Arches National Monument was created by President Herbert Hoover on April 12, 1929. It remained a national monument until 1971, when the U.S. Congress passed and President Richard Nixon signed a law to change the status to a national park.
Arches National Park lies in the east-central Utah, near the city of Moab. Arches is the farthest east and north of the five great national parks in Utah (Canyonlands, Capital Reef, Zion and Bryce Canyon are the others). Among the geological beauty and grandeur of these parks, Arches stands out with more than 2000 arches, the highest concentration of such features anywhere in the world.
Delicate Arch in Arches National Park (photo by Donar Reiskoffer)
A Hungarian immigrant, Alexander Ringhoffer, was the first early proponent of creating a park. He had seen the land first in 1922, naming an area of arches and spires “Devil’s Garden” (now in the northern part of the park). He brought the area to the attention of the nearby railroad, convinced that advertising the uniqueness and raw beauty could enhance tourism—and railroad fares. The idea caught on, despite misgivings by some locals who wanted the government land open for mining and grazing.
When President Hoover created Arches National Monument, it included a mere 4,520 acres in two separate tracts. Franklin Roosevelt increased it to 29,000 acres in 1938, and several other expansions led to its current size of about 77,000 acres. The Presidential Proclamation created the park acclaimed that “these areas contain extraordinary examples of wind erosion in the shape of gigantic arches, natural bridges, ‘windows,’ spires, balanced rocks, and other unique wind-worn sandstone formations, the preservation of which is desirable because of their educational and scenic value.”
Landscape Arch in Arches National Park (photo by Cacophony)
Hoover was correct—people now flock to Arches and its neighboring national parks. From the 500 people who visited in 1929, annual visitation now is over 1.5 million per year and growing rapidly. Visitation has doubled since 2000. It is particularly attractive because many of the most outstanding geologic features are visible from the road or accessible via easy hikes.
Dian Fossey is the name we associate with mountain gorillas, but working alongside her and continuing her work to this day was the most active and honored conservationists of modern times.
Ian Redmond was born in Malaysia on April 11, 1954. As a boy, he returned with his mother to the Yorkshire region of England, where he learned to love nature and animals in particular. He completed a university degree in biology in 1976.
Then his life changed. He went to Africa to join the research team studying mountain gorillas. He recalled, “As a newly graduated biologist, it had been my great good fortune to be taken on as Dr. Dian Fossey’s research assistant. The work involved tracking the gorillas each day to make observations on their behaviour and ecology ….” He was also interested in their parasites, a curiosity that earned him the nickname “Worm Boy” (later, he published several papers about parasites of apes and other animals). In 1978, he famously guided David Attenborough who came to Fossey’s research center to film a documentary on mountain gorillas.
Then his life changed again. Later that year, he came upon the body of one of their gorilla subjects, Digit. Digit had been killed by poachers, who cut off his head and hands to sell. Traumatized by the event, Redmond decided to focus on protecting animals more than on studying them. A decade later, that resolve was reinforced when the elephants he was monitoring in Kenya were killed by ivory poachers.
Since then, he has been a tireless advocate for anti-poaching enforcement, conservation and environmental education. He has led field patrols to stop poaching and once went undercover to pose as a gorilla buyer to expose poaching in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He has assisted on more than 100 conservation documentary films for the BBC, National Geographic, Discovery and others. He taught Sigourney Weaver to grunt like a gorilla for the film “Gorillas in the Mist.”
In order to help coordinate conservation efforts, he formed the Ape Alliance in 1996, a consortium of 95 primate conservation groups. He has led similar efforts for elephants (the African Ele-Fund) and rhinoceros (the UK Rhino Group). He worked with the UN Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP) for a decade and is a regular consultant with the UNEP and FAO on conservation matters. Since 2010, he has been an Ambassador for the UNEP Convention on Migratory Species. In 2006, Queen Elizabeth bestowed the Order of the British Empire on Redmond. His list of major conservation awards is long, including one—The Ian Redmond Award of GRASP—named in his honor.
