Category: Uncategorized

My atlas shows a long narrow rectangle in purple, extending from the southern border of central New Mexico to the north for about 150 miles.  The purple rectangle is the White Sands Missile Range, and buried inside it is the White Sands National Monument, a place of natural beauty like none other in the world.

White Sands National Monument was established by President Herbert Hoover on January 18, 1933.  Hoover did so to protect “the white sands and additional features of scenic, scientific, and educational interest.”  He got that right.  The 142,987-acre national monument features a portion of the world’s largest gypsum crystal “sand dune.”  The white sand dune (not sand, but gypsum crystals—the stuff that dry-wall is made of) is 275 square miles in extent; the next largest is 3 square miles!  About half of the dune itself is in the national monument, the rest is in the missile range.

The region has seen waves of habitation for at least 10,000 years.  Nomadic peoples hunted the area when it was covered in grasslands.  When the post-ice-age climate changed, the land dried up, as did human use.  About 1800 years ago, Native American farmers came to the area, only to disappear as had previous inhabitants.  Starting about 700 years ago, Native American Apache groups colonized the arid, unforgiving environment; their descendants remain.

But it is hard to scrape a living from the dry, wind-blown landscape.  Repeated attempts to farm, ranch or mine by Spanish colonists and American pioneers have failed to stake a permanent claim at white sands.  The U.S. government has found a use, however—as a distant, isolated, barely inhabited place to develop and test long-range weapons.  The northern end of the White Sands Missile Range holds the “Trinity Site,” where the first atomic bomb was detonated in tests on July 16, 1945.  The Army tests rockets there to this day, with many successful spacecraft having flown first above these white dunes.

Thanks to President Hoover, a significant portion of the white gypsum dunes are protected as a unique ecosystem and a recreational haven.  More than 800 animal species reside there, most of them nocturnal.  Sometimes called the “Desert Galapagos,” White Sands is home to a variety of white reptiles and insects that have adapted—and are adapting—to the hot, bright days and cold nights of the region.  One unique species is the White Sands pupfish, that survives in four isolated populations in spring-fed ponds and streams.

Most recreation at White Sands is for day use only, as the environment is unrelentingly harsh.  Facilities in the park were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, graceful stone picnic shelters that remind us of the great legacy of conservation that grew from the Great Depression (learn more about the CCC here).  A favorite outdoor activity is sand-dune sledding, with inexpensive saucer sleds for sale in the park gift shop—it is great fun (I’ve done it!).  From an initial annual visitation of 12,000 in 1933, now more than half a million visitors enjoy the park every year.

And, on December 20, 2019, President Donald Trump signed legislation that redesignated White Sands as a National Park.

References:

Block, Melissa, and Elissa Nadworny.  2017.  Photos: The cream, Sculpted dunes Of White Sands National Monument.  NPR special series:  Our Land.  April 9, 2017.  Available at:  https://www.npr.org/2017/04/09/520874659/photos-the-creamy-sculpted-dunes-of-white-sands-national-monument.  Accessed January 17, 2018.

Conrod, William and Erica Bree Rosenblum.  2008.  A Desert Galapagos.  Natural History Magazine, May 2008, pages 16-18.  Available at:  https://www.nps.gov/whsa/learn/nature/upload/Desert_Galapagos_-287KB_PDF.pdf.  Accessed January 17, 2018.

National Park Service.  White Sands National Monument.  Available at: https://www.nps.gov/whsa/index.htm.  Accessed January 17, 2018

Benjamin Franklin was a lot of things—inventor, publisher, scientist, diplomat, framer of the Declaration of Independence.  But, some argue, he was also America’s first environmentalist.  You be the judge.

Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 (died 1790).  He had little formal education, but learned wherever he went.  As an apprentice printer, he learned the business and became a successful publisher in Philadelphia.  He eventually published Poor Richard’s Almanack, filled with pithy quotes and also with astute observations about weather, forests, farms and oceans (Exhibit 1, a fundamental interest in his environment).

As he prospered, he became a leading citizen of Philadelphia.  By the time he was 42, he was wealthy enough to retire and focus on civic matters, science and inventing.  Most famous for his experiments with electricity, he also studied meteorology and the ocean (Exhibit 2, a natural history interest).  His study of the Gulf Stream provided navigators a new strategy for crossing the Atlantic, cutting two weeks off the round-trip.

