The 1920s and the
New Deal
Earth,
Wind, and Fire
Decline of
Progressive Conservation
■
Retreat after 1914: conservation extremists
Western opposition
■
No more withdrawing land from development
■
No more regulations from Washington
■
Conservationists out of influence, 1920s
Legacy of 1912 Republican-Progressive split
Teapot Dome Scandal, 1922
Fashion Kills Off
the Birds
Wildlife
conservation
■
George Bird Grinnell, editor, Field and Stream
Audubon Society, 1880s; national org. by 1905
■
Hunters & gun companies act
American Game Protective Association, 1911
States establish hunting seasons & licenses
US Biological Survey regulates bird hunting, 1913
■
Conflict: how to best protect birds
Animal lovers: limit hunting
Hunters: protect habitat
Wildlife
conservation
■
1920s rise in sport hunting and fishing
Democratization of hunting
■
Army surplus Krag rifles 1903, then Springfield
.30-06
Fishing spots polluted, filled, paved
Wetlands filled; waterfowl gone
Protecting fish
■
Izaak Walton League, 1922
Founded by Chicago businessmen
100,000 members, mostly in the Midwest
■
1923 threat to 300 miles of
Mississippi bottomlands
Congress: 300-mile, $1.5 million refuge
Conservation in the
New Deal
■
1932: Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Idolizes 5th cousin Theodore Roosevelt
Progressives bolt to Democratic Party
■
Former Republicans: Secretaries of Interior and
Agriculture
1912: no Democrats to advise Woodrow Wilson on conservation
1940: no Republicans to advise Wendell Wilkie on conservation
■
Conservation: priority of prosperity
Civilian
Conservation Corps
■
Military-style camps for unemployed men
Forestry
Soil erosion
Flood control
Roads and trails
Visitors centers for parks
■
Spread appreciation for conservation
CCC camp in
Berkshires
CCC highway
beautification
CCC: watering
pinetrees
CCC builds Texas
parks
New Deal
Conservation Agencies
■
Soil Conservation Service (1933)
■
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
Poverty and environmental ruin
■
Harness unruly river for human benefit
■
Fertilizer & public power for poor farmers
Centrally-controlled refashioning of landscape
Great success never repeated
No consideration of ecological effects
TVA map
TVA flood control
TVA tree nursery
TVA
Dams
TVA rural
electrification
Parks Expansion
■
Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes
■
10 new parks and monuments
New, undeveloped National Parks
■
Kings Canyon
■
Olympic
■
Everglades
■
Ordered desegregation of National Parks
Building dams
■
Example of Hoover (Boulder) Dam
■
Dams: something for everyone
Jobs
Public power
Boost for the economy
Renewed concern for
wildlife
■
Drastic drop in waterfowl: 100 to 20 million
Product of drought and development
■
Ding Darling, Biological Survey 193335
Migratory Waterfowl Division
■
1934: Duck Stamp Act
■
By 1940: 159 new refuges of 7.5 million acres
1940: Fish & Wildlife Svc. in Interior Dept.
■
Unified game policy
With gun companies, founds National Wildlife Federation, 1938
Wilderness
■
Problem of the automobile
■
Wilderness in National Forests
Aldo Leopold
■
2-week trip; Gila Wilderness, 1924
Bob Marshall
■
Protection of Appalachian Trail from CCC
Benton McKaye & Harvey Broome
■
Wilderness Society, 1935