He is a conservationist who understands the importance of protecting nature at all levels—ecosystems, populations and individual animals. He summarized his philosophy recently in this way:
“I am a naturalist by birth, a biologist by training, and a conservationist by necessity. But conservation for me isn’t just about saving species. On a larger scale, the planet needs us to save functioning eco-systems; on a smaller scale, we must also recognise that species are made up of individual animals. For me, it became personal when I had the privilege of getting to know individual wild animals in the wild… I can truthfully say that some of my best friends are gorillas, and I care passionately about them and the future of all life on Earth.”
Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. Ian Redmond. Available at: http://www.cms.int/en/page/ian-redmond. Accessed April 10, 2018.
Arbor Day is a tree-planting rite of spring in all fifty states and in many countries around the world. The date of celebration varies according to the ideal time to plant new trees, but the first Arbor Day was celebrated on April 10, 1872
J. Sterling Morton (born in 1832), a journalist and nature lover, moved to the Nebraska Territory from Michigan in 1854. He and his wife, Carrie, missed the abundant trees of their earlier home, so they planted their 160 acres of grassland with trees, bushes and flowers. Morton became the editor of a newspaper in Nebraska City, and later Secretary of the Nebraska Territory. He used his prominent position to promote interest in agriculture and the environment, especially tree planting.
Julius Sterling Morton (1832-1902) founded Arbor Day (photo by U.S. Department of Agriculture)
Nebraska became a state in 1867, and Morton was named to the state board of agriculture. He convinced his colleagues to create a day to encourage Nebraskans to plant trees. The board wanted to call it Sylan Day, emphasizing forests, but Morton held out for Arbor Day, to recognize that trees everywhere, not just in forests, had great value. Morton won, and the first Arbor Day was celebrated on April 10, 1872. Participants across the state planted more than one million trees!
An early Arbor Day celebration in Dayton, Ohio, 1919 (photo by American Forestry Association)
Just like the trees they planted, Arbor Day kept growing. By 1882, schools across the country were participating, and by 1892, every state except Delaware had created its own Arbor Day (today, all fifty states celebrate Arbor Day). Countries around the world began their own Arbor Day celebration, with Japan leading the way in 1883. The Arbor Day website lists 33 countries with national celebrations.
J. Sterling Morton’s status grew along with his tree planting holiday. He became U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under Grover Cleveland, from 1893-1897. As secretary, he was influential in creating the first national forest preserves. Later, his son created the Morton Arboretum, outside Chicago, now one of the world’s foremost botanical reserves and research institutions. In 1970, President Nixon created National Arbor Day, celebrated on the last Friday in April.
US postage stamp celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the first Arbor Day and the 100th birthday of J. Sterling Morton (photo by US Bureau of Engraving and Printing)
On the 100th anniversary of the first Arbor Day, the Arbor Day Foundation was established to continue and expand the work of tree planting and conservation around the U.S. and the globe. The foundation has more than one million members and donors. The group gives out more than 4 million seedlings each year as part of Arbor Day ceremonies. It engages in a series of projects, to encourage tree plantings in cities, re-establish forests, improve the condition of street trees, teach students about trees and nature, and develop disease-resistant hybrids of imperiled species. They are currently deeply involved in genetic crossing and testing of hazelnut cultivars, seeking those that are blight resistant and adaptable to a wide range of environmental conditions.
Arbor Day, according to its founder, is not like other holidays: “Each of those reposes on the past, while Arbor Day proposes the future.” So, be on the lookout for Arbor Day celebrations in your state and community, and remember the motto of the Morton family: “Plant Trees!”
For those of us of a certain age (that is, old), the name Jim Fowler is synonymous with animal adventures. Fowler was the co-host, with Marlin Perkins, of the television program, Wild Kingdom. Perkins was the star; Fowler did the dirty work. We all wanted to be Jim Fowler.
Fowler was born on April 9, 1932, near Albany, New York. He grew up on a farm and learned to love nature and animals in particular. He went to Earlham College in Indiana, earning a degree in zoology and geology (later, the college also gave him an honorary doctorate). He kicked around the animal rehabilitation and trade world a bit, and started a graduate degree studying the Harpy, a large South American eagle.
