Category: Uncategorized

The vast majority of the world’s governments and people now understand that the world’s climate is changing and that the changes are largely caused by human-based emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases into the environment.  Getting to this point of understanding, however, has required a major global—and national—commitment to scientific research and education.  That research was assured when the United States passed the Global Climate Change Research Act in 1990.

Rancor about the extent and causes of climate change was bitter in the late 1980s.  The U.S. Congress and the agencies of the executive branch debated the state of change as well as who should be developing both knowledge and policy.  During 1989, President George H. W. Bush advanced progress by asking for a report on the status of climate change in the U.S.  Congress chose to go farther, passing a law that made a climate change research program permanent and mandating a regular report on climate change to be produced at least every four years.  The Senate passed the bill 100-0 and the House of Representatives passed it by voice vote (meaning no record of the actual votes took place, recognizing overwhelming support for the bill).  President Bush signed the bill into law on November 16, 1990.  The law has not been amended since it first passed.

The bill requires that the relevant government agencies work together, along with universities, states, industry and other groups, under the direction of a Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences.  The Committee is required to develop a national plan for climate change research, assess the state of the climate, represent the United States in international forums and collaborations on climate change, and report regularly to Congress and the American people.

The most recently available report is from 2014 (which means a new report is required in 2018, some of which is available now and some not).  As the report notes, it is “the result of a three-year analytical effort by a team of over 300 experts, overseen by a broadly constituted Federal Advisory Committee of 60 members.”  The report highlights 12 findings, which I have paraphrased here:

1. Global climate change is real and caused by humans, predominantly by burning fossil fuels.
2. Extreme weather events have become more common and are linked to climate change.
3. More climate change will occur, especially if we keep burning fossil fuels at today’s rates.
4. Impacts of climate change are occurring now and will get more disruptive.
5. Climate change threatens human health and well-being in many ways.
6. Infrastructure is being damaged now by climate change and the damage will get worse.
7. Water quality and quantity are especially affected by climate change.
8. Agriculture is suffering from climate change and the damage will get worse.
9. Climate change disproportionately impacts Indigenous Peoples.
10. Ecosystem services are damaged by climate change.
11. Ocean waters are changing in a variety of ways due to climate change.
12. We’re starting to adapt to climate change, but our efforts are broadly insufficient.

One of the benefits of passing a law is that it cannot be changed by a member of the executive branch, be it the president or cabinet secretary.  Consequently, the government’s work to assess climate change, provide scientific information to the public, and advise the government on policy will continue, regardless of what the climate might be like in Washington!

References:

GlobalChange.gov.  Legal Mandate.  U.S. Global Change Research Program.  Available at:  https://www.globalchange.gov/about/legal-mandate#Short%20Title%20Main.  Accessed October 27, 2018.

Govtrack.  S. 169(101^st):  Global Change Research Act of 1990.  Available at:  https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/101/s169.  Accessed October 27, 2018.

Melillo, Jerry M., Terese (T.C.) Richmond, and Gary W. Yohe, Eds., 2014: Highlights of Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Third National Climate Assessment. U.S. Global Change Research Program.  Available at:  http://s3.amazonaws.com/nca2014/low/NCA3_Highlights_LowRes.pdf?download=1.  Accessed October 27, 2018.

Pielke, Roger A. Jr.  2000.  Policy history of the US Global Change Research Program:  Part II.  Legislative process.  Global Environmental Change 10 (2000):133-144.  Available at:  http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.529.8677&rep=rep1&type=pdf.  Accessed October 27, 2018.

Every year, the United States recycles a great celebration—America Recycles Day!  Since 1997, the country has celebrated America Recycles Day to educate citizens about the benefits of recycling and how to recycle.

America Recycles Day is an outgrowth of a similar day created by Texas in 1994.  Kevin Tuerff and Valerie Davis, working for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, chose November 15 as Texas Recycles Day because it was about six months after Earth Day and lodged between the news-stealing periods around elections and the annual Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  They passed the idea along to the National Recycling Coalition, which organized the first national event in 1997, featuring Vice President Al Gore as the Honorary Chair.  Eventually, the program moved to Keep America Beautiful, one of 16 initiates of that organization.

Each year, the U.S. president proclaims America Recycles Day. In 2017, President Trump included these comments in his statement:

Today, on the 20th anniversary of America Recycles Day, we celebrate Americans whose recycling habits help maintain our global leadership and competitiveness. The rate of recycling in the United States has grown from less than 7 percent in 1960 to more than 34 percent in 2014. Still, materials worth $9 billion are thrown away each year. Rather than throwing away valuable resources, we should return them back into our economy, to rebuild our Nation’s infrastructure and create innovative new products…. In 2007, recycling and reuse activities accounted for 757,000 American jobs and produced $36.6 billion in wages. By reusing and recycling, individuals and communities across our country can do their part to keep our lands beautiful, while also growing American jobs and strengthening our economy.

