir and John Burroughs, for example, are two examples of important figures who came from humble beginnings. Similarly, not every social movement of this century-long period was a purely populist endeavor. But in general, the reform movements of the Progressive Era as an example, such as prohibition, women's suffrage, anti-immigration campaigns, and the labor movement, had broad popular support. Public interest in conservation increased over time as the environmental situation became more dire and the authors discussed within were ever more widely read. Indeed, women's groups in particular were often the unsung foot soldiers of the movement even in its early days - but even so they tended to be white and at least middle class.

In a September 2024 blog post, I discuss the critical impact of early conservation-related affinity groups and advocacy associations. One of the earliest and most influential was the Boone and Crockett Club, started by Roosevelt and George Bird Grinnell. From Douglas Brinkley's Wilderness Warrior: "'The members of the club...are all persons of high social standing' an editorial writer in Grinnell's Forest and Stream said of the club's founding, 'and it would seem that an organization of this description, composed of men of intelligence and education might wield a great influence for good in matters relating to game protection.'" (pp. 203-4). They did indeed.

Many of these same men were also among the most notorious eugenicists of the time, a fact which I also discuss extensively on the site. Their views about ethnic minorities were indefensible to my mind, even for their time. And I do believe the views and actions of historical figures must be considered in the context of the times and places in which they lived.

Given this history, its seems no coincidence to me that the first stirrings of what today we call the environmental justice movement did not occur until well after the conservation movement became a popular, grassroots campaign.

Irrespective, we celebrate the achievements of the early conservation authors and leaders. To put it bluntly: Thank goodness for them! Without them we would have been screwed. We are lucky indeed that these men (along with a handful of women) read, wrote and acted. America in the late 19th and early 20th century was well along the path that almost certainly would have led to the permanent loss of forests, arable soil, clean water and myriad species of wildlife. Witness Europe and the Middle East in particular - at one time forested paradises, now with widespread areas denuded and/or reduced to desert. These were the lessons of George Perkins Marsh's Man and Nature, written way back in 1864, which for the purposes of this piece I count as kicking off the conservation movement.

In the Introduction, I write that I believe the environmental conservation movement represents a pinnacle of human intellectual and philosophical development in its recognition that individual self-interests and societal best interests are not necessarily the same. Conservation also incorporates a very long-term view of those societal best interests, a span of time not necessarily natural for most people to consider in their decision-making framework.

In sum - the early conservationists, while certainly imperfect, generally did what they thought was right for all of us, yesterday, today and tomorrow. They did so not because our democratic process demanded it, but because they had absorbed the ideals, principles and lessons that they read in the books preserved in this Collection.

And I, for one, am very grateful.

BROAD THEMES

The literary launch of the environmental conservation movement arguably took place with the publication of George Perkins Marsh's Man and Nature in 1864 - the first widely read book which identified humans as having a long-term, deleterious effect on the environment. (Although some point to George Emerson's Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts (1846) as the beginning). Why, then, are there over forty books in the Collection published prior to 1864?

Notwithstanding the importance of Marsh's work, the modern environmental movement (viewed from an American perspective) has really developed over centuries. I see the following broad evolution:

1. Exploration, observation, collection, description.
2. Appreciation.
3. Recognition of visible negative human impacts on the environment and natural resources - initially focused on forests, wildlife, soil and water.
4. Preservation, protection, conservation, sustainable use of these resources.
5. Ecological framework underpinning the movement; exploration of resource limits and implications of humanity as an ecological unit.
6. Widespread recognition of less visible negative consequences of environmental degradation.
7. Mature environmental conservation movement. A focus on human health impacts, not just human well-being. Popular support.

8. A new focus on historically marginalized people. Environmental justice issues, ecofeminism, etc.
9. Recognition of climate change as the most critical environmental issue of the current age.

10. A continued focus on the responsibilities, rather than the rights, of humankind as an ecological unit.

Virtually all of the non-reference works in the Collection fall into one or more of these categories. It is important to emphasize that, while this list is broadly chronological, by no means did the emergence of each new stage of development supplant those which came before. In other words, works of exploration, observation, collection and description today are no less important or prevalent than they were in the 18th century. The literature of the EC movement was and is cumulative - being continuously expanded, revised, sharpened.