He is well known for his interest in energy conservation (Exhibit 3).  His invention of the Franklin stove provided more heat while using less fuel.  He also promoted improved chimneys to reduce exposure to smoke within homes.  He invented a four-sided street lamp to replace the spherical lamps that were common.  Spherical lamps had poor air circulation that caused inefficient burning of the oil fuel, leading to soot on the lamps that needed to be cleaned daily and excessive smoke emitted into the air—another contribution to energy conservation and air quality.

To be the nation’s first environmentalist, a person should have an interest in the most fundamental of natural resources—water.  One of his most famous aphorisms is “When the well is dry, we know the value of water.”  Franklin knew the value of clean water and the need for society to protect its purity.  In 1739, along with a group of fellow citizens, he petitioned the Pennsylvania Assembly to stop tanneries from dumping their wastes into public water supplies, asserting the rights of the public over excessive private actions (Exhibit 4, a commitment to public health).  They won their appeal, but, alas, a lack of enforcement allowed the pollution to continue.

In the 1760s, he led a commission in Philadelphia to improve waste collection and reduce water pollution (Exhibit 5, a willingness to perform public service for environmental matters).  Even more generously, he left a substantial amount in his will to build a pipeline to bring clean water into central Philadelphia.  That project led to the creation of the Philadelphia Water Commission.

He didn’t get everything right, but he was sure trying.  For example, while living in England and representing the Philadelphia colony during 1757-1775, Franklin encouraged England to switch fuel to improve the environment.  Forests had largely disappeared in England, due to their overharvest for all manner of use, including burning as fuel.  Franklin promoted the use of coal as a substitute fuel, a dubious strategy today, but then one advanced to save the endangered forest (Exhibit 6, an understanding of biodiversity conservation).

So, is the case convincing that Benjamin Franklin was America’s first environmentalist?  Perhaps not the first, but surely one of them.  More than anything, I believe Frnaklin’s interest in the environment shows that men and women of thought and conscience, today and yesterday, include a healthy environment among our most important and cherished priorities.

References:

Fabricius, Karl.  2008.  Environmentalism in 1739.  Scribol.com.  Available at:  http://scribol.com/anthropology-and-history/cultures/environmentalism-in-1739/.  Accessed January 17,2018.

History.com.  Benjamin Franklin.  Available at:  http://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/benjamin-franklin.  Accessed January 17, 2018.

Simenauer, Lauren.  2011.  What Would Ben Franklin Do?  Influences of America’s First Environmentalist.  Science Progress, November 20, 2011.  Available at:  https://scienceprogress.org/2011/11/what-would-ben-franklin-do/.  Accessed January 17, 2018.

So, it’s a stretch.  National Houseplant Day may not be a biggee in the history of conservation.  But just think for a moment what good things houseplants do for us.

Houseplants actually improve your indoor environment, an example of how nature and humans work together.  They absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, making it easier to breathe (but keep them out of the bedroom, because at night they do the opposite—suck up your oxygen and double down on carbon dioxide).  They are nature’s humidifiers, delivering moisture to the air—especially needed during these cold, dry days of confinement during the winter.  A NASA study has revealed that plants can strip up to 87% of noxious compounds out of the air in a day.

And we can eat them.  We have a large rosemary plant in our house; just break off a sprig and add it to whatever is cooking.  Add a little dill, sage and thyme—and you’ve got a spice cabinet growing in your kitchen (not to mention the stimulus for a Simon and Garfunkel earworm).

But let’s be serious for a moment.  According to the late Yale professor (and my long-time friend) Stephen Kellert, natural elements in the human environment are not only good for us, but essential for us.  We are inherently natural creatures, and our migration into the built environment of cities is too recent to have rinsed away our affiliation with nature.  Biophilia, he called it.  And when we don’t get enough exposure to nature, we suffer from NDD—Nature Deficit Disorder.

And there is lots of proof, summarized by Kellert and colleague Elizabeth F. Calabrese.  Hospital patients get better faster in hospital rooms with windows—or even murals of natural scenes.  Offices of cubicles in windowless rooms reduce productivity; add natural light, views to the outside, windows that open, and productivity soars.  Indoor plants, by themselves, can improve productivity by as much as 15%.   Kellert and Calabrese suggest adding these features to the human environment:  Images of nature, natural materials, natural colors, simulated natural light and air, naturalistic shapes and forms—and several others.  It’s just a more modern form of feng shui and vastu, the Chinese and Indian ideas of designing with nature.