Although the proclamation is national, the day’s events are largely grass roots.  In 2017, 1.5 million people participated in about 2000 registered local events, and 73,800 individuals signed the annual pledge to recycle.

Americans take recycling seriously.  Since 1960, the rate at which we recycle municipal waste has increased 18-fold.  According to the EPA, in 2015 the country recycled 68 million tons and composted 23 million tons of municipal solid waste that otherwise would have gone to landfills.  That amounts to about 34% of all municipal solid waste generated, so we still have more progress to make.

For example, many countries recycle a much higher proportion of their waste than the U.S.  Germany leads the world, recycling 56%, with Austria, South Korea and Wales also above half.  The U.S. actually ranks 25^th among countries in waste recycling, coming in behind most of Western Europe, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

A global group, the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), has taken to calling recycled materials the “seventh resource.”  They claim that the world’s six major natural resources are water, air, oil, natural gas, coal and minerals (needless to say, anyone interested in “renewable” natural resources would object to leaving out soil, plants, animals and all forms of biodiversity, but let’s not worry about that now).  Naming recycled materials as the seventh resource reinforces the idea that we can conserve other resources as substitutes for extracting new resources from the earth, destroying wild lands and consuming energy.  According to BIR, the seventh resource provides 40% of the world’s raw material needs today—and could supply much more.

So, on America Recycles day—and every other day of the year—make sure you do your part to enlarge our seventh resource (or whatever number it is!).

References:

Bureau of International Recycling. Recycling:  The Seventh Resource Manifesto.  Available at:   https://www.globalrecyclingday.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/ManifestoFINAL.pdf.  Accessed October 26, 2018.

Environmental Protection Agency.  National Overview:  Facts and Figures on Materials, Wastes and Recycling.  Available at:  https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials#Recycling/Composting.  Accessed October 26, 2018.

Gray, Alex.  2017.  Germany recycles more than any other country.  World Economic Forum, 18 Dec 2017.  Available at:  https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/12/germany-recycles-more-than-any-other-country/.  Accessed October 26, 2018.

Heyn, Beth.  2017.  America Recycles Day 2017:  5 Fast Facts You Need to Know.  Heavy, Nov. 15, 2017.  Available at:  https://heavy.com/news/2017/11/america-recycles-day-2017-facts-ideas-participate/.  Accessed October 26, 2018.

Keep America Beautiful.  America Recycles Day.  Available at:  https://americarecyclesday.org/.  Accessed October 26, 2018.

Watson, Rob.  2017.  The 20^th Anniversary and History of America Recycles Day.  SWEEP, November 16, 2017.  Available at:   https://nrra.net/sweep/the-20th-anniversary-and-history-of-america-recycles-day/.  Accessed October 26, 2018.

White House.  2017.  America Recycles Day.  The White House, November 15, 2017.  Available at:  https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/america-recycles-day/.  Accessed October 26, 2018.

On October 29, 1889,Charles Stanley, the Governor General of British Columbia, formally christened a new park in Vancouver, dedicating it “to the use and enjoyment of peoples of all colours, creeds, and customs, for all time.  I name thee, Stanley Park.”  Little did he know that the use and reputation of the park would grow to the extent that Stanley Park was named the world’s best park in 2014 by the users of TripAdvisor!

The park actually opened one year earlier, in September, 1888 (but Stanley himself was ill and could not attend what we would today call the “soft opening”).  At the time, Vancouver had just over 6,000 residents—choosing to set aside a park of this size was a dramatic undertaking for this frontier town.  Today the park is the equivalent of New York’s Central Park or Nairobi’s Uhuru Park.  At nearly 900 acres in area, Stanley Park is the third largest urban park in the world.  Annually, it has more than 8 million recreation visits.

Stanley Park has the typical rich history of use for a western land area.  It was home to three First Nations groups—the Squamish, Burrard Band and Musqueam peoples—who used the land for centuries as hunting and gathering grounds.  During the 1800s, the area was increasingly occupied by European settlers who logged the dense forest for lumber and established small farms.  Vancouver was incorporated as a city in 1888, and the first action taken by the new far-sighted City Council was to begin the steps to create a park.

The park itself is a peninsula that juts northward from downtown Vancouver, separating Vancouver Harbor from the Strait of Georgia.  More than half of the park area remains in forest, dominated by western red cedar, Douglas fir and bigleaf maple.  Although the area was extensively logged during the late 19^th Century, many “monument trees” remain, some centuries old.  The forests have also been subject to severe blow-downs by fierce wind storms, the most recent in 2006.  The city planted 15,000 trees after the 2006 wind storm to restore damaged areas.

