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Mesa Verde National Park Created (1906)

On June 29, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the law that created Mesa Verde National Park.  It was the sixth national park created, but the first established to “provide specifically for the preservation from injury or spoliation of the ruins and other works and relics of prehistoric or primitive man….”

Cliff Palace of the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park, circa 1900 (photo by National Park Service)

            Mesa Verde was the right place to begin the mission of preserving the nation’s prehistory.  The region had been occupied for nearly a millennium, until about 1300, by a civilization of pueblo-building Native Americans.  First living on top of the mesa, the inhabitants later moved to the cliff-sides, building into shallow caves the massive adobe structures that we visit today.  Archeologists have found more than 5,000 ancient sites, including relics of farms, irrigation systems and ceremonial areas as well as living structures.  The global significance of Mesa Verde was recognized in 1978, when it became one of the eight original UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Elk in Mesa Verde National Park (photo by MARELBU)

            The park is relatively small as national parks go, covering just over 50,000 acres.  Along with the ancient sites, the park includes 8,500 acres of federally designated wilderness.  Mesa Verde itself is a high plateau, covered with pine forests that earn it the name of “green table.”  Because of the large range in elevation between the top of the mesa and the canyons below it, the park contains four different vegetative ecosystems.  It is prone to wildfires, and major blazes in the early 2000s burned about half of the park.  Fortunately, because the major archeological sites are on cliff-sides, they have not been affected by recent fires.

            But the real attractions are the pueblos.  From 27 visitors who came in the park’s first year of 1906, annual visitation has risen to over 500,000.  The first scientist to explore the park was Swedish archeologist Gustaf Nordenskjold, who wrote in his 1893 book, The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde:

“On account of their sheltered position not only the stone walls, but also in many cases the beams that support the floors between the different stories, are wonderfully well preserved.  …we find still in a wonderful state of preservation the household articles and other implements once used by the inhabitants of the cliff-dwellings.  Even wooden articles, textile fabrics, bone implements, and the like are often exceedingly well preserved, although they have probably lain in the earth for more than five centuries.”

1941 photo of ruins in Mesa Verde by Ansel Adams (photo in National Archives)

Before the park was created, collectors removed most of those household articles, but, fortunately, the dwellings themselves still exist and many artifacts are now in museums.  Many human and burial remains that had been removed have now been re-buried, in respect to the 24 Native American tribes that are associated with the site.

References:

National Park Service.  Mesa Verde Administrative History.  Available at:  http://npshistory.com/publications/meve/adhi/contents.htm. Accessed June 28, 2017.

National Park Service.  Mesa Verde National Park Timeline.  Available at:  http://www.visitmesaverde.com/media/399911/mesa-verde-national-park_timeline.pdf. Accessed June 28, 2017.

National Park Service.  The 24 associated tribes of Mesa Verde.  Available at:  http://www.visitmesaverde.com/media/399909/mesa-verde-associated-tribes.pdf. Accessed June 28, 2017.

Nordenskjold, Gustaf.  1893.  The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde.  Mesa Verde Museum Association, translated from Swedish by D. Lloyd Morgan.  P.A. Nordstedt & Sons, Chicago.  Available at:  https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Cliff_Dwellers_of_the_Mesa_Verde.html?id=dq9xAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false. Accessed June 28, 2017.

UNESCO.  Mesa Verde National Park.  Available at:  http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/27. Accessed June 28, 2017.

US Federal Register.  An Act Creating the Mesa Verde National Park.  Chapter 3607, Fifty-Ninth Congress, 1906.  Available at:  https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/59th-congress/session-1/c59s1ch3607.pdf. Accessed June 28, 2017.

Mark Shand, Asian Elephant Conservationist, Born (1951)

British conservationist and playboy Mark Shand was born on June 28, 1951 (died in 2014).  After an early life of adventure and high-living, Shand committed himself to the conservation of Asian elephants in India. 

            Mark Shand was born into a privileged family in England; his sister is Camilla Parker Bowles, Duchess of Cornwall and wife of Charles, HRH the Prince of Wales.  After being expelled from school for smoking pot, he fell into the 1960s hedonistic culture—Andy Warhol’s Studio 54 was one of his favorite haunts. He has been described as a “real-life Indiana Jones, whose rugged good looks and charm proved irresistible….”  That charm led to a series of romances with some of the world’s best-known celebrities, including Bianca Jagger and Caroline Kennedy.

Conservation of the Asian elephant was Mark Shand’s life-work (photo by Basila Morin)

            His cavalier life-style changed on a 1988 trip to India, where he fell in love—with an elephant.  He found Tara laboring for peanuts—literally—and “rescued the beautiful female elephant from a life of begging and misery.”  They bonded immediately, and for the next several years Shand rode Tara on a 1000-mile journey across India—memorialized in his 1992 book, “Travels with My Elephant.”  This book, along with three other travel-adventure volumes, won major literary awards and established Shand as a top-selling author.