A few years ago, I visited the home of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative in Cambridge, England.  It is a collaborative of the famous university and several conservation groups, including IUCN.  The building itself is interesting, with a four-story green wall in its atrium, an astonishing bit of biophilic design.  What was more astonishing, at the opening of the building, named for renowned British conservationist, David Attenborough, the namesake himself entered the building by rappelling from the top to the bottom (learn more about Attenborough here).

So, on January 10, let’s give it up for the little green botanical pets that grace our homes and workplaces.  And don’t forget to water them!

References:

Calamia, Maureen K.  2011.  Why Plants Make Us Feel Good.  The Huffington Post, Oct 04, 2011.  Available at:  https://www.huffingtonpost.com/maureen-k-calamia/biophilia_b_917161.html.  Accessed January 15, 2018.

Kellert, Stephen.  2015.  Nature by Design:  the Practice of biophilic Design.  Human Spaces, June 2015.  Available at:  http://humanspaces.com/2015/06/01/nature-by-design-the-practice-of-biophilic-design/.  Accessed January 15, 2018.

National Today.  National Houseplant Appreciation Day – January 10.  Available at:  https://nationaltoday.com/national-houseplant-appreciation-day/.  Accessed January 15, 2018.

Dian Fossey, the world’s leading expert on mountain gorillas, was born on January 16, 1932 (died 1985).  She followed her dream to visit Africa as a young woman.  There she discovered an affinity to nature and specifically to mountain gorillas that occupied her entire life and led to her murder in a machete attack in the remote Rwandan wilderness.  Her life was immortalized in the feature film, “Gorillas in the Mist,” starring Sigourney Weaver.

Fossey grew up in San Francisco.  She was always interested in animals, but did not pursue a career related to them.  Instead, she became an occupational therapist, first in California and later in Louisville, Kentucky.  When a friend returned from an African safari filled with stories of the animals and excitement she had experienced, Fossey decided she needed to take a similar trip herself, then, before she grew too old.  So, at age 31, she cashed in her life savings, took out a bank loan and headed to Africa.

The trip changed Fossey’s life.  She met the famous paleontologist Louis Leakey at his camp in Olduvai Gorge.  Leakey told her that in order to understand human behavior, we needed to study our closest relatives—the great apes.  Leakey had begun funding Jane Goodall’s studies of chimpanzees a few years earlier, and he encouraged a similar study of mountain gorillas (learn more about Goodall here).  Later on the tour, Fossey saw her first mountain gorillas, and her fate was determined.  “I believe it was at this time,” she wrote, “the seed was planted in my head, even if unconsciously, that I would someday return to Africa to study the gorillas of the mountains.”

Louis Leakey came to Louisville a few years later to lecture, and Fossey renewed their acquaintance.  Leakey invited her to come to Africa to study gorillas, but insisted that she first have her appendix removed to avoid any problems in the field.  She did so—to Leakey’s surprise, because he claimed this was just his way to test the sincerity of a person’s interest, not intending for anyone to follow through on the idea.  Leakey was obviously impressed and after securing funding, brought Fossey back to Africa in 1966.

She initially set up an observation camp in the Congo, in the Virunga Mountains that are now the only known home of the mountain gorilla.  Fossey spent all her time in the field, watching gorillas and gradually gaining their trust.  In a short time, the animals became habituated to Fossey’s presence so that she could observe them continuously at close range.  She learned to identify individuals from three distinct groups.  From her copious notes, she wrote several articles about the gorillas’ behavior.  He work attracted the attention of National Geographic Magazine, and she appeared on the magazine’s cover—her work and her concern for the conservation of the gorillas was now part of the global consciousness (learn more about the National Geographic Society here).

When civil war made the Congo too dangerous, she moved to neighboring Rwanda.  There she set up a new camp—Karisoke—that became her field home for the rest of her life.  She always felt that her lack of scientific training inhibited her work and the acceptance of it by the scientific community.  So, she began graduate study at Cambridge University, receiving a doctorate in animal behavior in 1974.

But it was her fierce commitment to protecting the mountain gorilla that drove Fossey.  She had a reputation as a difficult personality to begin with, not helped by her alleged heavy drinking. But when gorilla poaching was the problem, she was ferocious.  She adopted voodoo-like techniques to make locals believe she had special evil powers, often pursued and captured poachers and claimed to torture them.  She clashed with other conservationists who promoted education as the long-term solution to poaching, preferring to take the battle directly to any poacher she confronted.