While Marsh's book is recognized as "the fountainhead" of the movement, per Lewis Mumford (The Brown Decades - 1931), marking the beginning of the "modern" environmental movement is less clearcut. Without trying too hard, one can find a credible source identifying all manner of different dates and events as marking the genesis of the modern EC movement. These include, among others: 1) The unsuccessful efforts in the early 1900s to block the damning of Hetch-Hetchy in California, led by John Muir and the Sierra Club. 2) The publication of Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac in 1949. 3) The successful fight to block the Echo Park dam and save Dinosaur National Monument (see This is Dinosaur (1955)) in the Anthology section). 4) The publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962. 5) The first Earth Day in 1970. I personally favor publication of Silent Spring but could make a cogent argument for any of these events/books.

Carson's masterwork ushered in two paradigmatic shifts in the movement. The first was a shift in emphasis away from preservation and protection of the environment towards a recognition of the impact of environmental abuses on human health - the movement became not just about conservation but about environmentalism, a much broader concept. From DDT and other pesticides to fallout from nuclear tests to chronic illnesses caused by continuous exposure to air pollution, the EC movement expanded to include not just conservation but also towards a focus on preventing bad things from happening to myself and my people - a more resonant cause then the protection of thousands of acres in a remote corner of Colorado, for example. This led to the second shift, which saw the EC movement finally become a truly popular, grassroots cause with broad support and appeal. Carson was not (quite) single-handedly responsible for these shifts - but Silent Spring was the single most important driver and fully deserves the reverence that it is afforded.

Within this broad evolutionary framework, there are some themes and developments of particular importance when exploring the literature of the conservation movement. I use this list to frame the following chapters of this EC History section. These include:

1. European discovery, exploration and settlement of North and South America.

2. Religion/Natural theology - the idea that nature is the creation of a higher power and is thus of inherent value.

3. An explosion of interest and advances in scientific study of the natural world.

4. The development of concepts such as "picturesque" and "sublime," particularly applied to natural landscapes.

5. Romanticism and Transcendentalism.

6. The development, popularity and influence of the nature essay - Thoreau, Flagg, Burroughs, Muir, etc.

7. The exploration and settlement of the western U.S. and the construction of the transcontinental railroads.

8. Increasing recognition that exposure to natural settings improves physiological and psychological well-being.

9. Recognition of negative impacts of deforestation, including on water sources and soil erosion. Early efforts to understand and assess forestry-related issues.

10. Early efforts at land protection - particularly Yosemite, Yellowstone and, in northern NY State, Niagara Falls and the Adirondack Mountains.

11. The rise of the middle class and the popularization of vacation travel - particularly from cities to more natural environments.

12. Widespread interest in birds and birding.

13. The influence of wealthy hunters and fishermen and women concerned about depletion of game and habitat.

14. The development of scientific forestry in the U.S.

15. The Progressive Era. Conservation (sustainable use practices) vs. protection.

16. Widespread efforts at landscape and resource protection - National Parks and National Forests.

17. The formation and importance of environmental conservation advocacy organizations.

18. Social Darwinism vs. a rise in interest/concern for treatment of indigenous populations.

19. Nature education.

20. Renewed, urgent focus on game protection and management

21. The Great Depression - large scale efforts to remediate catastrophic environmental destruction, such as deforestation, topsoil erosion (Dust Bowl) and wetlands eradication, through massive land protection programs and remediation efforts by armies of CCC/WPA workers.

22. Public use/recreation vs. conservation/protection (biocentric management) in management of protected areas. Widespread state-level protection efforts, particularly state parks. NPS vs. USFS

23. The maturing development of ecology as a science and framework for understanding human environmental impacts.

24. A Malthusian focus on the risks and effects of overpopulation on the environment, along with threat of nuclear war and radiation fallout from nuclear testing.

25. Wildlife protection efforts evolve from a focus on game stocks towards a more ecology-based approach.

26. Separate protection of wilderness, seashore, lakeshore and scenic river areas.

27. A Malthusian focus on the risks and effects of overpopulation on the environment, along with threat of nuclear war and fallout from nuclear testing.

28. Widespread recognition of impacts of non-visible pollutants in the air and water from pesticides, industrial activity, etc. With the publication of Silent Spring (1962), a shift in the movement's focus from resource protection towards human health impacts. Environmentalism becomes a popular movement.