            Shand used his notoriety as a writer and a man-about-town to publicize the plight of Asian elephants for more than a quarter century.  In 2002, he founded the non-profit organization Elephant Family, enlisting the aid of his famous relatives and friends to spread awareness and raise funds (Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall are co-presidents of the charity).  Shand’s often-stated principle was, “Save the elephants and then you save the forest—and then you save yourself.”

            Asian elephant survival is, indeed, in jeopardy.  IUCN lists the species as endangered, noting that its formerly widespread populations have probably been declining for centuries to today’s critically small numbers.  No more than 50,000 still exist in the wild.  The major threat to their existence is habitat loss, as the human population of the India sub-continent continues to grow and occupy more land.  Today, the available habitat for Asian elephants is only 5% of their original range.

Shand lobbied hard that elephant populations living in isolated preserves were unsustainable.  They required habitat corridors so individuals and families could function as larger connected groups.  He led a successful effort to create a dedicated habitat corridor in the southern Indian state of Kerala.  Several other corridors connecting elephant populations have since been completed, with many more planned.

The Duchess of Cornwall remarked on the occasion of her brother’s death in 2014:  “They say that elephants never forget; Tara never forgot him and neither will we.”

References:

Elephant Family.  Protecting Asian elephants and their habitat.  Available at:  http://elephant-family.org/. Accessed June 29, 2017.

IUCN.  2017.  Elephas maximus.  IUCN Red List.  Available at:  http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/7140/0. Accessed June 29, 2017.

Keleny, Anne.  2014.  Mark Shand:  Campaigner whose efforts to save the Asian elephant took him far beyond the privileged circles from which he came.  The Independent, April 24, 2014.  Available at:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/mark-shand-campaigner-whose-efforts-to-save-the-asian-elephant-took-him-far-beyond-the-privileged-9284764.html. Accessed June 29, 2017.

Lee, Adrian.  2014.  The crazy life of Camilla’s playboy brother Mark Shand.  The Express, April 25, 2014.  Available at:  http://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/472310/The-crazy-life-of-Camilla-s-playboy-brother-Mark-Shand. Accessed June 29, 2017.

Sanctuary Asia.  2011.  Right of Passage:  Elephant Corridors of India.  Sanctuary Asia, April 2001.  Available at:  http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/magazines/cover-story/6830-right-of-passage-elephant-corridors-of-india.html. Accessed June 29, 2017.

The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall.  2014.  Times article by The Duchess of Cornwall on her brother, Mark Shand.  September 14, 2014.  Available at:  https://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/media/press-releases/times-article-the-duchess-of-cornwall-her-brother-mark-shand. Accessed June 29, 2017.

United Nations Chartered (1945)

The Charter establishing the United Nations was signed on June 26, 1945, at a meeting of the world’s nations in San Francisco, California.  President Truman signed on behalf of the United States and, just six weeks later, on August 8, 1945, he signed the legislation ratifying the U.S. commitment to the UN—the first country to do so. 

The iconic UN Headquarters building in Manhattan, New York (photo by Larry Nielsen)

            Why is the creation of the United Nations listed in a calendar of significant events in conservation and environmental matters?  Over its 70+ year history, the United Nations has grown to encompass a vast network of treaties, conventions and organizations focused on sustaining nature.

            The UN is most familiar to us as a global political organization.  It operates out of an iconic campus in New York City.  There the General Assembly meets to make decisions in support of world peace.  Many people disparage the UN’s ability to help—but we have not experienced a world war since its creation.

            The UN Charter lists the purposes and rationale for the creation of this splendid international organization.  The organizations was founded “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war…”—meaning, specifically, the scourge of the two world wars of the 20th Century.  But it also was created “to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.”

A statue at UN Headquarters in New York demonstrates the organization’s mission to stop war and violence (photo by Larry Nielsen)

            The later rationale is where UN work on the environment and nature come in.  The main structure of the UN includes “programmes” (the UN uses English English spelling, not American!) and “funds” to address specific issues.  For the environment, these include three primary groups:

  • UN Development Programme, incorporating sustainability as a fundamental element of economic and social development (headquartered in New York);
  • UN Population Fund, which works to control human population growth (headquartered in New York);
  • UN Environment Programme, working “to promote the wise use and sustainable development of the global environment” (headquartered in Nairobi).

The UN also includes a number of “specialized agencies” which are independent organizations under the general UN umbrella.  For the environment and natural resources, these include the

  • UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which protects historical, cultural and natural sites around the world (headquartered in Paris);
  • Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which fights hunger, not only through traditional agriculture but also through fisheries and forestry (headquartered in Rome);
  • UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), which promotes sustainable, accessible and responsible tourism (headquartered in Madrid).
The UN coordinates worldwide efforts to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (photo by Larry Nielsen)

The UN also coordinates a large series of international conventions and treaties that promote global collaboration and standards on important environmental matters.  The UN website lists 17 treaties on the environment, from climate to pesticides to whales and 9 treaties relating to the law of the sea.

