What happened on every day in the history of conservation
One can get an argument about who is the greatest environmental U.S. president—maybe Teddy Roosevelt, maybe Richard Nixon, maybe even Abraham Lincoln. But there can’t be much argument about the greatest environmental vice president. Or perhaps, it is best to say the greatest environmentalist to become vice president—Al Gore. Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. was […]
Read More →If you were given the chance to buy land at 30 cents per acre, would you? Me, too, even if those acres were far away. The U.S. said yes to that decision about 150 years ago, when it bought Alaska from the Russians. The purchase price was actually $7.2 million, or 2 cents per acre […]
Read More →If you’ve ever been to Niagara Falls, you know what an overwhelming experience it is. Massive quantities of water cascading over the falls, while you stand just feet away from the edge. Or floating on the Maid of the Mist, all that water crashing down around you. Now, just imagine if it stopped. Unimaginable, you […]
Read More →In the mid-1800s, London’s Thames River was a sewer. A huge, foul, disease-causing cesspool fed by the wastes of London’s exploding human population. Something had to be done, and Joseph Bazalgette did it. Joseph Bazalgette was born on March 28, 1819, the son of a naval engineer (died 1891). Like his father, he also […]
Read More →One of America’s most ambitious projects—economic and environmental—began on March 27, 1975, when the first pipe was laid for what would become the Trans Alaska Pipeline. After years of debate about the value and possible impact of the pipeline, the outcome has been remarkably positive. Oil was discovered in the far north of Alaska […]
Read More →Florida is one of the world’s most biologically and environmentally interesting places. And we owe much of our opportunity to enjoy Florida’s natural resources to a woman who persevered over her long lifetime to protect those resources for us. Marjorie Harris was born on March 26, 1915, in Boston, but moved to Bonita Springs, […]
Read More →Several of the people highlighted in this conservation calendar have earned names like “father of conservation,” or “godmother of sustainability.” But in my mind, only one of these father or mother figures stands out as so astoundingly worthy of such a name. His name is Norman Borlaug, known as the “Father of the Green Revolution.” […]
Read More →Ask most people about Girl Scouts, and the answer will probably be, “Cookies.” But the organization is, of course, much broader and more important to the lives of girls than just Samoas and Tagalongs. Just like the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scout movement has had an incredible influence on young girls—and on the environment we […]
Read More →At one time, redwoods covered a large area of northern California, both along the coast and inland. But lumbering and other clearing had reduced the area of these majestic forests substantially by 1900. Then, some folks decided to do something about this—and the Save the Redwoods League was formed. The origin goes back to […]
Read More →The outer banks of North Carolina are home to two national seashores. The northern one, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, is well known and heavily visited. The other, Cape Lookout National Seashore, whose establishment we celebrate today (March 10, 1966), is exactly the opposite—not well known and not heavily visited. Why? Because Cape Lookout is […]
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