Along with forested areas and their associated hiking and biking trails, the park contains numerous areas developed for outdoor recreation.  Original and modern totem poles and other First Nations’ artwork grace the property.  Three beaches attract thousands daily during the summer months.  Forest trails cover nearly 17 miles.  A seawall winds around the park, providing accessible walking and biking paths; combined with other paths adjoining the park, the 13.7-mile trail is the longest uninterrupted waterfront path in the world.  A botanical garden and aquarium are located in the park, but a historic zoo was closed recently when the last remaining animal, a polar bear named Tuk, died in 1994. The presence of the park helps earn Vancouver’s reputation as one of the greenest cities in the world.

References:

City of Vancouver.  Stanley Park.  Available at:  https://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/stanley-park.aspx.  Accessed October 24, 2018.

Kheraj, Sean.  Historical Overview of Stanley Park.  Stanley Park Ecology Society.  Available at:  http://stanleyparkecology.ca/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/02/SOPEI-Historical-Overview-of-Stanley-Park.pdf.  Accessed October 24, 2018.

Today in Canadian History.  1889 – October 29.  Available at:  http://canadachannel.ca/todayincanadianhistory/index.php/October_29.  Accessed October 24, 2018.

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 Grover Cleveland was present to dedicate the Statue of Liberty.  The 151-foot-tall copper statue was a gift from the people of France, erected on a 154-foot base on an island in New York Harbor.  Lady Liberty has remained a dominant icon of freedom and democracy; Emma Lazausus’s poem “The New Colossus” is engraved on a plaque on the statue’s base, and the final lines ring true to the American personality:

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

            When the parade following the statue’s dedication wound its way through New York’s financial district on Manhattan Island, observers from offices high above the street began a spontaneous response—they threw ticker-tape from their windows.  Ticker tape was the one-inch wide strip of paper that clicked continuously out of a ticker-tape machine, showing the instantaneous value of stocks being traded on the stock market.  The tape fed out of the machines and gathered in piles on the floor.  Onlookers decided that showering the parade with the paper strips would make a fitting tribute (no, I don’t know why).

It seemed like such a good idea that New York City decided to institutionalize the practice.  Ticker-tape parades occur along Broadway, from the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan up to City Hall.  That section of Broadway is also called the “Canyon of Heroes” for the honorees that have traveled the parade route.  Since 1886, a total of 206 ticker-tape parades have occurred, honoring the visits of dignitaries, from presidents to popes, and important events, from moon landings to sports championships.

And each has been accompanied by a littering of tons of paper.  Ticker tape itself was used until 1991, when electronic reporting of stock prices made the paper strips obsolete.  Since then, commercial confetti companies have provided the needed natural resource of mountains of tiny bits of paper.

Just how much litter occurs from a parade?  A recent estimate is that a typical parade drops about 120 cubic yards of paper on the street, about the volume of the Statue of Liberty and its base combined.  Since a cubic yard of paper weighs about a ton, that’s also about 120 tons of paper.  And since it takes about 12 trees to make a ton of paper, the average parade requires about 1500 trees.  The record, however, during the heyday of ticker-tape parades, occurred during the parade celebrating the end of World War II in 1945—that day more than 5,000 tons of paper floated down on Manhattan!

The clean-up is just as massive.  More than 100 sanitation workers spend about three weeks cleaning up the mess, which continues to rain down from residue stuck on balconies and building ledges.  The parade honoring the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team after their 2015 World Cup win (and the only parade ever to honor a women’s sports team) cost about $2 million, about two-thirds paid from public funds.

So now, when you read the slogan that “every litter bit hurts,” you know how much!

References:

Elsinger, Dale W.  2012.  Super Bowl Parade 2012:  What’s the Environmental Impact of Ticker Tape?  International Business Times, 2/07/12.  Available at:  https://www.ibtimes.com/super-bowl-parade-2012-whats-environmental-impact-ticker-tape-214007.  Accessed October 23, 2018.

Glass, Andrew.  2008.  Statue of Liberty Dedicated Oct. 28, 1886.  Politico, 10/28/2008.  Available at:  https://www.politico.com/story/2008/10/statue-of-liberty-dedicated-oct-28-1886-014989.  Accessed October 23, 2018.

Hunter, Walt.  2018.  The Story Behind the Poem on the Statue of Liberty.  The Atlantic, Jan 16, 2018.  Available at:  https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/01/the-story-behind-the-poem-on-the-statue-of-liberty/550553/.  Accessed October 23, 2018.