The UN is also home to the coordinated development activities first conducted as the Millennium Development Goals from 2000-2015 and now as the Sustainable Development Goals for 2015-2030.  The17 Sustainable Development Goals include 7 that relate directly to the environment and conservation (clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy; sustainable cities and communities; responsible consumption and production; climate action; life below water; and life on land).

Five years after the UN began, President Truman addressed the UN General Assembly.  The points he made are even more valid today than in 1950:

“The United Nations represents the idea of a universal morality, superior to the interests of individual nations. Its foundation does not rest upon power or privilege; it rests upon faith. They rest upon the faith of men in human values–upon the belief that men in every land hold the same high ideals and strive toward the same goals for peace and justice….

I believe the people of the world rely on the United Nations to help them achieve two great purposes. They look to it to help them improve the conditions under which they live. And they rely on it to fulfill their profound longing for peace.

These two purposes are closely interwoven. Without peace, it is impossible to make lasting progress toward a better life for all. Without progress in human welfare, the foundations of peace will be insecure. That is why we can never afford to neglect one of these purposes at the expense of the other.”

References:

US Department of State.  Address by President Harry S. Truman to the UN General Assembly, October 24, 1950.  Available at:  https://2009-2017.state.gov/p/io/potusunga/207324.htm.  Accessed March 10, 2020.

United Nations.  Charter of the United Nations.  Available at:  http://www.un.org/en/charter-united-nations/.  Accessed June 28, 2017.

United Nations.  Sustainable Development Goals.  Available at:  https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/.  Accessed March 10, 2020.

United Nations.   Treaty Collection.  Available at:  https://treaties.un.org/pages/Treaties.aspx?id=10&subid=A&clang=_en.  Accessed June 28, 2017.

United Nations.  Funds, Programmes, Specialized Agencies and Others.  Available at:  http://www.un.org/en/sections/about-un/funds-programmes-specialized-agencies-and-others/.  Accessed June 28, 2017.

Tajik National Park Added to World Heritage List (2013)

The 2013 annual meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Program ended on June 27, the date on which I consider the formal decisions of the meeting occurred.  At that meeting, UNESCO added five sites to its World Heritage List.  The five comprise three mountainous ecosystems (Mount Etna, Italy; the Tian Shan mountains, China; Tajik National Park, Tajikistan) and two desert ecosystems (Namib Sand Sea, Namibia; El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar, Mexica).

Ismil Somoni Peak, the highest in Tajik National Park (photo by Jaan Kunnap)

            All are worthy of discussions and exploration—they wouldn’t be World Heritage sites if not—but I’d like to delve more deeply into the Tajik National Park.  Tajik is also known as Mountains of the Pamirs, because the park encompasses that entire mountain range.  Not that it is easy to define a mountain range in that part of the world.  Tajik covers what geographers call the “Pamir Knot,” a tangled mess of mountains that radiate outward from the park.  The mountains are the outcome of collisions between the Indian-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates.  These mountain ranges are exceptional as the highest in the world, including the Himalayas (where Mt. Everest is) and Karakorum (where K2 is) mountains.  The Pamir Mountains themselves stand just below those two ranges as the third highest mountain range in the world.

Fedchencko Glacier (photo by NASA)

            Tajik was the first national park created in the old USSR, the country that split into pieces—including Tajikistan—at the beginning of the 1990s.  The park is huge, covering 9653 square miles (about the size of Vermont), a whopping 18% of the entire country.  Hardly anyone lives there because it is so remote and the climate is so harsh.  The landscape is mostly high mountains, interspersed with some of the world’s deepest valleys and large treeless plateaus at high elevation.  The highest peak is Ismoil Somoni at 24,590 feet, the 50th tallest in the world (the mountain has had some interesting names—first called Stalin Peak, and then Communism Peak before the current name, after an historical leader). The park is home to scores of glaciers, including the Fedchenko Glacier, the longest (about 30 miles) outside of the polar regions.  More than 170 rivers and 400 lakes complete the ecosystem.

Marco Polo sheep (engarving by Gustave Mutzel, circa 1883)

            Tajik National Park is home to many rare and endangered species.  More than 100 endemic species live there, along with charismatic species of brown bear, snow leopard, Marco Polo Argali sheep,and  Siberian ibex.  UNESCO considers the park to be well protected and of special value because it is so huge and undisturbed by human development.  Unlike most other glaciers, the Fedchenko Glacier is not losing mass because of global warming.  It is covered in thick layers of rock and dirt, which insulate the deeper ice. The park also contains the 47-mile-long Lake Sarez, which was dammed up a century ago when a natural landslide formed the highest natural dam in the world (Uzoi Dam).  In plain terms, there is no place like it in the world!

References:

IUCN.  2013.  Tajikistan gets its first natural World Heritage Site.  21 Jun 2013.  Available at:  https://www.iucn.org/content/tajikistan-gets-its-first-natural-world-heritage-site. Accessed March 9, 2020. 