Graduate school took a back seat when Fowler was invited to appear on The Today Show in 1961, to talk about his work with eagles. Marlin Perkins saw him on the show and signed him to co-host the new television show, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. And for the next two decades, they were America’s favorite wildlife conservationists. Wild Kingdom took viewers around the world, as Perkins described the behavior of animals and Fowler wrestled with them—collecting animals for zoos and conservation efforts.
Fowler downplayed the difference between the work of Perkins and him on the show. “Marlin was just as active,” he said, “but the camera cutting back and forth between us gave viewers a false impression.” Everyone I know had that false impression. At 6’6” tall and a former college athlete, he was a gentle giant. Fowler wrestled with snakes and alligators, jumped onto animals from helicopters, ran away from angry beasts, while Perkins told us about how the need for animals to defend their territories showed why we needed homeowner’s insurance. “I once went behind a giant termite mound in Zambia,” Fowler recalled. “It was sort of a cold day, and I walked away from camp further than I should have. I was going to lie up against the mound because it was in the sun. I started to walk around the edges, and all of a sudden, five feet in front of me was a big male lion, which I woke up. They told me later that I roared louder than the lion did!” That’s the Jim Fowler I remember.
Fowler’s close encounters carried him to fame on other television shows. He became a regular on The Tonight Show, with Johnny Carson. He appeared more than 100 times, always with an animal or two that created hilarious scenes with Carson.
Some people objected to those appearances, but Fowler believes that it was a form of education that was needed. He believes that people must get familiar with animals and learn to like them before they will act to conserve them and their habitats. He contends that his work helps change public attitudes so people will protect the environment. He has said, “The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans. The challenge of the future is that we realize we are very much a part of the Earth’s ecosystem and learn to respect and live according to the basic biological laws of nature.”
Although Wild Kingdom ended as a television show in the late 1980s, Fowler has not slowed down. He is president of the Fowler Center for Wildlife Education, which he founded to carry forward his mission to educate on the importance of conserving nature, and executive director of Mutual of Omaha’s Wildlife Heritage Center, dedicated to the same purpose. “All these adventures I’ve had, I’ve injected myself into the jungles of this world. I understand how it all works, and it’s my job to influence other people now. It’s a bit of an emergency.”
The 2006 movie, “A Night at the Museum” introduced people around the world to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. But the real museum is even more spectacular than the special effects of the movie—and has been for nearly 150 years.
The governor of New York signed the museum into existence on April 6, 1869. The mission, then and now, is straightforward: “To discover, interpret, and disseminate—through scientific research and education—knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe.”
The founders wasted little time acting on their mission. Within two years, specimens from the museum went on exhibit at an existing building, inside Central Park. Almost immediately, that building provided insufficient, and a new site across the street from the park spanning four city blocks was purchased. The cornerstone for the first museum building was laid in 1974 by President Grant, and the building opened in 1877. Since then, it has been expanded repeatedly, with now 25 inter-connected buildings offering 570,000 square feet of exhibit space.
American Museum of Natural History, 1917
To fulfill its mission, the museum began sponsoring expeditions throughout the world, a “golden age of exploration that last[ed] from 1880-1930.” Explorers sponsored by the museum discovered the North Pole, trekked across Siberia, Mongolia and the Gobi Desert, and reached the unknown interior of African jungles. And that drive to explore continues today—during 2016, the museum sponsored 93 expeditions covering all seven continents.
The fruits of those expeditions have yielded a treasure of knowledge about our world and artifacts. The museum has the largest collection of natural history objects in the world, now well over 34 million in total. Included is the world’s most comprehensive and scientifically important collection of fossils, especially dinosaurs (one of which is exhibited in a soaring space that is the highest free-standing dinosaur skeleton in the world).
The museum was an early pioneer of anthropological research and collections. Today “natural history” might mean wild animals and plants, but when the museum began the term also meant learning about the world’s human cultures. The museum hired Franz Boas and sent him on an expedition of unparalleled scope to chronicle the culture of the native peoples of the Pacific Northwest. He was followed by Margaret Mead, who worked for the museum for most of her career while studying the people of the South Pacific and Southeast Asia—and originating the modern science of cultural anthropology.
The museum also pioneered the display of animal specimens in their natural environments—the dioramas so common today in museums. The pioneer of this display method was Carl Ackeley, who began building displays for the museum in 1913. Those displays were—and are—renowned for their ecological accuracy and their artistic mastery.