Smith, Emily and Evelyn Andrews.  2015.  By the number:  Ticker tape parades.  CNN, July 9, 2015.  Available at:  https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/09/us/ticker-tape-parades-by-the-numbers/index.html.  Accessed October 23, 2018.

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 9 in the natural category.  The new additions raised the total list to 112 properties.

The 9 new natural properties included the following:

• Darien National Park (Panama)
• Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary (Senegal)
• Great Barrier Reef (Australia)
• Los Glaciares National Park (Argentina)
• Mammoth Cave National Park (United States)
• Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve (Cote d’Ivoire)
• Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal)
• Olympic National Park (United States)
• Serengeti National Park (Tanzania)

 

While all these properties are exceptional, now is an appropriate time to highlight Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.  According to UNESCO, “The Serengeti plains harbour the largest remaining unaltered animal migration in the world where over one million wildebeest plus hundreds of thousands of other ungulates engage in a 1,000 km long annual circular trek spanning the two adjacent countries of Kenya and Tanzania.”

And it is at this time of year—September and October—that the annual migration of mammals reaches the northernmost areas of the park, resulting in a concentration of animals unknown anywhere else in the world.  Wildebeest, zebras and Thompson’s gazelles migrate in a clockwise rotation that takes them from southern areas of the Serengeti region during the wet season to the north, along the Tanzania-Kenya border, during the dry season.  The northern area, bisected by the permanently flowing Mara River, provides a refuge of nutritious grasses and plentiful water.  Daily, herds of wildebeest cross back and forth across the Mara River in spectacular masses that attract wildlife observers from around the globe.  The crossing provide opportunities for crocodiles to prey on wildebeest and other predators and scavengers to  pick up the leftovers.

Serengeti National Park and adjacent protected areas (like Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya and Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area, both also on the UNESCO Heritage List) provide an intact ecosystem supporting the huge mammal populations and the stunning migration.  Altogether, the ecosystem covers about 3.4 million acres, about the size of Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks combined.

UNESCO states that “volcanic soils combined with the ecological impact of the migration results in one of the most productive ecosystems on earth, sustaining the largest number of ungulates and the highest concentration of large predators in the world.”  The region is home to 2 million wildebeest (about 1.2 million are migratory), nearly 1 million Thompson’s gazelles and 300,000 zebras.  The predator population includes 4,000 lions, 1,000 leopards, 225 cheetahs, 3,500 spotted hyenas and 300 wild dogs.

 A male lion, one of thousands in the Serengeti (photo by Larry Nielsen)

Although most of the Serengeti region, including the Serengeti National Park, is protected, threats to the integrity of the area and the world-famous migration continue.  A recent plan to build a road across Serengeti National Park would have divided the northern zone of the park in two, effectively stopping the migration as we know it.  The road has been placed on hold, but population pressures around the park and economic needs to move people and cargo between Lake Victoria and the Indian Ocean will only increase in the future.

The recognition and protection provided by UNESCO designation on the World Heritage List, therefore, are powerful forces in the battle to preserve the ecosystem and its migration.  UNESCO designation provides evidence that the entire world considers a piece of land, water or human structure part of its heritage and not in the sole jurisdiction of a particular country.

References:

UNESCO.  Serengeti National Park.  Available at:    https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/156.  Accessed October 22, 2018.

UNESCO.  1981.  5^th session of the Committee.  Available at:  https://whc.unesco.org/en/sessions/05COM.  Accessed October 22, 2018.

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 “20^th Century John Muir.”  He is Dr. Edgar Wayburn.

Wayburn was born on September 17, 1906 (died at age 103 in 2010) in Georgia.  His genial Georgian accent and nature served him well throughout his life.  He graduated from the University of Georgia at age 19 and the Harvard Medical School at age 23.  He practiced (and taught) medicine for 50 years.

As a boy, he took summer trips annually to San Francisco to visit an uncle.  After finishing medical school and a four-year Army tour in Europe during World War II, he moved to there permanently.  Two observations determined Wayburn’s avocation for the rest of his life.  First, he observed the rapid development of the country after the war and despaired that nature was being pushed beyond the experience of most people.  Second, he marveled that Marin County, just north of San Francisco and dominated by scenic hills and valleys, had not yet been developed.  He later said, “It seemed incredible to me that there were no cities or suburbs built on those Marin hills so close to San Francisco.  I wondered how long that miracle would last.”

Wayburn determined that he would make it last.  He had joined the Sierra Club in 1939 so he could take a burro excursion, and he never left.  He served on the executive board for 34 years and was president five terms during the 1960s.  Wayburn helped convert a California outing club to a national and global conservation powerhouse.  He spent a lifetime in quiet, behind-the-scenes advocacy for preserving wild lands.  He wrote letters, raised money, participated in public meetings, submitted comments on government proposals and lobbied elected officials.