NASA Earth Observatory.  Stable Fedchenko.  Available at:  https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/84996/stable-fedchenko. Accessed March 9, 2020. 

Natural Heritage Protection Fund.  Tajik National Park.  Available at:  http://www.nhpfund.org/sng/tajik-np.html.  Accessed March 9, 2020. 

UNESCO World Heritage.  Tajik National Park (Mountains of the Pamirs).  Available at:   https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1252/.  Accessed March 9, 2020. 

World Atlas.  Tajikistan National Park – Mountains of The Pamirs.  Available at:  https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/tajikistan-national-park-mountains-of-the-pamirs.html. Accessed March 9, 2020. 

David Douglas, Pioneering Botanist, Born (1799)

If you’ve ever wondered why a species is named what it is—for example, why is that horse from Mongolia named Przewalski’s horse?—today can solve one of those questions.  Not about Przewalski’s horse, but about the Douglas-fir.

David Douglas (drawing from Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, 1834)

            David Douglas was born in Scotland on June 25, 1799 (died 1834).  As a boy, Douglas loved nature, so when he finished primary school, his father sent him to apprentice with a local gardener.  The work proved successful, and soon Douglas had landed a position with the Botanical Gardens in Glasgow.  His boss there was a famous botanist, William Hooker, who saw the potential in Douglas—Hooker said that Douglas showed “great activity, singular abstemiousness and energetic zeal.”  He got Douglas a job with the Horticulture Society of London as a plant collector for the expeditions that were occurring around the globe; his task was to discover interesting species that could have value back in England—especially oaks, fruit trees and garden plants—and send living specimens back.

            This task consumed the rest of Douglas’ life.  His first voyage had him headed to China, but a diplomatic scuffle between England and China changed the plans.  Instead, in 1823, he collected in the eastern United States and Canada, sending back many varieties of fruit trees and other plants.  His success led to a bigger challenge—in 1825, he joined an excursion of the Hudson’s Bay Company to establish their headquarters at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River (today’s Vancouver, Washington). 

A stand of Douglas-fir in Washington state (photo by Dave Powell, USDA Forest Service)

            For two years, Douglas roamed the forests of the Pacific Northwest, walking 4,000 miles and usually accompanied only by his dog and a Native American guide.  He returned to England in 1827, but came back for another expedition in 1930, spending three years further exploring in Oregon, Washington, California and, eventually, Hawaii.  During his time as a roving botanist, Douglas described about 250 plants that were unknown in England, sending home specimens of many.  Among them were evergreen species desirable for the lumber trade—Sitka spruce (now the most widely planted lumber species in Europe), sugar pine, western white pine, ponderosa pine, lodgepole pine, Monterey pine and others.  The profusion of new pines was so amazing that Douglas wrote to his mentor, William Hooker, “you will begin to think I manufacture pines at my pleasure.”

Douglas-fir cone (photo by WPF)

            One species of particular importance was named for this exploring botanist, the Douglas-fir (the name is also written as two words, Douglas fir).  For many years, the scientific name of the species also recognized Douglas, but a description was found by an earlier naturalist, so the species was renamed for him, as Pseudotsuga menziesii.  Douglas-firs are among the most common forest trees in the Pacific Northwest, grown and harvested for their many uses, from timber beams to lumber to paper fiber.  The trees can be huge—taller than 300 feet, and more than 11 feet in diameter.  In 1936, Oregon declared the Douglas-fir the state tree, and David Douglas holds a special place in Oregon’s history as botanist and explorer.

            David Douglas lived an adventurer’s life, and he died an adventurer’s death.  When just 34, he was exploring the Mauna Kea volcano on the island of Hawaii.  Wild cattle roamed the landscape, and cattlemen dug large, deep pits to trap unwary cattle.  Douglas traveled with an experienced guide who led him around these pits, but when they reached an elevation where the pits stopped, the guide left Douglas on his own.  Douglas, however, backtracked to lower elevations and fell into a trap.  A bull was already in the trap, or perhaps fell in later.  In either case, when passers-by noticed Douglas’s dog sitting by the edge of the trap, they found Douglas’s mutilated dead body at the bottom of the pit.

            The lesson:  look up at the beautiful trees, but look down once in a while, too.

References:

Discovering Lewis & Clark.  David Douglas (1799-1834).  Available at:  http://www.lewis-clark.org/article/487.  Accessed March 7, 2020.

Lang, Frank A.  David Douglas (1799-1834).  The Oregon Encyclopedia. Available at:  https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/douglas_david/#.XmLhSGhKhRY. Accessed March 7, 2020.

Lang, Frank A.  Douglas-fir. The Oregon Encyclopedia.  Available at:  https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/douglas_fir/#.XmPS8WhKhRY. Accessed March 7, 2020.

Oregon History Project.  David Douglas.  Available at:  https://oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/biographies/david-douglas-biography/#.XmLjGmhKhRY.  Accessed March 7, 2020.

