A Brief History of Conservation

History of Conservation

Major Developmental periods in human history

• Hunters and gatherers – 95% of our history as a species we were nomadic

hunters, gatherers. – Nature was feared, respected, worshipped

• Agricultural revolutions – plant crops, as a necessity?– cities, communities form.

• Industrial Revolution– tremendous power to change environment.– Exploitive

• Conservation-Environmentalism

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Fig. 2.2, p. 24

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(10,000 years)

(100,000 years)

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Tool-making revolution

Agricultural revolution

Industrial and information revolutions

Time

Hunter-Gatherer Culture• Include Native Californian cultures

• Nomadic:

– Hunters followed game’s seasonal movement inland, more stationary along coast.

– Moved on when resources where being reduced, allowing for recovery

• Environmental impact was limited and local

– Small populations

– Little resource demand per person

• Intimate knowledge of natural surroundings

– local medicines, foods, seasonal animal migrations

• Generally work with natural processes

– Native Californians burning forests to maintain open Oak woodlands

– Technology limited their ability to disturb environment

Miwok and

Ohlone

The Agricultural Revolution• Agriculture formed 10-12,000 years ago• Settled communities, domestication of crops and

livestock– beginning of cities– Hard to move in response to drought, resource deletion

• Shifting cultivation and slash and burn• Basically Sustainable resource use• Limited to human muscle power and animals.• Tool designed advances yields• Excess food allows for people to dedicate

themselves to arts, etc. • Demand for nutrients – deforestation,water

resources increases impact on enviroment

Slash and Burn, shifting cultivation

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Fig. 2.3, p. 25

1

2

4

5

Clearingand burningvegetation

Planting

Allowingto revegitate

10 to 30 years

Harvesting for2 to 5 years

The Industrial Revolution 1700-1800’s

• Increased reliance on machinery• More resource exploitation,

– “mining” not sustainable – non renewable fossil fuels

• Pollution becomes large problem– Polluted waters, wastes dumped in rivers– Burning of coal, oil pollute air

• Dramatic increase of impact on environment– Deforestation rampant in US, Strip mining– Hydro-mining for Gold in Sierras – pollute Bay still– California’s Redwoods disappearing

Industrialization• Expanded search for new resources and markets

fuels colonialism in America, Africa, Asia• Exploitation of resources requires cheap labor-

– slavery spreads across colonies

• Large cities form as Factory towns, grow many more people move to cities

• Crop yields expand, but need the machinery and fertilizers. – Feed more people with less land– “Old Style” farms can’t compete

• Follows Fundamental Christian / Biblical Views –– Dominate the lands and animals– Be fruitful and multiple– Purpose of land is to serve us

Hydraulic mining

Redwood Logging Train

Save the Redwoods League: Big Basin

Conservation 1900’s

• Recognize depletion of resources• Study effects of Pollution• Colonies seek independence• World Population growth soars• Political Activism spreads• Europe changes after world wars– Socialism takes hold– Better societies dreamed of

The Information Revolution/Globalization

• Information Revolution• Rate of information increase and speed of

communication– Get information to/from of all parts of

developing world

• Globalization– Move food bought sold everywhere– Harder to control your own crops, imports

• Decrease in cultural diversity– Same products world wide

• Decrease in crop, bio diversity

Sustainability

• Provide for current use without undermining future generations ability to use and enjoy the same resources.

• Post- Industrial movement, still forming.– Organic foods

• Will need even more technology,better distribution systems

• Emergence of Biotechnology• Population growth, migration

Environmental History in the United States: Four eras:

• Tribal – before 1607

• Colonial / Frontier – 1700’s to 1890

• Conservation – late 1800’s to 1960

• Environmental– 1960’s to 1980s - today

• Sustainability – Tomorrow ?

The Tribal Eras

• Tribal Era: Native Americans before 1607 and European settlers arrive.

• Native Americans generally low-impact hunter-gather or agricultural societies

• Deep respect for the land its animals.– Most did not have private ownership of lands– All Lands held by group as a whole

• Need large areas to maintain hunter gatherer lifestyle.

Frontier Era & Industrialization• Frontier Environmental Worldview:

European Settlement (1607-1890)• Significant impact as wilderness frontier

was “tamed”• Resources seemed unlimited• Forests “cleared” for agriculture, fuel• Wild lands viewed as dangerous –– Predators threaten settlers: Bears– Attack the “savages” living there

• Huge land tracts given away by Federal Government to Homesteaders

• Ends in 1890, but romanticism of the era remains in US culture

The Early Conservation Era

• Period: 1832-1960• Concern over resource use• Preservation of public lands• Public health initiatives• Environmental restoration projects

Conservation Era: 1832-1960Cycles of Crisis and Activity

• Concern over resource use– Loss of Eastern Deciduous Forest

• Evolution – Darwin’s views– Placed humans in nature instead of apart from– Non-biblical view of nature, against

domination

• Preservation of public lands• Public health initiatives• Environmental restoration projects• Ecology emerges as a distinct branch in

biological science

Some Important US Conservation Figures

• Perkins Marsh (1801-1882)• Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) • John Muir (1838-1914) • Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946)• Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) • Alice Hamilton (1869-1970)• Aldo Leopold (1887- 1948)• Rachel Carson (1907-1964)

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

• Wrote of nostalgia for lost wilderness– Left with “a tamer, and as it were, emasculated

country”.