He was effective without marches, protests or media campaigns.  Pat Joseph, writing for the Sierra club, called Wayburn “a born facilitator and diplomat, someone who exuded the kind of authority and integrity that gets people—even powerful people—to listen.  Rogers Morton, Secretary of Interior under Richard Nixon and not overly enthusiastic about locking up lands, told a congressional hearing about a park’s borders that “The Park Service wants me to support their plan, but I went out there to the site with my friend Dr. Wayburn, and he convinced me otherwise.”

He convinced a lot of people “otherwise” over the last half of the century.  In 1958, he successfully lobbied the state of California to expand Mount Tamalpais State Park near San Francisco from 870 acres to more than 6,000 acres, a seven-fold increase.  Next came his successful drives to create Point Reyes National Seashore, just north of San Francisco, and then Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the nation’s (and probably the world’s) largest national park in and adjacent to a major city.  He then spurred the establishment of Redwood National Park.

He and his wife, Peggy Elliott, a former Vogue magazine editor, hiked throughout the region—and then into Alaska in the late 1960s.  They were once again mesmerized, as he had been by the Marin Headlands, by the grandeur of the place and the opportunity for preservation.  Now with a fully developed sense of what was needed, Wayburn had realized that “It wasn’t enough simply to add a few acres here and there; nature doesn’t divide herself into measured plots.  A watershed encompasses the chain of life; if any part is developed, the integrity of the whole ecosystem is threatened.”

He went really big this time, proposing a massive set of preserved lands for Alaska.  In 1980, his vision came to pass through the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA, for short).  ANILCA set aside more than 100 million acres of federal lands as national parks, wildlife refuges and other protected sites.  With those additions, the area administered by the National Park Service doubled.

Never a household name, Wayburn did earn recognition as perhaps the most effective conservationist of the last 75 years.  Among other awards, President Clinton presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999.  When proclaiming the award, Clinton noted that Wayburn had “saved more of our wilderness than any person alive.”

Like Gro Harlem Brundtland, another physician and conservationist, Edgar Wayburn understood that human health and sustainability were not two things, but one.  In an interview for the San Francisco Medical Society, he summed up his philosophy:

“I have loved medicine and conservation.  In one sense, my involvement with both might be summed up in a single word: survival. Medicine is concerned with the short-term survival of the human species, conservation with the long-term survival of the human and other species as well. We are all related.”

References:

Brown, Emma.  2010.  Edgar Wayburn, 103, dies; No 1 protector of U.S. wilderness.  Washington Post, March 9, 2010.  Available at:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/08/AR2010030805247.html?noredirect=on.  Accessed August 2, 2018.

Joseph, Pat.  2010.  Dr. Edgar Wayburn, M.D.:  1906-2010.  Sierra Club.  Available at:  http://vault.sierraclub.org/history/wayburn/.  Accessed August 2, 2018.

Martin, Douglas.  2010.  Edgar Wayburn, a Leader in Saving the Wilderness, Dies at 103.  The New York Times, March 10, 2010.  Available at:  https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/us/10wayburn.html.  Accessed August 2, 2018.

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 in the remote southeastern corner of Utah.  Remote is the right word—the human population is very low and the area of the park has had no human inhabitants in recent centuries.  Ten thousand years ago, the Anasazi People lived there, and they left artifacts of their occupation—abandoned villages, rock pictures and other archeological items.  But in recent times, this part of Utah was basically empty.

As the national park movement grew in the 20^th Century, however, some folks began to take notice of the area’s dramatic geological formations.  Relentless winds and rivers had carved amazing canyons into the sandstone earth.  Among the canyons stood a wealth of stone arches and pinnacles, miraculously colored at sunrise and sunset.  In the 1930s, Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes first proposed making the whole region a gigantic national park, but his idea faded as the country turned to higher priorities—escaping the Great Depression and winning World War II.

The idea arose again in the early 1960s.  At that time, the National Park Service was asking park superintendents to recommend new national park sites, primarily because park popularity had soared, causing crowding and degradation at existing parks.  The superintendent of nearby Arches National Monument, Bates Wilson, offered his suggestion—make a new park in the remote region where the Colorado and Green Rivers came together, and call it Canyonlands.

Wilson was a dogged advocate for the park.  He brought politicians, community leaders and conservationists to the area for hikes, float trips and campfire dinners.  In 1961, he hosted Secretary of Interior Stewart Udall on a five-day excursion.  Like others, Udall was entranced by the region’s remote, rugged beauty.  Immediately, Udall proposed a 1-million-acre park. Wilson also garnered the support of one of Utah’s senators, Frank Moss, who introduced legislation to create Canyonlands National Park in 1961.