Rhinoceros exhibit at American Museum of Natural History, created by Carl Akeley (photo by Larry Nielsen)
The American Museum of Natural History has remained at the forefront of science education. It continues to renovate its displays to incorporate new knowledge, technologies and interactivity. Nearly 5 million visitors pass through the exhibits annually, along with others that view traveling exhibits and participate on-line (not to mention the viewers of those night-at-the-museum movies!).
A major change to the museum is currently underway (in spring of 2022). For nearly a century, the main entrance to the museum has featured a statue showing three human figures. One is Theodore Roosevelt, riding a horse as though on a hunting expedition. The other two are standing on either side of the horse; one represents a Native American and one represents an African man. In recent years, the statue has become controversial, interpreted as showing Roosevelt dominating the other two figures, an intentional representation of racial inequality. After several years of debate and studies, the museum began removing the statue on January 18, 2022.
References:
American Museum of Natural History. 2022. Addressing the Statue. Available at: https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/addressing-the-statue. Accessed April 6, 2022.
April 7 is celebrated each year as World Health Day. As Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland (learn more about her here) famously noted in her leadership of the world’s first comprehensive look at sustainability, the issues of public health, environmental quality and economic development are not three issues—but one.
World Health Day is celebrated on April 7 to recognize the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO) on that date in 1948. WHO is a United Nations agency that focuses on public health concerns around the globe. It employs 7,000 people in 150 countries, 6 regional offices and the headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
As the constitution of WHO states,
“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.
The health of all peoples is fundamental to the attainment of peace and security and is dependent upon the fullest co-operation of individuals and States.”
Thoughtful leaders understand that people who are unhealthy (or living in poverty) must be concerned most about their immediate issues—hunger, illness, disability and imminent death. Consequently, they are less likely to act positively on longer-term behavior to enhance environmental sustainability. As Brundtland understood, jointly solving the issues of health, poverty and environmental sustainability is the only successful route to a world of peace and plenty for all.
Each year, World Health Day highlights a particular theme. For 2022, the theme is “our planet, our health.” WHO notes the following:
90% of the world’s population breathe unhealthy air, caused by pollution
13 million people die every years from avoidable environmental causes
Climate change is the biggest threat to human civilization; burning fossil fuels costs $8 billion per day in reduced health and prosperity
World health involves sharing information about healthy practices so people everywhere can make their own health decisions (photo by Lindseymaya)
As the 2022 World Health Day site states, “The present design of the economy leads to inequitable distribution of income, wealth and power, with too many people still living in poverty and instability. A well-being economy has human well-being, equity and ecological sustainability as its goals. These goals are translated into long-term investments, well-being budgets, social protection and legal and fiscal strategies. Breaking these cycles of destruction for the planet and human health requires legislative action, corporate reform and individuals to be supported and incentivized to make healthy choices.”
Assuring a healthy human population is as much a conservation and sustainability issue as assuring healthy populations of the rest of nature’s species and ecosystems.
If you go to a state or national park, you will probably be walking on a trail, sitting in a shelter or standing on a scenic overlook that was built in the 1930s by the young workers of the CCC—the Civilian Conservation Corps. The CCC is one of the great American success stories of conservation, a silver lining from the cloud of the Great Depression.
In the early 1930s, America was in the worst economic conditions in history. Unemployment was nearly 25%, and half of young men were out of work. At the same time, the country’s natural resources had been devastated by soil erosion, forest over-harvesting and loss of wildlife habitat.
As soon as Franklin Roosevelt was elected president, he asked Congress to give him authority to address both those problems by creating the Emergency Conservation Work Act, which we know as the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC. Congress did so on March 31, 1933, and Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6101 creating the CCC on April 5. He appointed Robert Fechner, a union leader, as the director.
Recruitment poster. Most participants came from cities to work in distant and rural settings (photo by Larry Nielsen)
They wasted no time. Two days later, the CCC started enrolling young men into the program. It was a military-style operation. Only unemployed young men, aged 18-25, were eligible. They lived in wooden barracks or tents, in camps throughout the country. They were given uniforms and their meals in exchange for six days of hard work per week. They were paid $30 per month, but $25 of that was sent back to their families to relieve the desperate situations at home. Participants “enlisted” for at least six months, but many spent years in the program.