• Lived in cabin on Walden Pond 26 months, wrote book in 1854

• Advocated rejecting material goods• Sought harmony by contemplation and

scientific study of nature• Advocated each city / town have a large

park or primitive forest

Perkins Marsh

• Congressman from Vermont• Scientist – early ecologist studied resource conservation

priciples• Ambassador to Turkey (1849-54); Italy (1861-1882)• Called "the fountain- head of the conservation

movement". • Marsh became convinced that human civilization had

remade the natural world but with disastrous consequences.

• Wrote: Man and Nature (1864). Warnings about uncontrolled spoiling of the environment from observations of his travels.

John Muir• Geologist, Explorer, Naturalist, Writer• President and Founder of Sierra Club in 1892• Did not hold public office• Influenced others by his writings• Traveled widely, wrote of his observations of nature

– Influenced by temporary blinding accident while young.

• Loved Yosemite, and the Sierras– Wanted to open up access to Sierras– Opposed forest logging and burning, – Opposed running cattle, sheep in Sierras

• Opposed Hetch Hetchy Project• Influential in getting Teddy Roosevelt to add lands to

National Park System• Promoted wilderness areas – adopted in 1964

John Muir

Promoted Biocentric Conservation “The world we are told was made for man. A

presumption that is totally unsupported by the facts... Nature’s object in making animals and plants might possibly be first of all the happiness of each one of them... Why ought man to value himself as more than an infinitely small unit of one great creation?”

Establish Parks to preserve pristine environment

Gifford Pinchot

• First native born professional forester, becomes Director of Forestry for Roosevelt

• Conserve “not because they are beautiful or because they shelter wild creatures of the wilderness, but only to provide homes and jobs for people.” Resources used for “the greatest good, for the greatest number pf people, for the longest time”.

• National forests are to provide trees for your grandkids to go cut down.

• Supported damming Hetch Hetchy

Promoted a pragmatic “Wise Use” or Utilitarian Conservation

Theodore Roosevelt

“We have become great because of the lavish use of our resources. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, when the soils have still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields and obstructing navigation."

Theodore Roosevelt• 26th President of United States (1901-1909)

– Republican - Liberal party of the time (like Lincoln)

• Loved outdoors- most important conservationist president

• Hunter – recognizes need to save land, animals to hunt in the future– Game legislation established

• Wants to conserve resources– Expands national forests

• Wants to protect endangered species– Set us first national wildlife refuges– Egrets being killed off for plumes for hats

• First National figure to take up Conservation issues

Theodore Roosevelt’s Major Conservation Accomplishments

• Congress grants President authority to designate public land as wildlife refuges and monuments– Antiquities Act– First federal refuge at Pelican bay Florida, 1903 to save

Brown Pelican– Designated Grand Canyon a protected area– National Park Service will become law in 1916 under

Woodrow Wilson

• Established US Bureau of Reclamation• More than tripled size of National Forest lands,

moved to USDA for enforcement

• Both Pinchot and Muir held Roosevelt’s ear.• Roosevelt agreed with both points of view.• Roosevelt expands national forests to conserve

resources (Pinchot)• Roosevelt sets up national parks, monuments for

conservation of species (Muir).

Private Groups Step in• Sierra Club 1892 • Audubon Society 1886 – Pushed for refuges to be established

• Wilderness Society 1935• Duck’s Unlimited 1937 – First Nonprofit group dedicated to preserving

wetlands by buying marsh lands to save them for hunting

• Nature Conservancy 1951– Buy lands to preserve them

• Green peace 1971– Political Activists

Environmental Era: 1960 - 2000

• Political Activism period• Environmental Movements• “Green” Political Parties form

Alice Hamilton1869-1970

• Founder of occupational medicine• First woman professor at Harvard Medical School • Study health hazards in the workplace• Wrote: Industrial Poisons in the United States• Opposed lead in paint, gasoline• Work to get several worker's compensation laws

passed in Illinois and elsewhere.• Strong advocate of pollution prevention: testing

new materials before their release as products.

Alice Hamilton’s work:• I don't know what your Company is feeling as of

today about the work of Dr. Alice Hamilton on benzol [benzene] poisoning. I know that back in the old days some of your boys used to think that she was a plain nuisance and just picking on you for luck. But I have a hunch that as you have learned more about the subject, men like your good self have grown to realize the debt that society owes her for her crusade. I am pretty sure that she has saved the lives of a great many girls in can-making plants and I would hate to think that you didn't agree with me.