The Douglas Archives.  David Douglas.  Available at:  http://www.douglashistory.co.uk/history/daviddouglas.htm#.XmPQvmhKhRY.  Accessed March 7, 2020.

Antarctic Treaty Implemented (1961)

Ask any fifth-grader to name the seven continents, and you’ll get the right answer, including Antarctica as one of the seventh.  But Antarctica is different than the other six.  Antarctica belongs to all of the world’s people, but can be used only certain ways.  The Antarctic Treaty, which entered into force on June 23, 1961, governs how the world treats this very special place. 

Antarctica is the huge continent at the “bottom” of the earth (image by Dave Pape)

            The Antarctic Treaty was created as the first post-World War II agreement to limit the spread of arms, particularly nuclear weapons.  It was also a response to seven countries (Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom) that claimed sovereignty over some parts of the continent.  Most other nations did not recognize those claims, but awareness rose that a permanent solution was needed to avoid actions (such as mining) on those claims and any new ones.  During 1957-1958, those seven nations plus five more joined together in a global scientific program known as the International Geophysical Year (IGY).  The Antarctic region was a major site for their scientific work.

            Spurred by the success of that venture, the United States led an effort with the other eleven IGY participating nations to prepare a treaty to govern the Antarctic. The treaty was completed on December 1, 1959, followed by its endorsement by the 12 original participants in its drafting; it began operating about 18 months later, on June 23, 1961.  The Antarctic Treaty has provided for a long-term peaceful agreement to maintain the region as a global resource. 

Chinstrap Penguin (photo by Eammon Maguire)

            The treaty has assured that the Antarctic is used exclusively for research and conservation.  Article I states the matter plainly:  “Antarctica shall be used for peaceful purposes only.”  Based on Article I, all research facilities and the information obtained by research studies are open to everyone for inspection and use. 

            An addition to the treaty that entered into force in 1998 (often called the Madrid Protocol) addressed environmental protection more fully.  The addition created a Committee for Environmental Protection to enforce the treaty’s principle that “(t)he Parties commit themselves to the comprehensive protection of the Antarctic environment and dependent and associated ecosystems and hereby designate Antarctica as a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science.”  It includes a framework for protecting the native flora and fauna and prohibits the introduction of non-native species.  It also allows for enhanced protection of special areas with “outstanding environmental, scientific, historic, aesthetic or wilderness values…”

Danco Island, Antarctica (photo by Gary Bembridge)

            The treaty is implemented through a secretariat headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  It holds an annual meeting of the parties and of the Committee for Environmental Protection, usually during April-June. The list of parties to the treaty has risen to 54 nations, including 29 voting and 25 non-voting members.

References:

Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty.  The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty.  Available at:  https://www.ats.aq/e/protocol.html.  Accessed March 5, 2020.

Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty.  2016.  25 Years of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty.  Available at:  https://documents.ats.aq/atcm39/ww/atcm39_ww007_e.pdf.  Accessed March 5, 2020.

U.S. Department of State.  Antarctic Region.  Available at:  https://www.state.gov/key-topics-office-of-ocean-and-polar-affairs/antarctic/.  Accessed March 5, 2020.

Cuyahoga River Burst into Flames (1969)

What many people consider the precipitating event of the modern environmental movement occurred on June 22, 1969, when the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, burst into flames.

Fire burning on the surface of the Cuyahoga River in 1952 (photo by Cleveland Press, in the Cleveland State University archives)

            On that Sunday morning, floating debris, coated in oil, jammed under two railroad bridges that crossed the river.  A spark from a passing train ignited the fire.  Flames shot up as high as 50 feet into the air.  A fireboat on the river quickly extinguished the flames, aided by fire crews working from the trestles.  In a half-hour, the fire was out, causing $50,000 damage to the railroad bridges, but otherwise little noticed.  The Cleveland Plains-Dealer didn’t even run a picture of the blaze.

            But the event was hardly over.  Amidst the growing concern about environmental problems around the country, Time Magazine ran a story on August 1, 1969 (“America’s sewage system and the price of optimism”) that made the Cuyahoga River famous.  “Some river!” the author wrote, “Chocolate-brown, oily, bubbling with subsurface gases, it oozes rather than flows.  ‘Anyone who falls into the Cuyahoga does not drown,’ Cleveland’s citizens joke grimily. ‘He decays.’”

The Cuyahoga River upstream (that is, south) of Cleveland (photo by National Park Service)

            The fire on June 22, however, was nothing new.  A dozen fires on the river had been documented in the previous one hundred years.  A fire in 1912 claimed five lives, and the biggest fire, in 1952, caused more than $1 million in damage.  Photos of the 1952 fire are typically shown when the 1969 fire is discussed—because the 1969 fire was put out so quickly no photographs exist.  In reality, the Cuyahoga River was one of the most polluted in the country at the time of the fire.  The “river that burns” became symbolic of the environmental mess of the country—and especially industrial towns like those in Ohio.  It earned Cleveland the unfortunate nickname of “the mistake by the lake”; Randy Newman’s song “Burn on, Big River,” immortalized the situation; and, even today, the Great Lakes Brewing Company produces Burning River Pale Ale to commemorate the event .