29. Beautification campaigns targeting urban areas, highways, etc.

30. Environmental litigation develops into a potent strategy for conservationists.

31. Wildlife protection encompasses endangered species protection and the value of biodiversity.

32. The development of environmental law and litigation practices and strategies.

33. Burgeoning recognition that climate change represents a systemic threat to the planetary ecosystem.

34. The environmental justice movement nationalizes in the 1980s.

35. Environmental Philosophy, Ethics and History as academic disciplines

36. Ecological capitalism

37. A maturing reconsideration of the wisdom of presuming unconditional primacy of humankind as an ecological unit within the broader environment, with nothing to learn from its fellow units.

All of these themes (and more) are explored throughout this site. Again, I have used this list to frame each of the EC History chapters which follows.

The 21st century has brought a maturation to the EC movement with two key components - first, the recognition of climate change as not just the most critical near-term environmental issue facing humanity globally, but also the recognition that the impacts are upon us. Second is the concept that the reflexive assumption of human primacy is, from an ecological perspective, short-sighted. This idea is of course not new to the 21st century - as discussed throughout this site it has been developing throughout. The environmental scientists and writers of the 21st century have brought that idea into full fruition in my opinion - as exemplified by the proof that trees communicate and cooperate, for example.

Development of a relationship with nature based on respect and reciprocity is key to long-term human survival - and we are failing miserably as a society at achieving anything approaching that, in my view. In fact, we are going backwards. This concept did not originate in the 21st century - indeed conservationists as far back as Aldo Leopold and others espoused the view. However, it is difficult to argue that it was a view that drove decision making in the 20th century. Actually, one could question its primacy in the 21st. Richard Power's masterwork The Overstory (2018), one of the few works of fiction and one of the few 21st century works in the Collection, illustrates the point beautifully - I read it whilst also reading Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass (2010). Powerful! Many other writers of a more recent vintage contribute to the development of this concept, stretching back to the mid-20th century. But the idea has gained power and validation.

A list of some of the major categories of “nature writing” are listed below. Obviously, there is often huge overlap among the categories – rarely do works fit into just one. Also note the focus is almost entirely on non-fiction works. There are certainly works of fiction which contain eloquent environmental descriptions and passages - Jack London's Call of the Wild (not in the Collection) leaps to mind. Fiction is typically written with a different primary goal however, and with but a few exceptions, the Collection is limited to non-fiction work.

Pure natural history – often focusing on a specific geography/geology and/or animal or plant family or families. John James Audubon’s Birds of America and Thomas Nuttal's The Genera of North American Plants are but two early examples of the many such works in the Collection.

Travel and exploration – with much overlap from the preceding category, explorers and travelers have written extensively about new (to them and their audience) environments. From Alexander von Humboldt to William Beebe to Peter Matthiessen, travel can bring appreciation, perspective and insight, to be shared with the world through books and, sometimes, illustration.

Governmental Publications – Many influential works were published following governmental-sponsored commissions or expeditions. The report of and diaries from the Lewis & Clark expedition of 1804-6, as well as works by such notable explorers as John Wesley Powell and Clarence Dutton, are prime examples.

Place-based nature writing – typically a work or works about a familiar area, described with passion and more or less scientific rigor. Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and the works of John Burroughs and John Muir are prominent examples. Gilbert White set the bar when he published The Natural History of Selborne (1789).

Scenic Literature - My term for books primarily designed to highlight visual representations of beautiful areas, primarily natural. They were very popular in the late 19th century. Picturesque America (1872-4), co-edited by William Cullen Bryant is an excellent example. The Sierra Club's nature photography series, such as Eliot Porter's The Place No One Knew: Glen Canyon on the Colorado (1963), which is credited with helping save the Grand Canyon from development, and such books as This is Dinosaur (1955), edited by Wallace Stegner, which did the same for Dinosaur National Monument, are fine examples. Ansel Adams' nature photography is peerless.

