What happened on every day in the history of conservation
John Muir, the father of American conservation, loved the Yosemite Valley like no other place on earth. He wrote, “How vividly my own first journey to Yosemite comes to mind. It was bloom-time of the year over all the lowlands and ranges of the coast; the landscape was fairly drenched with sunshine, the larks were […]
Read More →Turns out that September 30 is a pretty dam important day! Two major dam-related events occurred on this date, both relating to the availability of water and water-based energy. The first event, on September 30, 1882, didn’t make much of a splash then and is remembered even less today. Dams had always been used […]
Read More →I’m cheating a bit with today’s entry. Technically, in 2019, National Public Lands Day will be celebrated on September 28. However, it doesn’t always fall on this date. National Public Lands Day occurs on the fourth Saturday in September. That is the 28th in 2019. The date moves around in order to accomplish the […]
Read More →So you don’t believe in Paul Bunyan or Sasquatch, here’s one you can believe in: Johnny Appleseed was a real man who roamed around planting apple trees. And many consider him one of our earliest and most ardent conservationists. But, there is a bit more to the story than just that. John Chapman, who […]
Read More →For the fifth time in the history of the United Nations, a pope climbed the dais in the General Assembly chamber at UN headquarters in New York to address the world’s leaders. This time, Pope Francis had a strong focus within an overall appeal for peace and love: The earth’s environment must also receive the […]
Read More →Ask just about anyone to name a historical figure in forestry, and the name Gifford Pinchot is sure to pop up. Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946) is commonly called the father of American forestry—the first trained forester working in the U.S., the originator and first chief of the U.S. Forest Service, and the conservation mentor of Teddy […]
Read More →It took an act of Congress and a Proclamation by President Ronald Reagan—but, on September 23, 1986, the United States got a national flower: the rose. Actually, the country got a “national floral emblem,” but let’s agree that a rose by whatever bureaucratic name we choose is still the national flower. It wasn’t […]
Read More →One of the triumphs at the beginning of the modern environmental movement was the establishment of Assateague Island National Seashore. The barriers islands of which Assateague is a part are so significant that in 1979 the United Nations designated the Assateague region as a World Biosphere Reserve (the Virginia Coast reserve). However, it took a […]
Read More →A lobbyist once told me that all things are like pancakes—they all have two sides. Today’s story is about a man who certainly had two sides, two very complex and very confusing sides. The man is Grey Owl, one of Canada’s earliest conservationists, and an imposter on a grand scale. So, let me first […]
Read More →When President Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, he said to her, “So you are the lady who started all this.” When Senator Abraham Ribicoff met Rachel Carson just before she gave testimony to his committee, he said the same to her. Ribicoff was wholly correct—Rachel Carson had started what […]
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