• Dewey to S. P. Miller, 9 February 1933,

Aldo Leopold

• Stressed importance of ecosystem (living and non living resources)

• In 1935, purchased a worn-out farm near the sand counties. It is here Leopold put into action his beliefs that the same tools people used to disrupt the landscape could also be used to rebuild it.

• Wrote Sand County Almanac, published posthumously.

• One of Wilderness Society founders

• Founding father of wildlife ecology, • Text Book Game Management (1933)• Stressed Land Ethic

Land Ethic• “The land ethic simply enlarges the

boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.”

• “A land ethic of course cannot prevent the alteration, management, and use of these 'resources,' but it does affirm their right to continued existence, and, at least in spots, their continued existence in a natural state.” -- Aldo Leopold

Environmental Era 1960-• Grassroots efforts activate citizens to

demand the government:1. Curtail pollution2. Clean up polluted environments3. Protect pristine areas from degradation

Rachel Carlson's 1962 book broadens resource conservation to include the quality of our air, water soil, and wildlife. Not just focus on specific properties, species.

Rachel Carson (1907-1964)

• Wrote:The Sea Around Us, published in 1961• Silent Spring, was published in 1962.

– Warned about the toxic role of DDT in ecosystems– Started Environmentalism movement

• President Kennedy’s Science Advisory Committee confirmed her results in 1963

• In 1980, Carson was posthumously awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom

•Aquatic biologist for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Some Key Environmental Events

• 1974 CFC’s shown to deplete ozone• 1978 Love canal evacuated in New York• 1979 Three Mile Island Accident• 1984 Bhopal India chemical plant accident

kills 5,000, injures 50,000• 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant

explodes• 1989 Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska

Spaceship Earth• 1969 Apollo Mission photos changes how world

views itself

Earth Day

• Created by Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970.

Legislation milestones• 1964 Wilderness Act• 1970 Environmental Impact Reports required on

Federal projects. States Follow suit.• 1970 EPA founded• 1970 Clean Air Act Amendments• 1972 Oregon passes first bottle recycling deposits• 1972 Clean Water Act• 1973 Endangered Species Act• 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act• 1976 Toxic substances Control Act• 1980 Superfund Act

• spanned Several administrations– Nixon (1969-1974)– Ford (1974-1977)– Carter (1977-1981)

• Periods Stops with Ronald Reagan– Appoints James Watt secretary of Interior.– Supports an Anti-environment ‘Wise-Use

Movement” funded by ranchers, farmers, timber companies unhappy with regulations limiting their activities.

Modern Environmental Activism Period

• After years of success the environmentalism movement grinds to halt with Reagan and Watt.

Anti-Environment backlash

James Watt Secretary of Interior

• Under Reagan• Very conservative,

religious man• Only 2and half years• Policies outraged the

environmental communities

1990’s Bill Clinton

• Gives key positions to environmentalists• Consulted with environmental groups to

formulate new policies• Vetoed anti-environmental bills from

congress• Up SUV gas emissions standards• Used Antiquities Act to preserve more

land than any other president.• Limited roads, logging in areas of national

forests

President 1993-2001

Bruce Babbitt Secretary of Interior

1993-2001

G W Bush 2001-2009

• Former Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton

2001-2006

                         

Current Secretary -

• Former Governor (R-Idaho), Dirk Kempthorne US Secretary of the Interior 2006- 2009.

• Pro-development track record• Wants to open 3.6 million acres in the Gulf

of Mexico to oil and gas drilling • Supports drilling in the Arctic refuge• National park Service Centennial Projects

206-2016.

Many Modern Issues are Global

• Ocean Pollution• Whaling accords• Kyoto accord – greenhouse gasses• World trade• Cruise ship air pollution, garbage dumping• Nuclear wastes, fuels• Oil spills• Water wars

How our View of Nature has changed as well:

• Hunter gatherer– Stewardship / Dependence– “A general respect and awe for nature”

• Agricultural revolution– Domination of the land.– “humans and nature as equal partners”

• Industrial Revolution– Consumerism - Exploitation – “Nature was made to serve humans”

• Sustainability – “Nature needs us to save her”– Land Ethic

Conservation Case Studies

• North American Bison• California Sea Otters• Whopping Crane• Peregrine falcon• Everglades

Disappearance of the North

American Bison Herds

• Restored from 85 in 1906 to 200,000 today

California Sea Otters

•

Sea Otter decline

• In Alaska due to fisheries collapse and predation by Orcas

• In California by a pathogenic bacteria – From cats on land?