Guidebooks, promotional materials and other reference books – Some beautiful and influential books were published as guidebooks or promotional materials seeking to lure travelers and settlers – in the case of promotional materials often focusing on the Western U.S. and sometimes published under the auspices of municipal governments or railroads. Among John Muir’s first published works (as editor and contributor) was Picturesque California (1887-8), which included extensive etchings and photogravures, which was designed in part to lure immigrants to the west coast. Interestingly, in the latter part of the 19th century and early part of the 20th, the railroads published or sponsored a lot of important publications - albeit in order to drive interest and, ultimately, traffic. The Collection includes several guides published by railroads in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, related to Yellowstone and Yosemite in particular. And various books about the Adirondacks in the mid-19th century (see Headley (1849), Murray (1869) and Stoddard (1893)) were influential not just in promoting the Adirondacks specifically, but in encouraging vacation nature travel in general.

Recreation-specific writing – Writers about hunting, fishing, birding, hiking, camping, mountaineering, water sports and myriad other activities published works which, in their descriptions of the environment, and sometimes their outright advocacy for resource preservation, became influential in attracting the public to nature and outdoor pursuits. Early examples include Williiam Elliott's Carolina Sports by Land and Water (1846 - the edition in the Collection is the first UK edition, published in 1867) and Henry William Herbert's Frank Forester's Field Sports (1849). The burgeoning popularity of such pursuits naturally led to an increased interest in preserving the resources necessary to pursue them. Wealthy east coast sportsmen - especially hunters - were an important conservation force as they strove to protect game stocks and habitat. The Boone & Crockett Club was a conservation leader from its founding in the late 19th century - and continues those efforts today. Birding almost deserves its own heading, given its popularity and the volume of material published about it - a fair representation of which is in the Collection. Birding was popular among all genders - many of the earliest female authors represented in the Collection wrote about birds and birding specifically.

Resource sustainability – The EC movement has historically had a schism between conservationists - those interested in exploiting resources sustainably, vs. preservationists - those that advocate for maintaining intact ecosystems. An early example of this was the conflict between Gifford Pinchot, who was the foremost conservationist of his, or perhaps any, time – and John Muir. Pinchot and Muir began as friends and correspondents but ultimately became intellectual adversaries over Pinchot’s push for sustainable forest exploitation vs. Muir’s advocacy for wilderness preservation - especially Hetch-Hetchy. Many of the early EC writers, including Marsh, were focused on preserving and sustaining resources primarily for human’s long-term use. The preservation movement, aimed at maintaining ecosystems intact and relatively untouched, took firm hold with Muir and has increasingly dominated EC thinking since. More on this critical conflict throughout this site.

Environmental protection – Finally, we have works specifically advocating as their primary purpose the protection of earth’s resources – forests, ecosystems, deserts, oceans, air, water, minerals, hydrocarbons, climate, etc.

No matter how you choose to slice it, the Collection has myriad examples of each slice.

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

The initial focus of the environmental conservation movement was on preservation of landscapes and tangible resources, especially forests and rivers, on the one hand, and wildlife conservation on the other. This largely remained the case until the rise of the modern environmental conservation movement in the 1960s. The mid-20th century saw the maturation of ecology, providing a scientific foundation - Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac (1949) helped establish an ecologically based "land ethic." Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published in 1962 to an unusual amount of public attention, launching the modern movement. The book sharpened the focus on less visible environmental degradation and the resulting impacts on human and animal well-being. The U.S. had passed some weak environmental laws addressing air and water quality (for example) in the mid-20th century. The primary regulatory framework which now exists, however, was largely enacted in the late 1960's and early 1970's, around the time of the first Earth Day in 1970, both spurred in large part directly from the expanded ecological consciousness triggered by Silent Spring.

Wielding a very broad brush, one could say that for one hundred years from the publication of Marsh's Man and Nature in 1864 until the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964, the movement was about sustaining and protecting land, sea and natural resources. From 1962 on, there was added to this a new focus - the impacts of environmental abuse on human health, finally addressing the disparate impact on disadvantaged (often Black) communities. This focus on pollution, pesticides and other chemical contaminates, nuclear fallout and the like really defines the modern era, although the battles to protect land and resources continued unabated as well.

Since 1970, issues including environmental justice, climate change, chemical body burden, biodiversity and ecosystem services have emerged. This has resulted in a shift from debates around protection vs. exploitation of resources to a more nuanced recognition of indirect impacts of human actions - impacts on climate, biodiversity, and differential exposures and impacts on different subsets of the population, to cite a few examples. This shift has also included greater focus on remediation.