            Ironically, the fire on June 22 should be recognized as the start of good things for the river.  With at least a dozen precursors, the fire was the last, not the first, time the river burned.  We have the burning of the Cuyahoga River to thank for an exclamation point on the growing narrative of environmental awareness of the times. Spurred by this event, the U.S. began passing environmental laws, like the Clean Water Act of 1970 (learn more about the Clean Water Act here).  In the 15 years following the fire, the U.S. instituted a catalog of environmental agencies, laws and regulations that have seen our environment improve dramatically and continually.

The Cuyahoga River has improved greatly since the 1969 fire (photo by k_e_lewis)

            And the Cuyahoga River has improved right along with the rest.  Forty years after the fire, in 2009, Cleveland celebrated “The Year of the River.”  From no life present in the river at the time of the fire, it now boasts more than 40 fish species including several—steelhead trout, northern pike—that require high-quality water conditions.  Water quality has improved, but is not yet at the levels needed to allow all uses, like swimming.  The Cuyahoga River is one of 43 Great Lakes Areas of Concern, denoted because of remaining environmental problems.  Through the restoration group that monitors the Area of Concern, the river continues to gather the support, from government agencies and local organizations, needed to achieve a fully restored ecosystem.

References:

Cuyahoga River Area of Concern.  Available at:  http://www.cuyahogaaoc.org/index.html. Accessed June 23, 2017.

Time Magazine.  1969.  America’s Sewage System and the Price of Optimism.  Time Magazine, August 1, 1969.  Available at:  http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,901182-1,00.html. Accessed June 23, 2017.

Cleveland Plain Dealer.  1969.  Oil slick fire damages 2 river spans.  Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 23, 1969.  Available at:  http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2009/01/oil_slick_fire_damages_2_river.html. Accessed June 23, 2017.

Ohio History Central.  Cuyahoga River Fire.  Ohio History Central.  Available at:  http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Cuyahoga_River_Fire. Accessed June 23, 2017.

Rotman, Michael.  2010.  Cuyahoga River Fire.  Cleveland Historical, September 22, 2010.  Available at:   https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/63#.WU0sqWjys2w.  Accessed June 23, 2017.

World Hydrography Day

You know that sonar thingee on your bass boat that you use to find structure where the big ones hang out?  There is a day for that—World Hydrography Day, celebrated annually on June 21.  The date, chosen by the United Nations in 2005, honors the establishment of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) on June 21, 1921. 

            Hydrography, according to the NOAA Office of Coast Survey, “is the science that measures and describes the physical features of bodies of water and the land areas adjacent to those bodies of water.”   In other words, hydrography maps the bottom of navigable waters to make sure that ships and boats know what is under them (sorry, they don’t do the work to help you find big bass).

US Navy hdrographers assisting the government of Micronesia to map harbors (photo by US Navy)

            The IHO was started as an attempt among leading coastal nations to develop tools and standards for mapping oceanic features.  A primary goal has been to assure the “greatest uniformity in nautical charts and documents,” so navigation is not dependent on differences in techniques, languages or quality of information.  The IHO has also led in the development of modern mapping and measurement techniques, including satellite and other remote-sensing methods (but the standard method still involves “multibeam echosounding”—like the thingee on your bass boat).  Most of the major maritime nations, 89 at the present, are parties to the international agreement that governs the IHO.

            And it’s a big job.  In the U.S., NOAA(the national Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) maintains more than 1,000 nautical charts that cover 3.6 million square nautical miles of U.S. waters and 95,000 miles of shoreline.  And because storms, tides, waves, plate tectonics and other natural and human-caused disturbances keep moving the bottom around, NOAA needs to conduct 2,000-3,000 square miles of surveys annually.

Portion of a navigational chart where Russia and Alaska almost touch (photo by US Defense Mapping Agency)

            The conservation mission of IHO focuses on providing physical descriptions for protected and sensitive marine areas.  Accurate, uniform and accessible maps are essential for understanding the relationship between the distribution and abundance of living creatures and the condition of their environments.  Because the uses of the ocean are moving to deeper areas farther offshore, improved capacity to understand and monitor deep waters—one of the least understood parts of our earth—becomes increasingly important.  And with more development of coastal areas and the specter of sea-level rise and more frequent, stronger storms, the importance of hydrography for public safety also increases.

References:

International Hydrographic Organization.  About the IHO.  Available at:  https://iho.int/en/about-the-iho.  Accessed March 5, 2020.

NOAA National Ocean Service.  What is hydrography?  Available at:  https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/hydrography.html.  Accessed March 5, 2020.

David McTaggart, Greenpeace Leader, Born (1932)

The name Greenpeace is today synonymous with the environmental movement.  It evolved from a small organization to an international powerhouse largely because of one man, David McTaggart, through what we might call the perfect storm.