Moss’ bill exploded into controversy.  The other Utah Senator and the Utah governor were adamantly opposed.  Ranchers and miners, who had permits to use lands within the proposed park, cried foul, and they were joined by others who didn’t like the idea of closing off a huge area from any commercial use.  Utah politicians, and many citizens, disliked the idea of federal lands at all, believing the state should own public lands and make locally informed decisions about their use.  For three years, the controversy roiled and various compromises were floated—a smaller park, a park surrounded by a multiple-use area, continued exploitation within a park by current permit holders and others.  Fortunately, the Mormon Church sided with creating a park.

Udall, Moss and Wilson never waivered in their commitment to a great new park.  Finally, in early 1964, Congress agreed on a bill that was signed on September 12 by President Lyndon Johnson.  The bill states that Canyonlands possesses “superlative scenic, scientific, and archeologic features for the inspiration, benefit and use of the public….”  In a concession to multiple use, the law allowed current holders of grazing permits to continue grazing for the length of their permits plus one renewal.  All mining claims were also valid, but the promise of finding valuable resources—oil, minerals, uranium—has never been fulfilled.  Today, neither grazing or mining interferes with the protection afforded a national park.

So, here is a national park that was created because the U.S. government said to its knowledgeable staff members, “Hey, go find us a great place to put a park.”  Secretary Udall worked tirelessly for the park.  Senator Moss later acknowledged that being known as “father of Canyonlands” was the highlight of his career.

And they did a fine job.  Canyonlands protects about 337,000 acres of majestic scenery, which many people consider the equal of the Grand Canyon.  Visitation has grown from about 20,000 in 1965 to about 750,000 today.  And a trip to Canyonlands and its neighboring Utah national Parks is on many bucket lists.  It is on mine, and I hope it is on yours.

References:

National Park Service.  2018.  A Conversation with Bates Wilson.  Available at:  https://www.nps.gov/cany/learn/historyculture/bateswilson.htm.  Accessed July 20, 2018.

National Park Service.  Public Law 88-590.  Available at:  https://www.nps.gov/cany/learn/management/pl88-590.htm.  Accessed July 20, 2018.

Smith, Thomas G.  The Canyonlands National Park Controversy.  Utah History to Go.  Available at:  https://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/utah_today/thecanyonlandsnationalparkcontroversy.html.  Accessed July 20, 2018.

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, Dr. Grace Hopper was part of the team of mathematicians and electrical engineers at Harvard working on the Mark II computer.  The machine was acting up, and the team couldn’t diagnose the problem.  Eventually, they discovered the issue:   a live moth was stuck in a relay, causing it to malfunction.  Hopper removed the moth from the relay and taped the critter into the day’s log at 3:45 PM, with this note:  “Relay #30.  Panel F (moth) in relay.  First actual case of bug being found.”

Bugs are part of nature, in positive and negative ways.  Bugs make up half of all known species and outweigh the human population of the earth by about 300 times.  But this bug was special.  With it, a new era and a new terminology was coined.  The term “bug” had been in use in engineering for some time, as an expression of problems in a device or process.  But when Hopper discovered an actual bug being the cause of a problem and then immediately coined her action to remove the offender as “debugging,” a new era was born.

So, the bug is the focus of today’s entry, but the star is Grace Hopper.  She became one of the world’s most influential computer scientists, working for four decades with the Navy, as both a reserve officer and an active duty member.  She joined the Navy in 1943, as a member of the WAVES—Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services—and finally retired in 1986 as a Rear Admiral, the oldest living active duty navy officer at the time.

Hopper was born in 1906 (died 1992), in New York City, and earned a BA at Vassar, in math and physics—a rarity in that time.  She taught math at Vassar while studying for her advanced degrees at Yale.  Now Dr. Hopper, she moved on to Harvard to work on early computers. Her work as a naval reserve office also focused on computers, and her military and personal careers were never far apart.

She had a creative mind, believing that “we’ve always done it that way” was no excuse for shunning innovation and experimentation.  As one observer wrote, she “appears to be all navy, but when you reach inside, you find a ‘Pirate’ dying to be released.” She rejected the idea that computers could only do arithmetic, or that programming computers had to be all Os and 1s.  She developed the first “compiler” that converted English language instructions into machine language, ushering in the age of accessible programming in languages such as COBOL.

Grace Hopper is one of the most heralded leaders in the development of early computers.  Known by her colleagues as “Amazing Grace,” she was the first person to be named “Man of the Year” in computer sciences, in 1969.  President George Bush awarded her the National Medal of Technology, just before her death in January, 1992.  In 2016, she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama.  During her life, she received 40 honorary doctorates, and a naval military vessel, the USS Hooper, is named after her.