But let us back up a bit. A simplistic overlapping timeline summarizing the development of European/American attitudes about nature since the 15th century, and the ultimate development of an ethos of environmental conservation, might look like this:

Age of Exploration (15th-18th centuries): European discovery and colonization of South and North America. The goal of most of the earliest European explorers was commercial, with a missionary religious element as well - they sought resources and colonies for the benefit of themselves and their patrons, who were often heads of state. They did introduce to the European world myriad new lands, new environments, new ecosystems, new wonders. Also new people, whom they mostly killed or enslaved.

Scientific Revolution (16th-18th centuries): The development of the scientific method, general literacy and rationality, all of which often conflicted with the still dominant dogma of the Christian religions. Science begins to separate from philosophy and theology.

Age of Enlightenment (18th century): Popularization of science, along with increased specialization. A focus on empiricism, rationality and reductionism, the latter being the trend towards seeing complex systems as the sum of their parts. Important components of the age include natural theology, deism and an appreciation of the sublime, ideas which began to recognize that beauty in nature could be a reflection of the beholder's God. The initial focus was on landscapes which reflected human intervention, such as pastoral areas and formal gardens.

Romanticism (late 18th into first half of 19th century): Backlash against the cold rationality of the Enlightenment and the effects of the Industrial Revolution. Emphasis on intuition and emotion. Broader recognition of nature as a system with an independent value, with humankind being but one element - appreciation of nature for its own sake and as an antidote to the squalor of the burgeoning cities. Primitivism, an important concept in the Romantic era, held that humans' happiness and well-being were in inverse proportion to their exposure to 'civilization'.

Transcendentalism (mid-19th century): Sort of a culmination of Romanticism - belief in intuition over empiricism, albeit without opposing science. Strong belief in primacy and goodness of the individual. Even greater emphasis on qualities and importance of nature for its own sake and as a necessary prerequisite for human fulfillment.

Post American Civil War Period (1865-1890): The final American westward push to the Pacific, including the completion of the transcontinental railroads, and the exploration of many of the wonders of the West, such as the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. In 1890, the U.S. Census Bureau declared the American frontier to be closed. The burgeoning realization that humankind was negatively impacting the environment, perhaps permanently, and that certain resources and environments needed to be protected - resulted in the creation of the first U.S. national parks, and the protection of the Adirondack and Catskill Mountain areas in New York State. John Burroughs and John Muir begin their careers.

The Progressive Era (1890-1915): Major shift in thinking on social reform and the role of government. Massive increase in U.S. land protection, primarily under President Theodore Roosevelt. Debate between "conservation" and "preservation" in the environmental movement, the former focused on sustainable use and the latter on protection. This fight has evolved but continues today. The (losing) battle over damming the Hetch-Hetchy Valley in Yosemite was the first real national debate around land protection vs. utilization and put the EC movement on a new level of visibility and prominence.

World Wars/Depression/Baby Boom (1916-1964): While the Depression and World Wars shifted priorities for many, the period saw a continuation of progress made during the prior period. Post-WWII, the Cold War and geopolitical concerns and newly developed and commercialized chemical products (like DDT) led to a period where other priorities than conservation dominated public policy - to the detriment of the country and the planet. At the same time, ecology developed into a recognized science, and ecological thinking became the guiding principle of the movement. Concerns about over-population, with consequential resource constraints (especially food), became an important theme.

Modern Environmentalism (1962-Present): I choose to identify the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962 as the launch point of the modern, mature EC movement. The first Earth Day was in 1970, a period which also saw the first environmental legislation in the U.S. with any teeth. The general public became more aware of the less visible impacts of pollution and exploitation and, critically, the potentially catastrophic effects on human health. The movement became popular, and populist. LBJ was arguably the most environmentally active president since the Roosevelts, with Nixon surprisingly not far behind. The "Crying Indian" anti-pollution TV commercial of 1971 (which I grew up seeing frequently, particularly on 'Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom' with Marlin Perkins), deemed one of the most influential campaigns of the 20th century by 'Ad Age,' was ubiquitous and even somewhat effective in changing behavior and fostering anti-littering legislation. (This notwithstanding the "Indian" was really an Italian-American from Louisiana, and the tropes used in the spot are considered offensively stereotypical). This pinnacle in the conservation movement lasted until the mid-1970s, when the oil embargoes combined with an anti-regulatory backlash resulted in a change in focus. A focal point of that backlash was a memo written by Lewis Powell for the US Chamber of Commerce that explicitly set forth a series of steps to combat the influence of the new environmentalists - Powell wrote that a failure to do so could result in the death of the free enterprise system.