Within a year, more than 250,000 men were operating in the CCC, growing to a high of 500,000 at one time in 1935. In total, over the life of the CCC from 1933 to 1942, more than 3 million men participated. Most were white, but as the program developed, segregated camps for minorities were started, serving about 250,000 African-Americans and 80,000 Native Americans. In later years of the program, women were also allowed to participate (about 8500 overall).
CCC Camp Roosevelt, in the George Washington National Forest, Virginia (Photo by US Forest Service, Gerald W. Williams Collection)
The CCC was immensely popular. Thousands of camps were eventually established in all 48 states and Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Both Republicans and Democrats endorsed the program, and local politicians loved the money it brought to their communities. The participants became healthier and learned skills; many took educational courses in the evenings, including an estimated 57,000 illiterate men who learned to read. The money sent home improved life there. In the communities near camps, the labor needed to build and maintain the camps created jobs and economic activity.
But the real winner was conservation. Over the nine years of the program, the CCC created an enormous legacy. The men built 3470 fire towers, cleared 97,000 miles of fire roads and spent more than 4 million man-days fighting fires. Long before FEMA, they provided the workforce to help victims of floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters.
Known as “Roosevelt’s Tree Army,” they planted three billion trees, representing half of all reforestation that has occurred in the U.S. The CCC established 711 new state parks and built the roads, campgrounds and picnic areas within them and another 170 state, county and municipal parks. Nearly 200 CCC camps were within national parks and monuments, responsible for most of the infrastructure in those parks.
A member of “Roosevelt’s Tree Army” planting one of 3 billions trees the CCC planted.
While many leaders wanted to establish the CCC as a permanent part of the federal government, a more immediate threat arose—the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. As the U.S. entered World War II, the country realized that young men were needed most for the war effort. And, so, in early 1942, the CCC was shut down.
The CCC may be a part of history today, but the legacy lives on. Similar programs have followed in various forms, at both federal and state levels, for conservation and other societal purposes. So, whenever you walk a trail in a park, or marvel at the craftsmanship of the beautiful stone bridges, cabins and visitor centers in one of our national parks, remember the young workers of the CCC—and thank both them and the foresighted leaders of our country for their commitment to our future.
Paige, John C. 1985. The Civilian Conservation Corps and The National Park Service, 1933-1942, An Administrative History. National Park Service. Available at: https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/ccc/index.htm. Accessed April 5, 2018.
All this sustainability stuff is deadly serious, but can we take a minute now and then to laugh at ourselves about it?
That’s just what the British comedy series, The Good Life, did. In 39 episodes, starting on April 4, 1975, and running through 1978, the television show spoofed the desire to become self-sufficient and get back to nature. The show is considered among the best British comedies of all time, ranking near Fawlty Towers (but no show will ever match that one).
The show depicts the struggles of Tom and Barbara Good (played by now famous actors Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal) to divorce themselves from the modern rat-race and become “eco-warriers,” living off the land. Unfortunately, their land is a small plot in the suburbs (the village is named, appropriately, Surbiton). And what follows is a hilarious look at the perils of growing your own food, from plants to animals, dealing with waste, keeping warm and satisfying innumerable other needs more easily served from the supermarket and dry-goods store.
The Good’s new lifestyle is the bane of their neighbors, the Leadbetters. Particularly affected is Mrs. Margo Leadbetter, played by the inimitable Penelope Keith. Hopelessly middle-class and trying to go higher, she rebels at the mess, sounds, smells and general chaos of her neighbors.
And so they do battle—sustainability versus consumerism. The Leadbetters put up a windbreak on their fence, the Goods complain that it will shade their fruit trees. The Good’s try to improve their vegetable yields by talking to their plants, disturbing their neighbors with all the chit-chat. When the Good’s buy two pigs, Pinky and Perky, they inevitably escape to terrorize the Leadbetter’s yard.
But, along the way in each show and along the series as a whole, the neighbors grow together, managing to stay friends despite their differences. In fact, the release of the show in the U.S. was re-titled “Good Neighbors.”
