1912-1920
1912-1920
1912
Congress begins several years of debate and hearings on the question of
whether or not to create a National Park Service.
Congress passes legislation to amend the Withdrawal Act, opening withdrawn
lands to mining of "metalliferous minerals" and adding California to the list
of states where National Forests may not be created or enlarged without
Congressional approval.
John Muir publishes The Yosemite, an eloquent and loving portrait which
concludes with an impassioned plea for the preservation of Hetch Hetchy.
Concern for "human conservation" and early attempts by American cities to cope
with the growing problem of urban air pollution are reflected in the material
compiled by Samuel B. Flagg for a U.S. Bureau of Mines publication, City Smoke
Ordinances and Smoke Abatement.
Public interest in conservation issues is reflected in the publication of two
valuable bibliographies: the Library of Congress's Select List of References
on the Conservation of Natural Resources in the United States, and the
Department of the Interior's List of National Park Publications.
1913
Debate over the fate of Hetch Hetchy continues in the national press
throughout the year, along with intensive campaigning to save Hetch Hetchy on
the part of conservation and nature-related organizations (such as the Sierra
Club and the Appalachian Mountain Club) and concerned individuals throughout
the country; the arguments made by the opposing sides in the campaign are
exemplified by such works as John Muir's pamphlet "Let Everyone Help to Save
the Famous Hetch Hetchy Valley and Stop the Commercial Destruction Which
Threatens Our National Parks" (1911), Isaac Branson's pamphlet "Yosemite
Against Corporation Greed; Shall Half of Yosemite National Park Be Destroyed
by San Francisco?" (1909), and Martin Vilas's pamphlet "Water and Power for
San Francisco from Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park" (1915). On
September 3 and December 6, the House and Senate, respectively, pass the Raker
Act, granting San Francisco permission to dam Hetch Hetchy, and President
Woodrow Wilson signs the bill into law on December 19; though a defeat for
preservation-minded conservationists, the controversy has brought the
preservationist movement to a new level of maturity, and the conservation
movement as a whole to a new level of importance and awareness in national
life; the loss of Hetch Hetchy now galvanizes the campaign to create an
independent Federal bureau to protect and care for the national parks.
William Temple Hornaday, now head of the New York Zoological Park, publishes
Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and Preservation, "one of the first
books wholly devoted to endangered wild animals" (in the words of historian
Stephen Fox); the book is written to accompany Hornaday's founding of the
Permanent Wildlife Protection Fund, an organization devoted to campaigning for
wildlife protection throughout the nation.
Congress passes what is known as the Migratory Bird Act or Weeks-McLean Act,
declaring all migratory and insectivorous birds to be within the custody and
protection of the Federal government; this is eventually superseded by the
Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.
Congress passes a provision of the Federal Tariff Act prohibiting the
importation of many kinds of wild bird feathers, which had been extensively
used for women's hats; this measure is the result of a long public campaign by
many conservationists, especially the nation's Audubon Societies, against the
use of wild bird plumage in the millinery trade.
The National Conservation Exposition is held in Knoxville, Tennessee, in
September and October, with the support of local and national business and
political leaders, including Gifford Pinchot and WJ McGee, both of whom serve
as advisors; though regional in emphasis, this is the major public effort in
conservation education in this era, an ambitious attempt to educate the public
into an understanding of conservation issues, and especially "to teach farmers
and timber-land owners the necessity for general co-operation if we are to
preserve the forests, streams, and soils of the country," in the words of the
Exposition's chronicler; the Exposition reveals how thoroughly conservationism
was construed as an issue of civic and even religious virtue in this era, and
the sometimes uneasy alliance of business, civic, governmental, and religious
leadership which gave early conservationism its remarkable breadth of support.
A descriptive commemorative album, The First Exposition of Conservation and
its Builders: An Official History of the National Conservation Exposition...,
edited by W.M. Goodman, is published in 1914.
Joseph Knowles publishes his best-selling Alone in the Wilderness, an account
of his probably fraudulent experience living "as Adam lived" off the Maine
wilderness; its popularity reflects Americans' turn-of-the-century
preoccupation with the relationship of wilderness to human nature and the
American character; while Knowles's almost formulaic references to the
importance of wilderness as a resource for human health, spirituality, and art
reveal how completely many of the essential ingredients of the conservation
ethos have permeated American popular culture.
1914
President Wilson issues a Proclamation establishing Papago Saguaro National
Monument, Arizona.
John Muir dies in California at the age of 76.
1915
Congress passes a bill establishing Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
President Wilson issues a Proclamation establishing Dinosaur National
Monument, Utah.