Her attacks on poaching and poachers probably led to her death.  She was discovered murdered in her mountain cabin on December 27, 1985, victim of a vicious machete ambush.  The murder has never been solved, and views differ on who the culprit or culprits might have been—poachers, smugglers, or even some of her own staff.  She is buried at her field station, beside a beloved mountain gorilla, Digit, that was killed by poachers a few years earlier.

Fossey believed that the mountain gorilla was unlikely to survive, but the reality is that their numbers continue to climb today, albeit slowly.  Dian Fossey taught the world that the mountain gorilla was not an evil monster, but rather a gentle, shy, loving creature.  The publicity that she brought to their understanding and conservation has begun to do its work.  Probably because of her efforts, the mountain gorilla looks today like a survivor, not a casualty.

References:

Dian fossey Gorilla Fund International.  Dian Fossey Biography.  Available at:  https://gorillafund.org/who-we-are/dian-fossey/dian-fossey-bio/. Accessed January 15, 2017.

Hogenboom, Melissa.  2015.  The woman who gave her life to save the gorillas.  BBC Earth, December 26, 2015.  Available at:  http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20151226-the-woman-who-gave-her-life-to-save-the-gorillas. Accessed January 15, 2017.

Martin Holdgate, one of the leaders of British conservation during the past half-century, was born January 14, 1931.  He has been part of most of the major environmental and conservation developments in England and around the world dkuring the last half-century.

Holdgate studied biological sciences at Cambidge University, completing a doctorate in insect physiology in 1955.  At the conclusion of his studies, he joined an expedition to the south Atlantic island of Gough, then a poorly known outpost of the British empire (later made an UNESCO World Heritage site) (learn more about UNESCO here).  That expedition spurred Holdgate’s interest in the Antarctic, which continued as he taught courses at Manchester and Durham universities.  Eventually, he joined the British Antarctic Survey, becoming its Chief Biologist within a short time.

He moved more directly into the practice of conservation and environment in 1966.  He joined the British Nature Conservancy then, performing research that informed their decisions about what lands to protect (the organization is now known as Natural England).  Beginning in 1970, he joined the UK Department of the Environment, rising to the position of Chief Scientist and Deputy Secretary prior to his departure in 1988.  His time in these agencies coincided with the growth of the environmental movement in the UK, representing a “major step-change after World War 2.”

Holdgate was among the world’s environmental leaders who espoused the concept of sustainable development, recognizing that economic development and environmental sustainability had to work together. He was a member of many global environmental commissions, representing the British government. “The environment,” he noted, “is not against the economy.”  Understanding that economy and environment need to go together, he introduced the concept BATNEEC as a guiding principle, requiring that industry use the “Best Available Technology Not Entailing Excessive Costs.”  He later apologized for the tongue-twisting acronym.

From 1988 to 1994, he served as Director General of IUCN (the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources).  IUCN is the largest association of governments and non-governmental organizations concerned with the environment, most notably providing the scientific guidance for species in peril (the Red List) and for protection of unique and outstanding ecosystems .

Holdgate has been honored broadly for his work on behalf of the environment.  He was knighted in 1994, holds several honorary doctorates and is a “Global 500” advisor to the UN Environment Programme.  Since retiring, he resides in the English Lake District, where he serves as President of The Friends of the Lake District.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, he succinctly summed up his understanding, after a lifetime of ecological study and public service, of the relationship of humans and nature:  “If we muck our environment about, we muck ourselves about.”

References:

Friends of The Lake District.  President.  Available at:  https://www.friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/presidentmartinholdgate.  Accessed January 13, 2018.

Holdgate, Mr.  1988.  Interview profile of Dr. Martin Holdgate.  The Environmentalist 8(2):87-91 (June 1988).  Available at:  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02240273.  Accessed January 13, 2018.

The Guardian.  2012.  Martin Holdgate: reconciling the economy to the environment has been a huge achievement since WW2 (video interview).  Available at:  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2012/jun/13/martin-holdgate-economy-environment.  Accessed January 13, 2018.

United Nations Environment Programme.  Sir Martin Holdgate, CB PhD FIBiol.  Global 500 Advisors.  Available at:  https://web.archive.org/web/20100605000825/http://www.global500.org:80/smholdgate.html.  Accessed January 13, 2018.

She was an African-American opera singer who thrilled European audiences in the 1950s.  But to most in her adopted home on Amelia Island, Florida, she was just the “Beach Lady.”  The lives of music lovers and environmentalists all benefitted from her untiring passion and persistence.

