10.2
RESOURCE CONSERVATION
IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
1860 - 1920
Listen
to Podcast of these Slides
2. John Wesley Powell
-
Report on the Lands of the
Arid Region
of the United States, 1878.
-
Head of Bureau of Ethnology,
1879-1902.
-
Director of the U.S. Geological
Survey, 1881-1892.
-
Lands of arid west: beyond 100th
meridian
and 20" rainfall line.
3. Powell's Colorado Expeditions
-
First expedition, 1869: Green
River through
Grand Canyon to present-day Arizona in 4 wooden boats.
-
Second expedition, 1871,
scientific survey.
4. John Wesley Powell and Tau-gu,
Chief of
the Paiutes
-
Learned Indian languages and
customs.
-
Gained trust of Indians.
-
Criticized Bureau of Indian
Affairs (BIA)
for disregard of Indians.
-
Indians set fires to drive game
to trade for
goods, but Indians should be removed to control fires.
5. John Wesley Powell
-
Report on the Lands of the Arid
Region of
the United States, 1878.
-
Irrigated farms: 80 acres if
irrigated is
enough; lowlands, river valleys; crops.
-
Pasturage farms: 2560 acres if
unirrigated
is necessary; hilly dry lands; grazing.
-
Timber lands: commercial use and
erosion control;
high mountains.
-
Cooperative irrigation
districts; commons.
6. Reclamation Act, 1902
-
Francis Newlands: Nevada
congressman.
-
Bill to implement Powell’s ideas.
-
Irrigation projects in western
states by selling
public lands.
-
160 acre irrigated farms; 320
acres for married
couples; privileges small farmer.
-
Water from federally funded
water projects
to 160 acre farms.
-
Bureau of Reclamation: BuRec.
7. Water Law: Rocking Chair Law
-
Riparian rights: English common
law.
-
People living on the banks of a
river can
claim the right to use the water.
-
Right to consume water inheres
in land, and
is not lost through nonuse.
-
Drink, wash, water cattle.
-
Or, can leave the river alone;
sit in rocking
chair and contemplate the flow.
-
No right to diminish the flow,
e.g. dams.
8. Water Law: Use it or Lose it
-
Appropriation: Appears in
England with private
property and marketplace.
-
Common law overturned for
development; factories,
dams, watermills can alter flow downstream.
-
Palmer vs. Mulligan, 1805, New
York.
-
Riparian law changed to
appropriation to allow
private development; profit.
-
Western U.S.: riparian favors
ranchers; appropriation
favors miners, farmers.
9. Samuel P. Hays
-
Environmental historian.
-
University of Pittsburgh.
-
Conservation and the Gospel
of Efficiency
(1959).
-
Beauty, Health, and
Permanence: Environmental
Politics in the United States, 1955-1985 (1987).
10. Bob Marshall
-
1900-1939.
-
Syracuse University, School of
Forestry.
-
1930s. Head of Outdoors and
Recreation Office
in the Forest Service.
-
1933. The People's Forests.
11. Bob Marshall Wilderness
-
1935. Founds Wilderness Society
with Olaus
Murie, Aldo Leopold, and Benton MacKaye. Dies 1939.
-
1940. Bob Marshall Wilderness
proposed by
the Wilderness Society to commemorate his passion for wilderness.
-
Mountains of northwestern
Montana. 1 million
acres.
12. Trail Riders
13. Bob Marshall Wilderness
-
Advocated wilderness areas with
no roads,
timber cutting, or human occupancy.
-
Wanted forests for the poor,
camps for the
underprivileged, and removal of discrimination against minorities.
14. FDR and Harold Ickes
-
Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
1882-1945.
-
President, 1933-1945.
-
Harold Ickes, 1874-1952.
-
Secretary of the Interior under
Roosevelt
and Truman.
-
Federal development of electric
power.
15. Roosevelt and CCC Camp
-
1933. Roosevelt establishes
Office of Emergency
Conservation Work.
-
1937. Civilian Conservation
Corps (CCC) created.
-
Relieves unemployment.
-
Promotes conservation.
16. Ford Creek Camp
17. Hugh Bennett
-
Soil Conservation Act, 1935.
-
Soil Conservation Service (SCS),
Hugh Bennett,
head.
-
Impetus: Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
-
Provides for the control and
prevention of
soil erosion.
-
Soil Conservation District:
Farmers develop
their own programs of soil and water conservation.
18. David Brower, 1912 - 2000
-
Executive Director of Sierra
Club, 1952-69.
-
Founder, Friends of the Earth
(FOE), 1969.
-
John Muir: "If they are to
survive, men must
learn to be friends of the earth."
-
1980s. Founded Earth Island
Institute.
19. The 1960s:Quality of Life
Concerns
-
1950s-1960s. Air , Food, Nuclear
Testing.
-
1962, Rachel Carson’s Silent
Spring. Pesticides.
-
1964, Wilderness Act. Wilderness
Preservation.
-
1965, Land and Water
Conservation Act.
-
1968, National Wild and Scenic
Rivers Act.
-
1968. Population Bomb, by Paul
Ehrlich.
-
1969, Santa Barbara Oil Spill.
-
1969, National Environmental
Policy Act.
20. Awareness of Environmental Crisis
-
Early 1960s.
-
Stewart Udall, Secretary of the
Interior;
The Quiet Crisis, 1963.
-
President John F. Kennedy.
-
Senator Edmund Muskie, Chair of
Senate Public
Works Committee; concerns over pollution.
21. The 1970s: Era of Regulation
-
1970, Clean Air Amendments.
-
1970, Occupational Safety and
Health Act.
-
1971, Alaskan Native Claims
Settlement Act.
-
1972, Environmental Pesticide
Control Act.
-
1973, Endangered Species Act.
-
1974, Forest/Rangeland Renewable
Resources
Act; Safe Drinking Water Act.
-
1976, National Forest Management
Act.
-
1976, Toxic Substances Control
Act.
22. Signing the Clean Air Act, 1970
-
William Ruckelshaus, Head of the
Environmental
Protection Agency, Richard Nixon, President, and Russell Train,
Chairman
of the Council on Environmental Quality.
23. Questions for Discussion
-
Should the forests belong to the
people?
-
How can environmental quality
best be protected?
|