Climate, Environmental Justice and questioning the ecological primacy of humankind (1990s-Present): An appreciation builds, particularly in the 21st century, that climate change represents the most critical environmental conservation issue of our age. There are still climate change deniers, but none with an ounce of sense. There develops an increasing understanding that humankind is but one organism in the ecological network of earth and that, if it wants that network to remain viable, it needs to conduct itself accordingly. Note that increased understanding has not yet translated to widespread acceptance or execution.

For millennia, European, and by extension American, ideas about nature were grounded in the Judeo-Christian framework that held that the God-given role of humankind was, as put forth in the first book of the bible, to "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over...every living thing..." This construct generally precluded the idea that nature might have an independent value worth protecting, or even appreciating. In fact, the bible frequently uses the term "wilderness" to denote an "environment of evil, a kind of hell." [Nash p. 15]. This was certainly the view of the original European settlers in America and remained the dominant ideology of pioneers throughout the American history of westward expansion.

The pioneers' fear and discomfort of wilderness was representative of the prevailing attitude until the "closing" of the American frontier, around 1890. Earlier in the 19th century there was a growing appreciation of nature in general and wilderness in particular, but the drivers tended to be monied and well-educated eastern city-dwellers. it was only with the closing of the frontier and the perceived loss of the pioneering element of American character that the benefits of wilderness began to be widely appreciated - and it was only then that the idea of landscape preservation in the form of National Parks and the like took root. (Protection of Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Adirondacks were not primarily motivated by landscape/wilderness/nature preservation per se, it was only in retrospect that this benefit became appreciated). For a further discussion of this see Nash pp. 143-154.

Roderick Nash notes that an "[a]ppreciation of the wilderness began in the cities. The literary gentleman wielding pen, not the pioneer with his axe, made the first gestures of resistance against the strong currents of antipathy." [Nash p. 44]. Indeed, an ongoing theme of this work will be the importance of wealthy urban thinkers and writers in the development of nature appreciation and a conservation ethic.

The beginnings of an appreciation for nature came largely from gentlemen and (some) gentlewoman who had the time and resources to pursue their passions for science, exploration and sport. Among the funniest books I have ever read is Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything (2005), a survey of the history of the development of knowledge in various scientific areas. A disproportionate number of "scientists" through the 19th century were in fact curious amateurs - often very learned amateurs - but amateurs, nevertheless. The humor stems from (in addition to the brilliance of Bryson's writing), the quite extraordinary and often hilarious efforts they undertook in pursuit of the advancement of science. All this is to say that a notable feature of natural history as practiced into and even through the early 19th century, is that most authors cannot be pigeonholed. Naturalist, scientist, explorer, hunter, fisher, adventurer, artist. Many were all of that and sometimes more. They explored their own environments as well as those of the New World (largely North and South America and Africa) following European discovery and penetration. Notably, even giants like Burroughs and Muir, who both wrote into the early 20th century, were largely self-taught.

The first movement toward appreciation of nature for its own sake had a religious underpinning - the physico-theology, or natural theology movement of the 17th century, led by John Ray (The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation (1691)), posited an independent value of nature as a reflection of his god's work. However, the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment was characterized by a focus on cold rationality. Elements of nature were viewed as machines, to be analyzed, understood and classified. Emotional intercourse with and appreciation of nature were not part of the program - until thinkers such as William Gilpin came along (see Three Essays... (1792)) and popularized the idea of the 'picturesque.' It was not until the Romantic era, with its appreciation of nature and aesthetic ideals of the sublime and the picturesque, that nature was more broadly viewed with independent and emotional appreciation.

In researching some of the key figures from the late 18th into the early 20th century, I've been struck by just how influential the poets of the Romantic Age were. The names Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Burns and Byron in the U.K. and William Cullen Bryant , Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. in the U.S. are of course familiar. But it is impossible today to appreciate just how important poets were in the age before photography and mass media. Their influence was extraordinary - they changed the way Western people perceived and interacted with their environment - they emphasized the emotional response to nature (and everything else) over the pure intellectual and process focus of the Enlightenment. In addition to the Romantics and fireside poets, the poetry of Walt Whitman heralded a new, American approach to what it means to be human in the natural world.