But we will always remember her as the person who literally “debugged” a computer!

References:

Engel, Kerilynn.  2013.  Admiral “Amazing Grace” Hopper, prioneering computer programmer.  Amazing Women in History.  Available at:  http://www.amazingwomeninhistory.com/amazing-grace-hopper-computer-programmer/.  Accessed September 8, 2017.

Markoff, John.  1992.  Read Adm. Grace m. Hopper Dies; Innovator in Computers Was 85.  New York Times, January 3, 1992.  Available at:  http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/03/us/rear-adm-grace-m-hopper-dies-innovator-in-computers-was-85.html?mcubz=0.  Accessed September 8, 2017.

Yale University.  1994.  Grace Murray Hopper.  Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.  Available at:  http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/Files/hopper-story.html.  Accessed September 8, 2017.

“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 in 1960, especially at the global level.  Two well established groups—the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Conservation Foundation—decided that although it was necessary that people care about nature and know how to help preserve it, that wasn’t sufficient.  They also needed the money to do it.  In April, 1961, those two organizations brought leading conservationists together from 11 nations at Morges, Switzerland.  They issued a joint statement, now called the Morges Manifesto, that reads in part this way:

“All over the world today vast numbers of fine and harmless wild creatures are losing their lives, or their homes, in an orgy of thoughtless and needless destruction…. Skilful and devoted men and admirable organisations are struggling to Save the World’s Wild Life.  They have the ability and the will to do it but they tragically lack the support and resources…. Hundreds of thousands of people have bought best-selling books and millions have watched films and television programmes about the world’s endangered wild life.  Many of these have felt:  ‘If only I could do something to help!’….Such a means is now being created….”

The means was the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which opened its doors in Morges, Switzerland, on September 11, 1961.  The organization committed itself to an aggressive and continuiing fundraising campaign and then quick action to distribute funds to worthy projects.  In the first year, the WWF awarded $37,500 ($310,000 in today’s money) to five projects addressing the conservation of the Bald Eagle, the Hawaiian seabirds, Guatemala’s Giant Grebe, Canada’s Tule Goose and the red wolf.

Since then, the WWF has blossomed into the largest conservation organization in the world.  Since 1985, it has invested over $1 billion through 12,000+ conservation projects of all kinds around the world.  It originated the concept of debt-for-nature, allowing developing countries to swap some national debt in exchange for protecting important wildlife habitat.  It pioneered the idea of sustainable certifications for forestry and marine fishing operations.  It has purchased millions of acres of precious and vulnerable habitats around the globe.  Working through partner organizations, businesses and governments, it leverages funds to optimize its impact.

Today, the WWF operates through 40 national affiliates and operates projects in more than 100 countries.  It boasts 25 million followers on social media and 5 million financial supporters.  In 1917 alone, it invested nearly $160 million directly into conservation projects.  WWF operates in six strategic areas: wildlife, oceans, forests, freshwater, climate and energy, and food, chosen and operated in concert with the world’s sustainable development goals.  It has identified 35 priority regions/resources, including three in the United States—the northern Great Plains, Chihuahuan Desert and its freshwater resources, and southeastern rivers and streams.

At its founding, the WWF made one other extremely important decision.  They chose the giant panda as their logo.  According to their website, “Aware of the need for a strong, recognisable symbol that would overcome all language barriers, WWF’s founders agreed that the big, furry animal with her appealing, black-patched eyes would make an excellent logo.” They also wanted a logo that could be printed in black and white to reduce costs.  The logo was based on Chi-Chi, a giant panda newly sent from China to the London Zoo in 1961.  Wildlife artist Peter Scott, a WWF founder, drew the logo for the new organization.  And the rest, as they say, is history.

References:

Warta, Tamara.  World Wildlife Fund History.  Lovetoknow.  Available at:  https://charity.lovetoknow.com/World_Wildlife_Fund_History.  Accessed July 19, 2018.

World Wildlife Fund.  History.  Available at:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/about/history.  Accessed July 19, 2018.

World Wildlife Fund.  2017.  WWF Annual Report, 2016.  Available at:  http://d2ouvy59p0dg6k.cloudfront.net/downloads/wwf_int_annual_review2016_lowres__1___1_.pdf.  Accessed July 19, 2018.

World Wildlife Fund Global.  50 years of environmental conservation.  Available at:  http://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/history/.  Accessed July 19, 2018.

At the turn of the 20^th 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.  One man, Henry Hardtner, decided that wasn’t the way to manage Louisiana’s forests—and became the “Father of Southern Forestry.”

