What happened on every day in the history of conservation
It’s one of those days. A day when no great conservationist was born and no noteworthy conservation event occurred (if you know of one, tell me). But something interesting did happen—the first of the huge purposefully littering events known as “Ticker Tape Parades.” October 28, 1886, was a big day in New York City. President […]
Read More →In its fourth year of operation, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) declared 26 additional properties to the World Heritage List at its annual meeting, ending on October 30, 1981. The World Heritage Committee met in Sydney, Australia during October 26-30. Among the 26 new properties were 17 in the cultural category and […]
Read More →One of the joys of writing this calendar is shining a light on people and events that have lived more in the shadows than in the spotlight. Today is the birthday of one such man, called by those who knew him the “20th Century John Muir.” He is Dr. Edgar Wayburn. Wayburn was born on […]
Read More →I have written about the creation of several national parks and monuments that occurred on other days. Most begin with a story of local residents who loved the region and mounted a movement to create a park. But the origin of this park is much different. The area now occupied by Canyonlands National Park is […]
Read More →Wildlife damage management is an established part of the wildlife profession. Animals often end up in the wrong place, at least from a human perspective. Mice in the pantry, skunks under the deck, bats in the attic. But on September 9, 1945, getting rid of unwanted nature took on a new meaning. On that date, […]
Read More →“Money makes the world go round,” or so says a modern aphorism. It is as true for conservation as it is for all of us. Conservation leaders recognized that truth in 1961, when they came together to form what we now call the WWF, or, perhaps, “you know, those panda folks.” Conservation groups weren’t common […]
Read More →At the turn of the 20th Century, forestry was a one-way business: Cut-out and get-out. Loggers removed all the trees from a forest, left the land to an unknown future, and headed to the next virgin forest. It happened first in the northeastern quadrant of the U.S., and the south was next on the menu. […]
Read More →The foraminifera are microscopic single-celled marine animals that secrete tiny shells. Under a microscope, they look like miniature mollusks. It took a dedicated and observant French scientist, Alcide d’Orbigny, to figure out what these little creatures were all about. Alcide d’Orbigny was born in the village of Couëron, France, on the banks of the Loire […]
Read More →On September 2, 1940, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stood at the podium on the border of Tennessee and addressed a crowd of ten thousand standing below him in the state of North Carolina. The occasion was the dedication of Great Smoky National Park, the 500,000-acre forest that straddles the two states. Great Smoky became the […]
Read More →UNESCO is one of those darned acronyms that we all have heard of, but perhaps can’t quite explain. As we often say, it’s complicated. But UNESCO is a fundamentally important cog in the machines of global conservation, for both nature and culture. UNESCO stands for United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It is one […]
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