MaVynee Oshun Betsch was born in Jacksonville, Florida, on January 13, 1935.  Her family was part of the African-American elite of Jacksonville.  Her great-grandfather was Abraham Lincoln Lewis, owner of the Afro American Insurance Company, which he founded in 1901.  Lewis was one of the successful businessmen who built the African-American community of Jacksonville, a parallel universe required by the Jim Crow laws that mandated segregation in many southern states.

Coming from a wealthy and cultured family, Betsch had the opportunity to study music at Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio.  After graduating in 1955 with majors in voice and piano, she moved to Europe and studied voice in Paris and London.  She toured Europe as an opera singer for seven years, singing mostly for German audiences.

In the year she was born, her great grandfather made a daring business and social investment.  Using the Pension Bureau of his insurance company, Lewis bought 33 acres of Amelia Island waterfront and established the community of American Beach.  Later he bought more acreage, expanding American Beach to 216 acres.  His idea was to make a place where African-Americans could enjoy the beach—a place for “recreation and relaxation without humiliation.”

American Beach became a destination for African-American vacationers from across the country.  There they could enjoy an outdoor experience without worry of the harassment and violence of the Jim Crow era.  American Beach became the place to go.  The waterfront pavilion welcomed the nation’s most prominent African-American entertainers, including Cab Calloway, Ray Charles and Duke Ellington.

In the mid-1960s, the prominence of American Beach began to decline.  With the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, segregation was outlawed.  African-Americans began vacationing at other beach locations, from Miami to Atlantic City.  Also in 1964, Hurricane Dora tore through the community, destroying homes and businesses, many of which never recovered.

About this time, Betsch tired of the diva’s life and returned home.  She loved American Beach and, from 1975 onwards, made its preservation her life’s work.  She also understood that places like American Beach, a natural haven in an industrializing world, were necessary everywhere.  She became a dedicated environmentalist, donating her entire fortune, estimated at $750,000, to environmental causes.

She was not only dedicated, but also somewhat eccentric.  She gave up her home and began living on the beach, spending her days sitting in a lawn chair and telling her story to passers-by.  She grew her hair long—seven feet long and gathered in a huge bun atop her head and draped over her arm—to demonstrate that nature didn’t need help to grow beautiful things.  She grew the fingernails on her left hand to prove the same point, the nails making an 18-inch spiral at one point.  Her clothes were covered in political buttons that espoused her commitment to the environment and social justice.  She especially appealed to children:  “They come to see my hair, and I give ‘em a little history.”

Her efforts for conservation have paid off.  A portion of American Beach is the NaNa sand dune, the tallest in Florida.  Because of her persistent efforts, the development company that owned the dune transferred it to the National Park Service and it is now preserved as part of the Timucuan Ecological & Historical Preserve.  Another of her dreams was to create a center to tell the natural and human history of American Beach—so future generations would understand the Jim Crow era and what it meant to the lives of African-Americans.  That dream became reality in 2014, when the American Beach Museum opened.

MaVynee Betsch died from cancer in 2005.  She was a unique person, without question, who made significant contributions to conservation.  But she is not widely known, illustrating our need to more fully develop and chronicle the diversity of the environmental movement and the contributions of African-Americans to that movement.  Had it not been for my conversations with noted African-American environmentalist Carolyn Finney (author of Black Faces, White Spaces), I would not have known to include her in this chronology.  But at least one person took note:  The Dalai Lama named her an “Unsung Hero of Compassion” just after her death in 2005.

Betsch once left this message on her voicemail:  “Hello.  This is the Beach Lady.  If you’re getting this message, it may be because I have turned into a butterfly and floated out over the sand dune.”  And that sand dune remains because the Beach Lady made us keep it!

References:

BlackPast.org.  American Beach, Jacksonville, Florida (1936- ).  Available at:  http://www.blackpast.org/aah/american-beach-jacksonville-florida-1936.  Accessed January 12, 2018.

Florida Times-Union.  2005.  MaVynee Betsch.  Available at:  http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timesunion/obituary.aspx?pid=15022945.  Accessed January 12, 2018.

Gullan/Geechee Nation.  2015.  The Beach Lady MaVynee Betsch:  Gullah/Geechee Sacred Ancestor.  Available at:  https://gullahgeecheenation.com/2015/01/13/the-beach-lady-mavynee-betsch-gullahgeechee-sacred-ancestor/.  Accessed January 12, 2018.

HistoryMakers.  MaVynee “Beach Lady” Betsch.  Available at:  http://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/mavynee-beach-lady-betsch-39.  Accessed January 12, 2018.

