Bob Marshall Born (1901)

Bob Marshall

The father of wilderness preservation, Bob Marshall, was born on January 2, 1901 (died 1939).  Almost single-handedly, Bob Marshall convinced the world that preserving some wild lands, untouched by the works of humans, was an essential part of civilization.  Although he lived for only 39 years, his impact has been immortal.

Robert Marshall was a product of his upbringing.  He was born into a wealthy Jewish family in New York City.  Both his parents were social activists, believing that the disadvantaged deserved a chance at a better life.  Marshall himself grew to be an avowed socialist, committed to fight for the rights of the unrepresented (in later life, he was persecuted by the federal government for his communist leanings).  But his father, especially, also loved the forest and the solitude it brought; he was a founder of the New York College of Forestry and Environmental Science (known today as SUNY-ESF in Syracuse).  The family spent summers in the New York mountains, and young Marshall adopted that love of the outdoors.

He determined early that he would become a forester rather than a city dweller.  He studied at the school established by his father, graduating with high honors in 1924.  While a student, he established his lifelong practice of hiking and mountain climbing—20, 30, 40 miles per day.  A day lasted 24 hours, he liked to say, so a day-hike should last 24 hours as well.  By the time he was a junior in college, he had hiked to the top of the 42 highest peaks in the Adirondack Mountains, the first to do so.  He set many other records for hiking and climbing, including climbing 9 Adirondack high peaks in one day.

Upon graduation, he began work in Washington State with the U.S. Forest Service.  He worked for that agency on and off throughout his life.  Along the way, he earned both Master’s (Harvard) and doctoral (Johns Hopkins) degrees.  He traveled extensively throughout the West.   He spent 15 months in Alaska’s Brooks Range living in a remote Native American village and exploring the region more extensively than anyone before (and perhaps since).  His commitment to both wilderness and social causes emerged during that stay.  He later wrote a book about his time in Alaska, devoting half his royalties to the Native Americans among whom he lived.

He lobbied actively for wilderness preservation throughout his career.  As the head forester in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he recommended nearly 5 million acres of Indian lands as wilderness areas.  He was instrumental in writing prescriptions for roadless and wild lands for the Forest Service that eventually became the standards for their management.

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This Month in Conservation

January 1
NEPA Enacted (1970)
January 2
Bob Marshall Born (1901)
January 3
Canaveral National Seashore Created (1975)
January 4
The Real James Bond Born (1900)
January 5
National Bird Day
January 6
Wild Kingdom First Airs (1963)
January 7
Gerald Durrell Born (1925)
January 7
Albert Bierstadt, American landscape painter, born (1830)
January 8
Alfred Russel Wallace Born (1823)
January 9
Muir Woods National Monument Created (1908)
January 10
National Houseplant Appreciation Day
January 11
Aldo Leopold Born (1887)
January 12
National Trust of England Established (1895)
January 13
MaVynee Betsch, the Beach Lady, Born (1935)
January 14
Martin Holdgate, British Conservationist, Born (1931)
January 15
British Museum Opened (1759)
January 16
Dian Fossey Born (1932)
January 17
Benjamin Franklin, America’s First Environmentalist, Born (1706)
January 18
White Sands National Monument Created (1933)
January 19
Yul Choi, Korean Environmentalist, Born (1949)
January 19
Acadia National Park Established (1929)
January 20
Penguin Appreciation Day
January 21
The Wilderness Society Founded (1935)
January 22
Iraq Sabotages Kuwaiti Oil Fields (1991)
January 23
Sweden Bans CFCs in Aerosols (1978)
January 24
Baden-Powell Publishes “Scouting for Boys” (1908)
January 25
Badlands National Park Established (1939)
January 26
Benjamin Franklin Disses the Bald Eagle (1784)
January 27
National Geographic Society Incorporated (1888)
January 28
Bermuda Petrel, Thought Extinct for 300 Years, Re-discovered (1951)
January 29
Edward Abbey, author of “Desert Solitaire,” Born (1927)
January 30
England Claims Antarctica (1820)
January 31
Stewart Udall, Secretary of Interior, Born (1920)
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