David McTaggart in 1981 (photo by Antonisse, Marcel/Anefo)

            David McTaggart was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on June 24, 1932 (died 2001).  He was a talented athlete, spending his youth skiing, golfing and playing racquet sports.  He excelled especially at badminton, winning the Canadian national championship three times.  He quit high school to begin a construction business that became highly successful first in Canada, then in the U.S.  However, when an accident on one of his construction sites caused an employee’s serious injury, McTaggart despaired of his role in the matter; he abandoned his business life, sacrificed much of his wealth to compensate for the accident, and left his family to “find out about himself”—the first phase of the perfect storm.

            The storm continued building as he was roaming the South Pacific in his sailboat during 1972.  He answered an ad seeking volunteers to protest French above-ground nuclear tests at the uninhabited atoll, Mururoa.  He was mad, not so much because of the tests themselves, but because of the audacity of the government to declare a portion of the ocean off-limits.  McTaggart renamed his boat the Greenpeace III, after the group that placed the ad, and headed to Mururoa.  He anchored in the path of the expected test plume.  In response, the French navy rammed his boat and towed him to harbor, claiming they had rescued him. The next year, he was back, and the French were more aggressive, boarding his boat and beating him badly.  The government again claimed rescue, but a smuggled film of the altercation added to the storm when it was broadcast. McTaggart successfully sued France, and in 1974, the embarrassed French government halted above-ground testing (and eventually stopped all nuclear testing).

Greenpeace has become an environmental giant, partially because of its aggressive publlicity tactics (photo by Jonathan Happ)

            McTaggart was energized and began building Greenpeace.  Although the organization had several offices in Europe and the U.S., it operated as a loose collection of local groups.  McTaggart united the individual branches into Greenpeace International and led its expansion throughout Europe and North America.  In 1979, he became its president and CEO, roles he retained until retiring in 1991. 

            Under his leadership, Greenpeace became an international juggernaut of environmental action.  He led efforts to protect whales, both through direct confrontations with Japanese whaling vessels, for which Greenpeace has become famous (or perhaps infamous) and through negotiations with the International Whaling Commission, leading to the creation of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in 1994.  He also led Greenpeace in successful campaigns to establish Antarctic treaties prohibiting mining and to reduce ocean pollution (especially of nuclear wastes).

            McTaggart’s personality and methods did not suit everyone.  He was intensely private as an individual, but intensely confrontational as an environmentalist.  He understood the value of publicity and made sure that all Greenpeace’s actions were filmed and widely shared.  When the organization he had nurtured became too large and staid for his style, Greenpeace and McTaggart went separate ways.

            He moved to the small town of Paciano in central Italy, to farm organic olives.  He created a new organization, the 3rd Millennium Foundation, where he continued his environmental work on a smaller scale, emphasizing local improvements and projects in the Caribbean.  An automobile accident ended his life in 2001.

References:

3rd Millennium Foundation.  About Us—Our History.  Available at:  http://www.3mf.org/about_us/index.html.  Accessed March 3, 2020.

Brown, Paul.  2001.  David McTaggart, Campaigner who led from the front in making Greenpeace a worldwide organization.  The Guardian, 25 Mar 2001.  Available at:  https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/mar/26/guardianobituaries.paulbrown. Accessed March 3, 2020.

Greenpeace.  David McTaggart 1932-2001.  Available at:  https://wayback.archive-it.org/9650/20191112213722/http://p3-raw.greenpeace.org/international/en/about/history/founders/david-mctaggart/. Accessed March 3, 2020.

Lewis, Paul.  2001.  David McTaggart, a Builder of Greenpeace, Dies at 69.  The New York Times, March 24, 2001.  Available at:  https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/24/world/david-mctaggart-a-builder-of-greenpeace-dies-at-69.html. Accessed March 3, 2020.

Alexander Wetmore, Ornithologist and Smithsonian Leader, Born (1866)

From his earliest years, Alexander Wetmore knew he wanted to be an ornithologist.  And until his death at the age of 92, he lived up to that expectation.  No wonder he is known as the 20th Century’s “dean of American ornithologists.”

“Alexander Wetmore (photo by Smithsonian Institution)

            Frank Alexander Wetmore was born in a small town in central Wisconsin on June 18, 1886 (died 1978).  When his mother gave him a guide to bird identification at age five, Wetmore was hooked.  He began making serious field notes about birds a few years later, and, when just 13 years old, published his first paper in the magazine Bird Lore—“My experience with a red-headed woodpecker.”

            His experiences with birds grew exponentially.  While a student at the University of Kansas, he began working as an assistant curator in the college’s museum.  During summers he worked for the U.S. Biological Survey in Wyoming and Alaska, and then spent a year studying the birds of Puerto Pico and nearby islands.  After graduation in 1912, he worked full-time for the US Biological Survey (now the US Fish and Wildlife Service), performing fieldwork on birds throughout the Americas and in the Pacific Islands.  While working, he completed M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at George Washington University.