National Park Service.  Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve.  Available at:  https://www.nps.gov/timu/learn/historyculture/ambch.htm.  Accessed January 12, 2018.

Rymer, Russ.  2003.  Beach Lady.  Smithsonain Magazine, June 2003.  Available at:  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/beach-lady-84237022/.  Accessed January 12, 2018.

President Theodore Roosevelt declared the creation of Muir Woods National Monument on January 9, 1908.  The 1906 Antiquities Act provided the legal authority for establishment of national monuments by the president.  Muir Woods became just the seventh national monument created in the United States.

Muir Woods lies just north of San Francisco, adjacent to Golden Gate National Recreation Area and surrounded by Mt. Tamalpais State Park.  The monument was established by a gift from wealthy California businessman and conservationist, William Kent.  In 1905, Kent purchased one of the few remaining stands of coastal redwoods, a 600+ acre tract that wound its way along Redwood Creek,  for $45,000.  The tract had escaped the logging that had downed most redwoods because the valley of Redwood Creek was nearly inaccessible.  When his wife wondered if they had the money to spare, he told her, “If we lost all the money we have and saved these trees, it would be worthwhile, wouldn’t it?”

Muir Woods is famous for its grove of coastal redwood trees (Sequoia sempervirens), the world’s largest living tree.  The tallest tree in Muir Woods is 250+ feet, but larger specimens exist farther north in California and southern Oregon.  Most trees in Muir Woods are 600-800 years old; the oldest is around 1200 years old.  Muir loved the fact that this grove was preserved, as he wrote to William Kent:  “Saving these woods from the axe & saw, from money-changers and water-changers & giving them to our country & the world is in many ways the most notable service to God & man I’ve heard of since my forest wanderings began.”

When a downstream developer announced plans to flood Redwood Creek, the grove faced the threat of destruction.  Kent acted quickly by donating 295 acres of his land to the federal government in 1907 for the purpose of creating a national monument.  This action trumped local laws, effectively protecting the redwoods.  President Roosevelt acted quickly to create the Muir Woods National Monument.

However, Roosevelt thought it would be more fitting to name the grove after the donor, William Kent, and wrote to seek his permission for the naming.  Kent objected, writing to Roosevelt, “Your kind suggestion of a change of name is not one that I can accept. So many millions of better people have died forgotten, that to stencil one’s own name on a benefaction, seems to carry with it an implication of mandate immortality, as being something purchasable.”

Kent later became a U.S. congressman.  While in congress, he introduced the legislation that created the National Park Service in 1916.

Muir Woods has received more than 1 million visitors annually since 2014, putting it in the top 20% of all national park units by visitation.  Because of its popularity, parking is a major headache for visitors and for nearby residents.  A reservation system is now in place to both limit access and assure visitors that they will get to see the redwood groves.

References:

National Park Service.  Muir Woods.  Available at:  https://www.nps.gov/muwo/index.htm.  Accessed January 8, 2017.

The great 19^th Century naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace was born on January 8, 1823 (died 1913).  Today, Wallace is known mostly as a footnote—the other originator of the idea of evolution and natural selection, aside the much more famous Charles Darwin.  His prolific career as a naturalist and social commentator, however, made Wallace one of the most famous and honored men of England during his life.

Wallace was born to a working-class family in Gwent, Wales, and was forced to quit school at age 14 to take up work with his brother as a surveyor.  As they roamed southern England and Wales surveying, Wallace took an interest in the landscapes they charted.  He bought a book about botany and began to identify the plants along his surveying transects.  A naturalist was born!  When the surveying business went bust, he joined a local school as a drafting teacher.  His interest expanded to beetles, and he never looked back.

With a fellow teacher, he left for a multiple-year expedition to Brazil in 1848, at the age of 25.  There, he collected specimens of all kinds, with the goal of selling them to collectors back home.  After four years in Brazil, he boarded a ship along with his treasure of new and exotic specimens and many live animals.  A few days out from port, the ship caught fire and sank.  Along with it sank Wallace’s specimens and fortune.  The survivors, including Wallace, floated in leaky lifeboats for ten days before being rescued.