As funny as the shows were, they also highlight the real dilemma of trying to incorporate environmental sustainability into our everyday lives. Sure, we recycle and take reusable bags to the grocery store. But we drive to the grocery store and we recycle way too much excess packaging and other one-use materials. The more serious our attempts get, the more difficult they become—and the more at odds with the rest of society.
But I think the real lesson, of both the television show and a proper outlook on modern living, is that it is okay to be less than perfect. Better be, because none of us is perfect, and so making friends of those who are a bit more or a bit less sustainable is the best strategy. The bottom line is that improving is what matters—reducing our impacts a bit at a time when we can, and keeping society’s eyes on the prize of a more sustainable world, both locally and globally. Remember, sustainability is a journey, not a destination. And it’s good to laugh along the way!
Ask just about anyone to name a famous living biologist, and the answer is likely to be, “Jane Goodall.” Goodall, who studied chimpanzees in Tanzania for half a century, is a hero to people throughout the world, and especially a role model for young women interested in science, research and adventure.
Goodall was born on April 3, 1934, in London. As a girl, she loved delighted in nature, spending her free time observing the behavior of animals. She developed two specific loves—animals and Africa. “I got my love of animals from the Dr. Doolittle books and my love of Africa from the Tarzan novels,” she said. Those loves grew stronger as she matured. She completed high school, but did not have enough money to attend college. She worked for years as a secretary and waitress, saving money to afford to go to Africa.
She achieved her dream when she accompanied a friend to Kenya in 1957. There she met Louis Leakey, the famous paleo-anthropologist, and began working for him as a secretary and field assistant. Realizing her interest in animal behavior, Leakey sent Goodall to study the vervet monkey on an island in Lake Victoria.
Jane Goodall in 2012 (photo by FLoatjon)
Leakey believed that studying primates in nature would yield great insight into the evolution of humans. He thought Goodall would be perfect for the work, because her lack of a college education would make her an accurate observer, un-influenced by theory or current dogma. So, in 1960, accompanied by her mother (local authorities would not let a young English woman travel on her own), she traveled to the Gombe Stream National Park in what is now Tanzania to begin observing chimpanzees.
For a long time, Goodall could not get close to the chimpanzees. When she was still hundreds of yards away, they would retreat and disappear. But she kept at it, appearing at the same location and time every day and waiting patiently. Eventually, the chimpanzees came closer and closer, and within a few years, they had accepted her presence among them. She became a neighbor, rather than an intruder.
Goodall’s close access allowed her to discover two behaviors that rocked the zoological world. First was the fact that chimpanzees were omnivores, not herbivores, often eating meat that they hunted in groups. Second, and more important, was her observation that the animals made and used tools—specifically, she observed chimpanzees stripping the leaves from twigs, then inserting the twigs into termite nests and then removing them to eat the insects that had climbed aboard.
Goodall’s work became widely known, but Leakey knew she would not be considered seriously without academic credentials. So, at his insistence, she enrolled at Cambridge, earning her PhD in 1965. Hers was a remarkable achievement, becoming one of only a handful of Cambridge students who earned a doctorate without a bachelor’s degree beforehand.
As soon as she was finished with her degree, she was back at Gombe observing chimpanzees—and continued to do so for nearly fifty years. She wrote several books based on her observations, introducing the world to the complex and human-like societies of chimpanzees. Some animal behaviorists objected to her practice of naming individuals and ascribing feelings and personalities to individual animals. She didn’t care, asserting, “You cannot share your life with a dog…and not know perfectly well that animals have personalities and minds and feelings…. In a way, my dog Rusty gave me the courage of my convictions.”
Young chimpanzees at the Jane Goodall Sanctuary of Tchimpounga, Congo, Brazzaville (photo by Delphine Bruyere)
And, of course, those convictions have now become the core of animal behavior studies the world around. Scores of scientists have followed in Goodall’s footsteps, using her patient observational techniques to study gorillas, orangutans, lions, elephants, wolves and countless other species.