            In 1924, he moved to the Smithsonian Institute, where he stayed for 28 years until his retirement in 1952.  He moved steadily up the ranks into administrative roles; although he disliked administration, he proved good at it—methodical, logical, patient, dauntless. The depression and war years were a tough time for the Smithsonian, plagued by low budgets, insufficient staff, and deteriorating physical facilities.  Wetmore’s rock-solid leadership through those times was valued, resulting in his being named Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1945 .

Wetmore on a collecting trip in Panama (photo by Smithsonian Institution)

            As Secretary, he oversaw substantial changes (although he made them purposefully and conservatively).  He expanded the coverage of the museums, for example, opening an aviation museum that we now know and love as the Air and Space Museum.  He acquired a tropical research station in Panama, now one of the premier biological field stations in the world.  He helped transform the museum’s exhibits from stale to engaging.  He lobbied congress persistently for capital funding that eventually came through—and today we enjoy those labors in the great national museums of the Washington Capitol Mall.

            But it is his work as an ornithologist that has earned him worldwide scientific acclaim.  He never stopped his research, both during his leadership of the Smithsonian and after his retirement in 1952.  He became the world’s foremost expert on fossil birds, basically establishing the field of ornithological paleontology.  He continued field work across the world, but especially in Panama.  He published three of four volumes of his monumental work, The Birds of the Republic of Panama (the fourth volume has been completed in his honor).  His taxonomic work was enormous, naming and describing 189 new bird species and revising bird systematics in his book, A Classification for the Birds of the World.  In all he published more than 700 books and papers.  He donated 26,058 bird and mammal skins, 4,363 anatomical specimens, and 201 groups of bird eggs to the Smithsonian.  His list of awards and recognition seems endless, but the most relevant may be this:  his colleagues have named 56 species of various taxa in his honor.

Wetmore in his later years (photo by USGS)

            He was, as is said of few, a man for all seasons.  The Smithsonian described him as “a quiet and gentle man,… as at home in a remote Panamanian village as the halls of the US Congress.”  His successor at the Smithsonian, S. Dillon Ripley, described him as calm, gentle, meticulous, with total “absence of self-importance.”  May we all be remembered so kindly.

References:

Ripley, S. Dillon and James A Steed.  1987.  Alexander Wetmore, 1886-1978, a Biographical Memoir.  National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC.  Available at:  http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/wetmore-alexander.pdf.  Accessed March 2, 2020.

Smithsonian Institution Archives.  Alexander Wetmore, 1886-1978.  Available at:  https://siarchives.si.edu/history/alexander-wetmore.  Accessed March 2, 2020.

Washington Post.  1978.  Alexander Wetmore, 92, Dies.  December 9, 1978.  Available at:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1978/12/09/alexander-wetmore-92-dies/389d9760-2a3e-459c-bfc0-1491a4ca8443/.  Accessed March 2, 2020.

This Month in Conservation

March 1
Yellowstone National Park Established (1872)
March 2
Theodore Geisel, or Dr. Seuss, Born (1904)
March 3
World Wildlife Day and Creation of CITES (1973)
March 3
Isle Royale National Park Authorized (1931)
March 4
Hot Springs National Park Established (1921)
March 5
Lynn Margulis, Evolutionary Biologist, Born (1938)
March 6
Martha Burton Williamson, Pioneering Malacologist, Born (1843)
March 7
Luther Burbank Born (1849)
March 8
Everett Horton Patents the Telescoping Fishing Rod (1887)
March 9
The Turbot War Begins (1995)
March 10
Cape Lookout National Seashore Established (1966)
March 11
Save the Redwoods League Founded (1918)
March 12
Girl Scouts Founded (1912)
March 12
Charles Young, First African American National Park Superintendent, Born (1864)
March 13
National Elephant Day, Thailand
March 14
First National Wildlife Refuge Created (1903)
March 15
Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, Born (1874)
March 16
Amoco Cadiz Runs Aground (1978)
March 17
St. Patrick and Ireland’s Snakes
March 18
Nation’s First Wildlife Refuge Created (1870)
March 19
When the Swallows Return to Capistrano
March 20
“Our Common Future” Published (1987)
March 21
International Day of Forests
March 22
World Water Day
March 23
Sitka National Historical Park Created (1910)
March 24
John Wesley Powell, Western Explorer, Born (1834)
March 25
Norman Borlaug, Father of the Green Revolution, Born (1914)
March 26
Marjorie Harris Carr, Pioneering Florida Conservationist, Born (1915)
March 26
Kruger National Park Established (1898)
March 27
Trans-Alaska Pipeline Begun (1975)
March 28
Joseph Bazalgette, London’s Sewer King, Born (1819)
March 29
Niagara Falls Stops Flowing (1848)
March 30
The United States Buys Alaska (1867)
March 31
Al Gore, Environmental Activist and U.S. Vice President, Born (1948)
January February March April May June July August September October November December