Cornell horticulture professorLiberty Hyde Bailey, already well known for his
efforts in the nature-study and country-life movements, publishes The Holy
Earth, a pioneering attempt to establish an ethic for the man/nature
relationship which directly influences Aldo Leopold's development of an
ecologically-based "land ethic" in the 1930s and '40s.
Overriding the longstanding opposition of Gifford Pinchot and many of his
associates in the utilitarian wing of the conservation movement, the New York
Board of Trade and Transportation (which was concerned about loss of water for
the Erie Canal) and the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks
(which was dominated by wealthy landowners in the Park region) succeed in
having a permanent prohibition on timber cutting in the Adirondack Park
incorporated into the new New York State constitution of this year.
Under pressure from livestock owners' associations, Congress appropriates
$125,000 to enable the Bureau of Biological Survey to begin large-scale
killing of predator animals, such as wolves and coyotes, regarded as injurious
to sheep and cattle.
The Ecological Society of America is founded "for the purpose of giving unity
to the study of organisms in relation to environment, as a means of furthering
intercourse between persons who are approaching widely different groups of
organisms from closely related points of view, for the stimulation of
ecological research, and to assist the development of the utilities which may
be served by ecological principles."
1916
Congress passes the National Park Service Act, creating the National Park
Service within the Department of the Interior with the support of Interior
Secretary Franklin K. Lane; Stephen T. Mather is its first Director.
Congress passes a bill establishing Hawaii National Park, Hawaii, and a bill
establishing Lassen Volcanic National Park, California.
President Wilson issues a Proclamation establishing Sieur de Monts National
Monument on Mount Desert Island, Maine, on lands conveyed to the United States
by a private citizens' group, the Hancock County Trustees of Public
Reservations; and a Proclamation establishing Capulin Mountain National
Monument, New Mexico.
Frederic E. Clements publishes Plant Succession: An Analysis of the
Development of Vegetation, a seminal work of ecological science, establishing
a dynamic model of species succession toward an eventual "climax" equilibrium
under the influence of climate and other factors in a given habitat; this work
has profound implications for the future development of conservationist
thought.
John Charles Van Dyke publishes The Mountain: Renewed Studies in Impressions
and Appearances, one of his series of books exploring and celebrating the
distinctive aesthetic properties of various wild landscapes in elegant and
perceptive detail; Van Dyke's work illuminates Americans' increasingly
sophisticated pleasure in scenic beauty in an era when the preservationist
dimension of conservationism achieved permanent importance.
1917
Congress passes a bill establishing Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska.
The last and widest-ranging of the series of four National Parks Conferences
meets in Washington to explore the role of the parks in American life and the
complex challenges facing the new National Park Service; the conference's
Proceedings, rich in implication for the parks' cultural, economic, and
scientific history, are published later in the year.
1918
Congress approves the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, which implements a
1916 Convention (between the U.S. and Britain, acting for Canada) for the
Protection of Migratory Birds, and establishes responsibility for
international migratory bird protection.
President Wilson issues a Proclamation establishing Zion National Monument,
Utah, incorporating Mukuntuweap National Monument, and a Proclamation
establishing Katmai National Monument, Alaska.
1919
Congress passes a bill establishing Lafayette National Park, Maine,
superseding Sieur de Monts National Monument, as the first National Park east
of the Mississippi; it is renamed Acadia National Park in 1929.
Congress passes a bill establishing Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona,
superseding Grand Canyon National Monument, and a bill establishing Zion
National Park, Utah, superseding Zion National Monument.
President Wilson issues a Proclamation establishing Scotts Bluff National
Monument, Nebraska.
Stephen A. Forbes, a biologist whose work on the ecology of freshwater ponds
has important implications for the future of conservationist thought, and
Robert Earle Richardson publish Some Recent Changes in Illinois River Biology,
a brief study which raises disturbing questions about the complex impact of
reclamation engineering projects and sewage disposal on riverine biology; this
work anticipates the kinds of environmental issues which will increasingly
preoccupy conservationists later in the century.
The National Parks Association (renamed the National Parks and Conservation
Association in 1970) is founded in Washington, D.C. by a group of public
officials, scientists, educational leaders, and other prominent citizens,
under the leadership of retiring Park Service Education Division chief Robert
Sterling Yard, and with the personal and financial support of Park Service
Director Stephen T. Mather; the new organization's purpose is to educate the
public about and through the national parks, to generate support for the
parks' growth and protection, and to encourage their responsible enjoyment by
greater numbers of visitors.
1920
Congress passes the Federal Water Power Act, creating a Federal Power
Commission with extensive authority over waterways and the construction and
use of water power projects.
The Ecological Society of America begins publication of its quarterly journal,
Ecology.