Undaunted, Wallace started a second major expedition in 1854, this time to what we now call Indonesia.  Collecting was again his agenda, but this time he also planned to investigate an idea that had captured his thinking—evolution.  He spent a total of eight years exploring the region, collecting and sending home more than 125,000 specimens and in the process discovering 1000 new species. His most spectacular find was the golden birdwing butterfly; he described the moment he found it:

“None but a naturalist can understand the intense excitement I experienced when I at length captured it.  On taking it out of my net and opening the glorious wings, my heart began to beat, violently, the blood rushed to my head, and I felt much more like fainting than I have done when in apprehension of immediate death.”

His subsequent book, The Malay Archipelago, was considered the foremost scientific travel book of the period and remains in print today.

While in Indonesia, he began writing extensively about his collections and ideas, including sending his thoughts about evolution to leading scientists in England.  When Charles Darwin saw Wallace’s work, Darwin rushed to finish his own writing on evolution.  Together they published a paper on the subject in August of 1858, thereby rightfully establishing Wallace as the co-creator of the theory of natural selection.  Darwin, however, gets the lion’s share of the credit for these ideas, while Wallace’s stature has continued to shrink.

At the time, however, Wallace was widely acknowledged for his work and became a more famous figure than Darwin.  Wallace wrote more than 1000 papers and 22 books during his life, many about the natural world, but others branching into realms of social reform and politics.

The plight of the two figures—Darwin and Wallace—is in evidence today in the London Museum of Natural History.  A marble sculpture of Darwin sits atop the grand staircase leading to the upper floors of the museum; Wallace, however, merits only a portrait on the adjacent wall, hung there many decades after Darwin’s statue.  In compensation, perhaps, a relatively new bronze statue of Wallace graces a gallery on the second floor.  The statue depicts a moment on his collecting expedition to the Malay, and his gaze extends to the ceiling of the cathedral-like central hall of the museum.  Follow his gaze, and you will see a golden birdwing butterfly painted on the distant ceiling.

References:

Smith, Charles H.  The Alfred Russel Wallace Page.  Western Kentucky University.  Available at:  http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/wallace/BIOG.htm. Accessed January 7, 2017.

Today in Science History.  Quotes by Alfred Russel Wallace.  Available at:  https://todayinsci.com/W/Wallace_Alfred/WallaceAlfred-Quotations.htm.  Accessed January 7, 2017.

Wallace Fund.  The Alfred Russel Wallace website.  Available at:  http://wallacefund.info/  Accessed January 7, 2017.

The first word he spoke, according to his mother, was “zoo.”  As a child, whenever he was asked where he wanted to go, he said, “Zoo.”  If he didn’t get taken there, he threw a fit. And eventually, not content with what others did with zoos, he created his own. Gerald Durrell learned early to love animals, domestic and wild, a love that led to a lifetime of conservation efforts to prevent their extinction.

Gerald Durrell was born on January 7, 1925, in Jamshedpur, India, the youngest child of a prosperous British family (died 1995).  When his father died, the family moved first to England and then to Corfu, where Durrell spent his formative years (“The Durrells of Corfu” may sound familiar, as it is a popular public-television series). The outbreak of the Second World War brought the family back to England, where Durrell began work as an assistant at a pet shop and a local zoo.  He also began writing, becoming a successful book author in his early twenties.

As soon as he could, Durrell began a lifetime of travel and adventure in pursuit of his passion—animals and their conservation.  He realized, long before most others, that many species were in peril and that zoos could help keep them from going extinct.  He bought an estate on the Island of Jersey and set up his personal zoo in 1959.  There he accumulated the remnants of endangered species from around the world, breeding species in captivity to provide a stock of individuals to be restored to their habitats when conditions improved.  A stationary ark, he called it.  He understood the entertainment and education value of zoos, but Durrell had a bigger purpose:  “People think I’m just trying to look after nice fluffy animals.  What I’m actually trying to do is stop the human race form committing suicide.”

Durrell’s vision took hold, and what is now called the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust has thrived for more than a half century.  The Trust has three main functions.  First, the Durrell Wildlife Park on Jersey is home to more than 120 endangered species. Visitors flock to the site, and the income supports the trust’s other programs. Second, the trust engages in field projects around the world to protect species.  Third, and the part that Durrell might have appreciated the most, is the Durrell Conservation Academy, which teaches biodiversity management to students from around the world.  In 25 years, the academy boasts 5,000 graduates from 139 countries.

Durrell funded his work by writing books, forty in all.  He often said that he wrote books only to pay for his passion for protecting biodiversity, but his talent as an author is unquestioned.  His most famous book, “My Family and Other Animals,” is considered a classic of modern literature.  As critic Simon Barnes observed, “Here is a book that celebrates the wild world more thoroughly and more vividly than anything else ever written. It is at the same time funny and deeply serious; and it is a poor person who believes that humour compromises seriousness. It has reached people and moved them to laughter and other emotions, all them deep, powerful and packed with meaning.”

