Conservation

The American conservation movement from 1870 to 1900 is marked by several significant federally sponsored acts, including the congressional establishment of the first national park, Yellowstone National Park, in 1872; the founding of the National Forest Reserve program in 1891; and the creation of government offices to oversee natural resources. For the first time in American history, federal legislation protected wildlife by establishing refuges and encouraged the careful management of natural resources.

Two sometimes conflicting goals defined conservation efforts at the end of the 19th century: preservation and conservation. Economic growth following the Civil War and the continuing westward expansion stripped the land of forests and wildlife. The rapid depletion of natural resources, as well as a belief in the sanctity of nature, inspired preservationists like John Muir to call on policy makers to preserve wilderness for its own sake. Conservationists, influenced by utilitarian ideas, recognized the economic incentives in successfully managing the environment, specifically timber resources, as they moved to maximize yield and profit. During this time, scenic tourism, outdoor activities such as hiking and bird watching, and landscape architecture grew in popularity as Americans embraced nature and both the conservation and preservation movements.

Congress established initial federal stewardship positions under either the Department of Agriculture or the Department of the Interior. The Interior Department oversaw the U. S. Geological Survey, which was established in 1879. At the state level, in 1885 New York created the Adirondack Forest Preserve and the New York State Reservation at Niagara Falls. Capitalizing on tourism at Niagara Falls, New York retained the services of noted landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) and Calvert Vaux (1824-95) to beautify the surrounding area to draw more visitors. In 1892 New York created Adirondack Park, amending its constitution in 1894 to ban logging activities there, which was a victory for preservationists.

The federal push to manage logging and protect forests started in earnest in the late 1880s. In 1886 Congress established the Division of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture, the forerunner of the U. S. Forest Service.

Congress then passed the Forest Reserve Act in 1891, which allowed the president to create forest reserves, a precursor of the national forest system. President Benjamin Harrison immediately took advantage of this legislation, setting aside land in Wyoming for reserves. In 1896 the American Academy of Sciences established a committee on forests, calling for a scientific forest management policy to manage timber resources, a shift from preservation goals. In response, Congress passed a forest management act in 1897, also known as the Organic Act, that designated forest reserves as resources for timber, mining, and grazing. In 1898 Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946), who headed the Academy of Sciences committee on forests, was appointed chief of the Division of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture. Pinchot had studied forestry in Europe, where the stress was on management principles rather than preservation, and he focused on bringing together public-interest and forest-industry groups as he built support for the academy’s ideas about scientific forest management. Pinchot would eventually clash with John Muir over the issue of grazing rights and conservation policy.

Strong initiatives to promote economic wildlife management also date to the late 1880s. Congress established the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture in 1886; the office would later become the Bureau of Biological Survey. In 1889 Congress moved to protect Alaskan salmon fisheries, and in 1891 President Harrison created the first national wildlife refuge in Alaska: the Afognak Forest and Fish-Culture Reserve. In 1894 Congress banned hunting in Yellowstone National Park, thus setting a precedent for species preservation in national parks.

Other large national parks conceived during this era include California’s Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks, which were established by Congress within days of each other in 1890. Mount Rainier National Park in the state of Washington was established in 1899. Several still-extant private organizations dedicated to preservation began in the 1890s, an indication of public support for an early form of environmentalism. In 1892 John Muir founded the Sierra Club and in 1896 the first Audubon Society was established in Massachusetts. At the close of the 19th century, the National Park movement had become a global phenomenon, with national parks established across the British Commonwealth, Mexico, and Russia.

Further reading: Stephen Fox, John Muir and His Legacy: The American Conservation Movement (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1981); Roderick Frazier Nash, American Environmentalism: Readings in Conservation History (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990); Dyan Zaslowsky and T. H. Watkins, These American Lands: Parks, Wilderness, and the Public Lands (Washington, D. C.: Island Press, 1994).

—Scott Sendrow