Henry Hardtner was born in central Louisiana on September 10, 1870 (died 1935).  After a youth spent roaming the woods, he joined his father’s fledging logging business in the small community of Olla, Louisiana.  They named their land and company Urania, after the Greek muse of astronomy.  In 1906, Hardtner became the majority owner and leader of the company.  He had no training in forestry (no one had in the U.S. at that time), but had an innate feel for the forest:

“I was born in the forests and have had close association with them since childhood.  What I know of them cannot be learned in schools or colleges.  To me they are as humans and I know the trees as I try to know men.”

            Knowing the trees gave Hardtner a different perspective on the forestry business.  He recognized that cutting trees and then abandoning the land was wasting the future.  He believed that a crop of trees could be regrown in a reasonable number of years—about 40, say—because young trees would grow faster than the original and old longleaf pine that the industry was harvesting.  So, he began three practices on his land that today we recognize as sustainable forestry but were then unheard of.  First, he protected the forest from arson (which was common in Louisiana) by hiring fire wardens to patrol the woods.  Second, he demanded that all trees reaching his mills had to be above a certain diameter, protecting the smaller trees in the woods.  Third, he required loggers to leave several mature trees per acre to re-seed the harvested land.

All of his ideas were revolutionary at the time, and no data existed to support him.  So, Hardtner set up what became essentially a forestry experiment station on his Urania property.  He monitored the regeneration on his lands, measuring the density and growth of his “baby pines” in relation to harvesting practices.

His peers thought him a “foolish visionary” who would soon be out of business.  But Hardtner was as shrewd a businessman as he was a conservationist.  He cut his virgin woodlands at a slow, steady pace, providing the resources to keep his experiments in regeneration going.  And as new forests began to grow and mature on his lands, others began to take notice.  Over the years, Urania became a destination for foresters from across the nation and world.  Yale sent their forestry students to Louisiana to see what Hardtner was accomplishing.  He ran demonstrations for visitors to his forests, soon earning the title of “Moses of Forestry.”  The foolish visionary turned into the leader of modern forestry in Louisiana and throughout the south.

At the same time, Hardtner worked vigorously for regulation of forest harvesting, investments in forest management, and the development of forestry research.  In 1904, he used his political connections to help pass Louisiana’s first forestry law, with provisions that matched his own forestry practices.  When Louisiana created a Commission for the Conservation of Natural Resources in 1908 (after the governor returned from Teddy Roosevelt’s Governors Conference on Conservation) (learn more about the conference here), Hardtner was appointed its first chair.  Eventually, he convinced the commission to appoint a state forester and create an independent forestry agency.  He worked to establish the idea of “reforestation contracts,” which provided tax benefits if landowners agreed to re-forest their land and let the trees grow for 40 years.  Hardtner signed the first contract issued by the state in 1913, covering more than 25,000 acres of his own land.

Hardtner wrote extensively about forestry and led many forestry organizations.  He co-founded the Louisiana Forestry Association and the Southern Forestry Congress, serving as presidents of both groups.  In 1999, the Southern Group of State Foresters established the Henry Hardtner Award to recognize sustainable forestry and conservation on non-industrial private forest lands.  The great respect that Hardtner earned during his life and since his death is exemplified by the words of a representative of the U.S. Forest Service at the dedication of a memorial to him in 1939:

“Just as occasionally a tree springs in an opening in the forest and establishes its roots in deep fertile soil beside a stream and grows to tower above all its associated, so it happens occasionally with men.  Today we pay homage and are here to dedicate a memorial to the life and achievement of such a man—Henry Ernest Hardtner.”

References:

Barnett, Jim.  2017.  Making Southern forests great again.  Louisiana Forestry Association, 3/27/2017.  Available at:  https://laforestry.com/News/tabid/112/ArticleID/57/Making-Southern-forests-great-again.aspx.  Accessed July 18, 2018.

Burns, Anna C.  1978.  Henry E. Hardtner, Louisiana’s First Conservationist.  Journal of Forest History 22(2):78-85.  Available at:  https://www-jstor-org.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/stable/pdf/3983330.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A4bb66f294651b782094b5e38f8904747.  Accessed July 18, 2018.

Fickleis, James E.  2001.  Early Forestry in the South and in Mississippi.  Forest History Today, Spring/Fall 2001:11-18.  Available at:  https://foresthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/fickle_early-forestry-in-south-and-mississippi.pdf.  Accessed July 18, 2018.

Mattoon, Wilbur R.  1939.  Dedication Address to Henry E. Hardtner.  Journal of Forestry 37(10):761-762.  Available at:  https://academic.oup.com/jof/article-abstract/37/10/761/4721285?redirectedFrom=PDF.  Accessed July 18, 2018.