To emphasize the point, each of Thoreau, Burroughs and Muir read the Romantics and wrote and published their own poetry. Burroughs was one of Whitman's closest friends and published two books on him (including the first book ever published on Whitman). Poetry is not a focus of this Collection, but it is important to understand just how impactful it was. A number of 20th century poets were important environmental figures as well, such as Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, and Gary Snyder.

A giant in the development of western thought on nature was Alexander von Humboldt, a scientist and explorer whose works spanned the first half of the 19th century. Humboldt was a polymath - he was interested in everything and knew everybody (and, it must be said, almost everything!). More about him later, but in short, his holistic approach to nature, his early identification of negative human impacts on the environment, and his extraordinary influence on pretty much every major Western thinker (to say nothing of every American and European student) for decades to come made him a keystone in the development of Western thought on nature and humankind's place in it. (He was nearly "erased" during WWI, a century after his early writings, during the anti-German sentiment of the time.)

The Romantic and Transcendental movements drove a fundamental shift in how nature was perceived. Ralph Waldo Emerson's "epoch-making" book-length essay Nature (1836) established the foundations of the Transcendental movement. Henry David Thoreau (Walden (1854) and other works) expanded Emerson's human-centric perspective to one where nature and wilderness have independent value. Thoreau was the progenitor of the "nature essay" of John Burroughs, John Muir, Enos Mills, Wilson Flagg and many others during the second half of the 19th century and into the 20th century. The nature essay was a popular and effective medium (often published initially in magazines, then collected into book form) for helping develop a broad public appreciation for the environment. Incidentally, it is remarkable how many of these essayists were directly and profoundly impacted by the poetry of the Romantics (Wordsworth and Coleridge in particular). The Romantic poets, in turn, were influenced by many of the 17th and 18th century works (i.e. William Bartram's Travels (1789)) that are today recognized as particularly impactful in the development of the conservation ethic.

Another profound shift that occurred concurrent with the Romantic Age was the rise of specialization in the sciences. The word "scientist" itself was first used 1833. This marked a movement of the sciences beginning to separate into individual fields, as areas of expertise narrowed, and the approach involved progressively less field work and more laboratory work. The focus was increasingly at a molecular (and ultimately genetic) level, and less at an ecosystem level. The works and authors discussed herein were largely exceptions to this trend.

The term "ecology" was coined in 1866 by the German scientist Ernst Haeckel, but it was decades before it became established as a widely recognized scientific discipline in its own right. In the early chapters and associated Catalogue pages of this site, one is struck by how many of the authors are characterized in some way or another as forerunners, or even "fathers," of ecology (I've not come across any mothers yet). The recognition that nature is a system, and that humankind is one element of it, developed over centuries - it is the underlying foundation of the conservation movement. Leopold's A Sand County Almanac (1949) cemented the ecological underpinnings of the movement. "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise." (SCA p. 3)

From the advent of an appreciation of nature for its own sake and recognition that the natural world has a value independent of humankind, came the burgeoning realization that mankind was not only an element of nature but also capable of causing it irretrievable harm. This however was by no means universally accepted (and sadly is still not). It has taken continuous work by legions - many of the most important represented in the Collection - to continue to foster appreciation, recognition and acceptance of the responsibility of stewardship of the environment, work that continues today.

The mid-19th century was a critical and fertile period in launching the movement, with Thoreau, Marsh and Charles Darwin publishing their masterworks within a ten-year period of each other. The late 19th century, around 1890, was another fulcrum point. It was marked by the closing of the American frontier (as determined by the U.S. Census Bureau). With that loss, Americans generally began to better appreciate the importance that nature, wilderness and pioneering had on forging and defining the national character, and began to focus more on preserving those vestiges that remained. (Note that this was also true of the evolving view of the public on the plight of the Native Americans as well, although that is not a focus of this work).

The focal points of the post-1890 period - the Progressive Era - were resource and wildlife conservation. There was on the one hand a burgeoning recognition that unbridled laissez-faire capitalism results in short-term, selfish behavior in areas such as resource exploitation, with no consideration given to present or future broader societal welfare. Those who maintain the position that short-term profit maximization is definitionally in the best interests of society are (a) absolute fucking idiots, and (b) as I write this in 2025, "running" this country.

