A History of Conservation in the

United States

Exploitation - Wasting

A. When people were few there was little need for conservation•1. Wise management is beginning to replace short sighted exploitation.

Exploitation - wasting

2. World population is doubling every decade.

3. Accelerate progress is natural resource management.

History of conservation movement

A. Wildlife Management•1. When the settlers came the colonies were covered largely by mature forests broken only by streams, marshes, and natural meadows.

History of conservation movement

•2. Forests could support vast flocks of passenger pigeons

•3. Streams supported beaver populations

History of conservation movement

•4. Marshes support large flocks of waterfowl

•5. Deer, turkey, quail, and many other important game animals require clearings.

History of conservation movement

•6. Hunters could depopulate deer herds along the coast•a. further inland they found fewer deer and hunting was less successful.

Regulations 1. 1639 regulations on deer

hunting were imposed by Newport, RI.

2. 1698 Connecticut and Massachusetts imposed limits on deer hunting, by then deer herds were almost gone in those areas.

Regulations

3. 1844 New York Sporting Club formed.•A. became the New York State Game Protective Society.

•B. promoted restrictions against market hunters

Regulations

4. 1865 first fish and game commission formed in Massachusetts.

Market hunters

1. Hunting and trapping for fur and meat animals became big business overnight.

2. Market hunters found that their quarry could be taken all year long.

Market hunters

3. Passenger pigeons could be killed most easily during the nesting season.•A. led to extinction

Market hunters

Buffalo herds came close to extinction for the same reasons

The road back

1. The Lacey Act 1900, first federal act dealing with wildlife was passed.•A. made interstate transport of game taken against the law a federal crime.

The road back

•b. killed market hunting and saved many species from destruction

2. 1916 US and Great Britain signed the Migratory Bird Treaty

The road back

3.1918 Federal Migratory Bird Act was passed•a. protection of migratory waterfowl that breed in Canada and fly across the US each year.

The road back

4. 1933 Aldo Leopold published Game Management

5. 1934 Duck Stamp Act was passed

The road back•a. first year raised revenues of $600,000

•b. now raise up to $6 million a year

•c. finance numerous projects to protect and expand North American waterfowl population.

The road back

6. 1940 US Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Interior formed.

The road back

7. Most conservationist efforts have been led and funded by hunters and fisherman and have made possible much of our wildlife abundance.

Forest Management

1. Timber Management•a. 5,000 years ago in China

•b. 4,000 years ago in Egypt

Forest Management

•c. Romans imported wood from their conquered lands before the birth of Christ

•d. 1,000 A.D. Europeans were running our of wood

Forest Management

2. 1626 First ordinance controlling sale of timber passed in Plymouth Colony

3. 1650 several colonies passed laws against burning forests.

Forest Management

4. Late 1700’s and early 1800’s preservation centered around saving live oaks for building war ships•a. this practice ended during the Civil War

Forest Management

5. US forests produced about a billion board feet of lumber in 1840

6. 1869 35 billion board feet.7. 1906 46 billion board feet.

Forest Management

8. Forests were harvested to pay for other enterprises or were cleared and burned for farming.

Forest Management

9. 1875 the American Forestry Association organized to promote timber culture and forestry

Forest Management

10. Forestry agent appointed to the USDA

11. Forestry office became Division of Forestry of USDA in 1881.

Forest Management

12. 1891 Congress created forest reserves from public lands•a. 1900 33 million acres of forest reserves

•b. controlled under the Department of the Interior

Forest Management

13. Gifford Pinchot head of USDA Forestry Department in 1898

14. 1905 became US Forest Service

Forest Management

15. Pinchot and T. Roosevelt expanded the national forest service, covered 182 million acres in 1983.

Forest Management

16. The Weeks Law 1911 gave the President authority to purchase forest lands for river water shed protection

Forest Management

•a. linked forestry with soil and water conservation, waterway transportation and flood control.

Forest Management

17. WWI expanded federal role in the forestry business.•A. Timber was needed for the war and thousands of soldiers were used to harvest it.

Forest Management

18. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was involved in forestry work during the Great Depression

Forest Management

19. WWII and post war house building created another expansion in the need for timber.

Soil Conservation

1. Early mentality was to farm today leave tomorrow to take care of itself.

Soil Conservation

2. Wherever land was tillable it was cleared for agricultural production without regard for its potential•a. hillsides in Georgia were row cropped

Soil Conservation

•b. grasslands in the southwest were overgrazed.

3. Early soil conservation meant preventing gully and sheet erosion.

Soil Conservation4. 1928 first USDA soil conservation bulletin published “Soil Erosion - A National Menace”

5. 1933 Soil Erosion Service established (Dept of Int)

Soil Conservation

6. 1935 SES moved to the Dept of Ag and changed name to Soil Conservation Service (SCS)

Soil Conservation

7. 1936 developed a system for giving grants to farmers active in conservation to pay for terraces, tilling, and drainage systems.

Soil Conservation

•a. regulated by USDA’s Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS)

Soil Conservation

8. 1937 President F D Roosevelt established soil conservation districts within each state

Water Management

1. 1879 Mississippi River Commission set up to help states improve the river as a waterway.

Water Management

2. Rivers and Harbors Acts of 1917 and 1927 maintain navigable waterways.

3. 1825 Erie Canal completed to connect the Great Lakes with the Hudson River.

Water Management4. Early emphasis was not on conservation but on transportation

5. Late 1920’s federal gov’t began to assume some responsibility for flood control.

Water Management

6. 1936 Flood Control Act authorized SCS to develop plans for upstream soil and water conservation to reduce sedimentation and flooding.

Water Management

7. 1954 Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act made state and local responsible for decision making.

Water Management

8. Federal legislation in the 1960’s and 1970’s emphasized health concerns of waste water treatment

Water Management

9. Low water tables in the western states have resulted from deep-well drilling.