Gerald Durrell has moved many people to act on their love and concern for animals.  He received the Order of the British Empire and many other international prizes for animal conservation.  Eight species have been named for him.  David Attenborough talked about Durrell and his work at the fiftieth anniversary of the trust:

“This institution, Durrell, has never been more important. There has never been more endangered species in the world than there are right now. And neither has there been such an accomplished, admirable and wonderful institution as Durrell, before, in the history of the world. Nobody else has accumulated such expertise in how to breed endangered species….I wish it every success and may it go on for another fifty years, and more, because I do assure you that the world needs Durrell.”

References:

Barnes, Simon.  2015.  My Family and Other Animals 60^th anniversary:  Gerald Durrell’s book is a triump of conscious craft.  The Independent, 26 December 2015.  Available at:  http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/my-family-and-other-animals-60th-anniversary-gerald-durrells-book-is-a-triumph-of-conscious-craft-a6782496.html.  Accessed January 5, 2018.

Botting, Douglas.  1999.  Gerald Durrell, The Authorized Biography.  The New York Times.  Available at:  http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/botting-durrell.html.  Accessed January 5, 2018.

Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.  Gerald Durrell.  Available at:  https://www.durrell.org/wildlife/about/gerald-durrell/.  Accessed January 5, 2018.

Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.  The world needs Durrell—Sir David Attenborough.  Available at:  http://wildlife.durrell.org/latest/news/the-world-needs-durrell–sir-david-attenborough/.  Accessed January 5, 2018.

Huntman, Ruth.  2016.  Gerald Durrell was my hero…I married him for his zoo.  The Guardian, 26 Mar 2016.  Available at:  https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/mar/26/gerald-durrell-was-my-hero-i-married-him-for-his-zoo.  Accessed January 5, 2018.

The most successful wildlife television series in history, Wild Kingdom, first aired on Sunday, January 6, 1963.  Anyone interested in animals and nature growing up in the 1960s and 1970s watched faithfully each week as host Marlin Perkins and naturalist Jim Fowler traversed the world exploring the lives of wild creatures—and usually ending up wrestling with them in the water, chasing them up trees, or wallowing with them in mud holes.

Insurance company Mutual of Omaha sponsored the program from the beginning and throughout its run.  The program ran for 22 years, from 1963 through 1985, producing hundreds of original episodes.    It aired first on Sunday evenings on NBC and later on syndication. The show’s legacy continues in various media formats, including a web series.

The show’s originator and its long-time host was Marlin Perkins.  Perkins came to the show with national prominence as a zoo professional, having served as Director of the Buffalo Zoo, Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo and the St. Louis Zoo.  Marlin’s main sidekick on the show, and his successor as host, was Jim Fowler—the person who generally ended up in the water, trees or mud.  Along with his appearance on Wild Kingdom, Fowler became a national celebrity through more than 100 appearances—with animals—on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.  Fowler continues to represent Mutual of Omaha and Wild Kingdom as an animal and environmental advocate.

The show owed its popularity to a combination of factors.  The grandfatherly Perkins narrated with a gentle demeanor, while the mountain-sized Fowler dove into action, often dangerous, with an array of beautiful wild creatures.  The shows brought exotic locales and animals into viewers’ homes at a time when such programming did not exist.  Wild Kingdom was the perfect family-friendly program.

But the show did more—it brought the need for conservation of nature into our living rooms, just as the nation’s environmental conscience was awakening.  As Fowler reflected later, “….you don’t often see a spokesman for the natural world….The biggest challenge is how to affect public attitudes and make people care.”   Wild Kingdom did just that.  It was nominated for more than 40 broadcast awards, winning 4 Emmys.  Many consider Wild Kingdom to be the precursor and inspiration for the entire networks, like Animal Planet, that are so popular today.

References:

Gilbert, Debbie.  1997.  TV’s Wild Man.  Memphis Weekly Flyer, September 2, 1997.  Available at:  http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/09-02-97/memphis_afea.html.  Accessed January 5, 2017.

Mutual of Omaha.  Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom fact sheet.  Available at:  http://www.wildkingdom.com/documents/pdf/fact-sheet.pdf.   Accessed January 5, 2017.

Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom website.  Available at:  http://wildkingdom.com/index.  Accessed January 5, 2017.