The EC movement was also riven by the debate between preservation and "conservation" as then defined, the latter generally understood as "wise-use" or "sustainable" exploitation, a debate which split the EC movement for decades and continues to this day. Gifford Pinchot, first head of the US Forest Service, is the poster boy of the sustainable use school of conservation. Only later in the 20th century did the broader EC topics like pollution control, remediation, climate, environmental justice and ecosystem services come to the forefront of the EC movement.

Stephen Fox in his biography of John Muir and survey of the conservation movement (1981 - see References) focuses on the often conflicting roles of dedicated amateurs vs. professionals in the movement. "On a practical level conservation has been sustained by this interplay between professionals and radical amateurs. Professionals keep the movement organized. Amateurs keep it honest. The ghosts of Muir and [Gifford] Pinchot still wrestle for control - in a fractious but symbiotic embrace." (p. 182).

That all being said, while the Progressive Era saw enormous strides in land preservation and conservation (in the forms of new NPs, forest reserves, wildlife refuges, and the like), nevertheless the lack of regulations and limits on private activity generally led to a brewing environmental catastrophe in the post-WWI period leading up to the Great Depression. As but one example, waterfowl stocks (ducks, geese, etc.) had been decimated - with 80% declines in populations nationally and extinction a very real possibility in the foreseeable future.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was perhaps the most naturally conservationist president in our history when one views his activities and interests prior to being elected. While the Great Depression clearly caused great human suffering, it was arguably an environmental boon, as it gave FDR the ability and means to deploy unprecedented resources to environmental conservation and remediation. Along with his key conservation advisors, including Interior Secretary Harold Ickes, Irving Brant, Jay "Ding" Darling, Ira Gabrielson, and others, the administrations of FDR took advantage of the armies of unemployed to deploy teams of Civilian Conservation Corp men (always men) to help create state park systems in any states, build facilities across the federal land portfolio and, perhaps most importantly, remediate environmental degradations nationally. These efforts can are criticized, from a sound basis, for focusing too much on development, from roads in NPs to dams on our great rivers. But as a whole, New Deal conservation efforts began to reverse centuries of cumulative destruction.

Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac (1946) and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962) were perhaps the two watershed EC books of the 20th century and modern environmentalism, as discussed throughout this site. The former placed the movement firmly within the broader ecological framework which we now recognize as essential to understanding and dealing with environmental issues. The latter effectively launched the modern environmental conservation movement, with its newly earned grassroots popular support and an expansion of focus from land and resource conservation to the impacts of environmental abuse on human health.

The environmental conservation movement in America up until 1962 was unusual, if not unique, in that it was a significant social reform movement that was driven not by an upwelling of public opinion, but largely by the actions dictated by the "elite" classes - mostly wealthy white men from the Northeast and Midwest - that were imposed on a local affected population that was at best largely indifferent and at worst actively hostile to the change. Contrast the environmental movement as described in the preceding chapters with other social movements of the time - women's suffrage, the labor movement, anti-immigration. While the leaders may have come from the "elite" classes, particularly with respect to suffrage, over all these movements were driven by local, grassroots action.

This changed with Silent Spring. The publication of Carson's book launched a true grassroots environmental movement - driven by popular opinion and populist action. And thus, the modern environmental conservation movement was born.

The last several decades of the 20th century brought a greater proportion of books explicitly focused on the threat presented by ongoing environmental degradation, some about the planet generally and others focused on specific regions or ecosystems. Proposed solutions tend to focus on changes in attitude and mindset on the one hand, and public policy changes on the other, with a consistent focus on remediation as well. Climate change becomes an area of overriding concern beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s.

The latter half of the 20th century brought not just the modern environmental movement, but also the development of environmental history and literature as a distinct field of study. Roderick Nash's Wilderness and the American Mind (1967) and Hans Huth's Nature and the American (1957), along with the works of Samuel Hays, are foundational texts. For anyone reading this with a desire to delve deeper, I would recommend Nash in particular. The works of Paul Brooks, Lawrence Buell, Donald Worster and many others continue the tradition. Douglas Brinkley's trilogy of Wilderness Warrior, Rightful Heritage and Silent Spring Revolution are collectively extremely long, but represent an outstanding overview of the EC movement in the 20th century. All of these authors are represented in the Collection.

CONCLUSION

TBC...