Along the way, Goodall has become a household name to anyone interested in wildlife and conservation. In 1977, she founded the Jane Goodall Institute which works holistically to “improve the lives of people, animals and the environment.” In 1991, she co-founded an organization for youth called “Roots & Shoots,” which now has chapters in 100 countries. Her philosophy as a conservationist is simple and profound:
“Only if we understand, will we care. Only is we care, will we help. Only is we help, shall all be saved.”
His tombstone in Arlington National Cemetery says simply that John Wesley Powell was a “Soldier, Explorer, Scientist.” Those three words summarize a life that makes Powell one of America’s greatest students of the vast western region of North America.
John Welsley Powell (photo taken at Powell Museum, Green River, Utah, by Larry Nielsen)
John Wesley Powell was born on March 24, 1934, in New York State (died 1902). But along with his family, he moved early to farms in Ohio, Wisconsin and Illinois. He was always interested in nature, taking every opportunity to informally study the science he loved. He took expeditions throughout the Midwest, collecting specimens for the Illinois Natural History Survey. At age 22, he rowed the entire length of the Mississippi River, collecting mollusk specimens and other biological and geological artifacts. He followed that expedition by rowing the entire Ohio and Illinois Rivers. Without a college degree, he nonetheless became widely known as an expert naturalist, so much so that in 1859, he was named Secretary of the Illinois Natural History Society, housed at Illinois State Normal University. He was an accomplished explorer and scientist before he turned 30.
But the start of the Civil War put a temporary end to those pursuits—it was time to become a soldier. As a devoted opponent of slavery, he enlisted in the army as a private, was rapidly promoted to lieutenant and served in many battles as an artillery officer. At the Battle of Shiloh, he was shot, resulting in the amputation of his right arm. As soon as possible, he returned to active service, fighting later at Vicksburg. He required another surgery, but returned to fight again, earning the rank of major.
The one-armed war hero Powell (photo taken at Powell Museum, Green River, Utah, by Larry Nielsen)
After the war ended, he became a professor of geology at Illinois Wesleyan University, allowing him to visit the western U.S. on field trips. He was mesmerized by the landscape and determined to explore the great unknown regions of the arid southwest.
The crowning achievement of his life as an explorer occurred during the summer of 1869. With a crew of ten and four boats, he launched off to explore the entire length of the Colorado River, a feat never before accomplished. For three months, the team ran rapids, portaging around the worst and barely surviving the rest. They ran an estimated 500 significant rapids during the 1000-mile trip. Undaunted by the absence of an arm, Powell climbed mountains without hesitation, recording the geology and topography of the landscape. Reduced to two boats and just six men, the team emerged at the southern end of the Grand Canyon, emaciated but triumphant.
Campground of the second Powell expedition of the Colorado River, 1871 (photo by E. O. Beaman, U.S. Department of War)
News of the expedition made Powell a national hero, and his chronicle of the journey, in books and lectures, furthered that reputation. He repeated the expedition two years later, this time producing the surveying data that filled in the gaping hole in the U.S. map. Fully understanding the need to document the condition of the West before it could be effectively settled, Powell lobbied successfully for a geological agency in the federal government—the U.S. Geological Survey was established in 1879 and Wesley became its second, but clearly most influential, director from 1881 to 1894. At the same time, he directed a new Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution, devoted largely to Powell’s goal to document the cultures of Native Americans.
Replica of Powell’s boat from his voyage down the Green and Colorado Rivers (photo taken at Powell Museum, Green River, Utah, by Larry Nielsen)
Powell had a particular view of the use of the arid West. He believed that it could not be settled like the water-rich eastern states and territories, but rather required a detailed survey of the land and a specific settlement strategy matching the realities of the environment. He also believed that Native Americans were badly misrepresented and their cultures needed documentation and explanation to the rest of the country. Unfortunately, neither of these views could overcome the nation’s drive to colonize the West at the expense of Native American peoples.
Powell died in 1902, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, along with his wife, Emma. At the time of his death, he was nearly penniless. But his legacy endures. A news report at that time noted that he was among “the foremost rank of geologists and anthropologists of the world.” And a noted historian wrote that, “No part of Powell’s life is more spectacular than his heroic efforts to preserve the public domain from pillage for private gain.”
Powell with a Native American guide in the Grand Canyon, circa 1870.