Whopping Crane

California Condor

Peregrine falcon

Threats to Species

• Over-harvesting of food species, or hunting species itself– Most species are rare.– Many larger plants & animals are fewer in

number and reproduce slowly (low inherent growth rate) and can not recover quickly.

• Pollution - Pesticides and insects, amphibians

• Currently in a mass extinction

What to save?

• We can’t save them all. Not enough $$ or land to save everything – Interests change with political climate– Population growth demands on local areas– More demand for exports in developing countries

– raw materials, energy

• What species to save? Choosing the fights to preserve an area.– Unique species - no closely related species (not

just another beetle)– Charismatic species - Giant Panda, Florida

Panther, Bald Eagle– Unique ecosystems

Park / Reserve Design• Best: Large, close- by reserves.– Large round parks reduce edge effects– Increase immigration, population migration

(gene flow)

• Less desirable: many, small isolated preserves.

Land Use

• About 40% of our land is in public trust. – Distribution is unequal! – Western States have many more acres in

parklands, forest than East Coast.

• Very little is actually protected– 15% as wilderness.

• Species conservation has to fight with - timber, hunting, farming, grazing, oil exploration, etc..

National Parks and Monuments

• Started in US - 1864 - Yosemite – protected by Abraham Lincoln during Civil War. – Turned over to State of California to administrate.

• 1872 Yellowstone First National Park – – United States Federally administrated park

• Yosemite and Sequoia Kings canyon in 1890. – Each was founded independently by an act of congress.

• 1906 Congress gave President authority to set aside areas of scientific, historic or cultural value as national Monuments.– Teddy Roosevelt used this to establish many reserves

Early National Park System• Loosely managed by US Army to protect lands

form hunters, loggers etc.– Yosemite was patrolled by cavalry at first.

• Until 1916 when National Park Service was established to better protect parks, – in part as a response to Hetch Hetchy dam in Yosemite.

• National Park concept has spread around the world, some say it America’s best invention.

• Originally just natural areas • Now have expanded to include many more

historical (battlefields) and cultural sites (Pueblo).

National Parks• After cars made visiting easier, NPS stressed the

visitors pleasures more than natural environment. – Camp Curry in Yosemite shows would draw over 2,000

nightly. – Had fire falls, bear feedings, Jazz bands, toboggan runs

etc.

• California has the most National parks with 23. • Many states have none, causing a political

problem.• New Ideals stress Rangers as nature interpreters,

and preservation as top priorities• Unfortunately many Rangers have become more

like police in some areas.

National Parks

• Seem large (miles across) but are often too small for the larger animals to maintain a viable number of individuals.

• Yosemite has limited access (closed when full). – Most visitors don’t stray far into the wild. – 95% of visitors don’t venture past Yosemite Valley floor

which is less than 1% of the park’s area. – Park becomes crowded, dusty, smoky etc.

• Yosemite Valley Plan• Yellowstone only has 100 grizzle bears.• Most Parks are generally over-crowded and under

funded

National Parks

• Restoration -– allowing forested areas return to old growth

without logging.

• Reintroduction of native species – – wolves in Yellowstone, Great Smokey

Mountains, Arizona– Restoration projects in meadows, marshes

National Wildlife Refuge System

• 1964 Wilderness Act- areas of federal land that are to be managed to retain its:– primeval character with no commercial

enterprise, no permanent road, and no motorized vehicles

• Many are set up to protect migratory bird areas.

Other Parks• State Parks, Beaches – Mt Diablo- Mitchell Canyon– Bodega Shoreline – Sonoma County State

Beaches

• East Bay Regional Parks (EBRPD)– Founded in 1934. – Includes: Briones, Redwood– 50 parks, shorelines and lakes; 20 trails.

Totaling more than 75,000 acres.– Alameda and Contra Costa Counties (once one

county-parks remained joined)

• City Parks- mostly for recreation not nature reserves

Private Reserves- Nature Conservancy • Highest level of protection is private ownership.– founded by Ecological Society of America, college

professors.– Largest private land owner in US. In 1999 had 7 million

acres. 78% on Biologically significant sites.– Other land donated may be sold / exchanged for more

biologically significant sites later.– Able to purchase high price lands.– 286 square miles of unbroken forest in Maine for $35

million

• 14,000 acres of CO wetlands for $4.5 million. • Easements - sold to owner. – Doesn’t change ownership of land, but restricts future

development.

Private Reserves

• Started by Ducks Unlimited• Other hunting groups• Local interest groups– Friends of Mt. Diablo– Save the Redwoods– Many Others

Zoos• Originally just for our pleasure• Now for many a last resort -• Animals are Safe, but in artificial habitat• Is it ethical ? – free roaming animals, trapped in small enclosures,

tanks. – Captive vs. Extinction?

• Animal’ s visitors pay most of the bills.• Animals bred in captivity without (or reduced)

natural rearing.