BS, Biology-Chemistry, Florida State University, 1970
MS, Wildlife Ecology-Fisheries Science, Virginia Tech, 1973
btitlow@aol.com / www.agpix.com/titlow / www.buddtitlow.com
For the past 50 years, professional ecologist and conservationist Budd Titlow has used his pen and camera to capture the awe and wonders of our natural world. His goal has always been to inspire others to both appreciate and enjoy what he sees. Now he has one main question: Can we save humankind’s place within nature’s beauty, before it’s too late?
Budd’s two latest books are dedicated to answering this perplexing dilemma. Protecting the Planet, a non-fiction book, examines whether we still have the environmental champions among us — harking back to such past heroes as Audubon, Hemenway, Muir, Douglas, Leopold, Brower, Carson, and Meadows — needed to accomplish this goal. Next, using fact-filled and entertaining story-telling, his latest book — Coming Full Circle — provides the answers we all seek and need.
Having published five books, more than 500 photo-essays, and 5,000 photographs, Budd Titlow lives with his music educator wife, Debby, in San Diego, California.
Gilbert Plass—Father of Modern Greenhouse Gas Theory
Several events significant to the history of Climate Change occurred in the 1950’s. First in 1955, climate researcher Gilbert Plass performed detailed computer analyses showing that doubling CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere would increase global temperatures by 3 to 4 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit).
Hans Suess and Roger Revelle Support Plass
Next, a pair of scientists, chemist Hans Suess and oceanographer Roger Revelle, proved that seawater would not—as previously believed—absorb all the CO2 that enters our atmosphere. In fact—portending the peril we face today—Revelle wrote that, “Human beings are now carrying out a large scale geophysical experiment of a kind that could not have happened in the past nor be reproduced in the future.”
The Keeling Curves
Finally in 1958, Dr. Charles David Keeling began a project that continues to this day—The Keeling Curves. Using systematic measurements taken at Mauna Loa in Hawaii and in Antarctica, Keeling provided the first unequivocal proof that CO2 concentrations in our atmosphere are rising. Keeling used the most modern technologies available to produce concentration curves for atmospheric CO2.
Text excerpted from book: “PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change” written by Budd Titlow and Mariah Tinger and published by Prometheus Books. Photo credit: Copyright Shutterstock (3)
Author’s bio:For the past 50 years, professional ecologist and conservationist Budd Titlow has used his pen and camera to capture the awe and wonders of our natural world. His goal has always been to inspire others to both appreciate and enjoy what he sees. Now he has one main question: Can we save humankind’s place — within nature’s beauty — before it’s too late? Budd’s two latest books are dedicated to answering this perplexing dilemma. “PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change”, a non-fiction book, examines whether we still have the environmental heroes among us — harking back to such past heroes as Audubon, Hemenway, Muir, Douglas, Leopold, Brower, Carson, and Meadows — needed to accomplish this goal. Next, using fact-filled and entertaining story-telling, his latest book — “COMING FULL CIRCLE: A Sweeping Saga of Conservation Stewardship Across America” — provides the answers we all seek and need. Having published five books, more than 500 photo-essays, and 5,000 photographs, Budd Titlow lives with his music educator wife, Debby, in San Diego, California.
What happens when you combine the athleticism of a world-class mountaineer, the charisma and good looks of a movie star, and the passionate leadership of a dedicated head of state? You get David Brower, another one of our Past Environmental Heroes, and a man who single-handedly founded more environmental conservation/activism groups—including Friends of the Earth, The League of Women Voters, and The Earth Island Institute—than any other person in US history. In addition to his prominence in the successful fight against the Echo Park Project and other U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BuRec) dams in the 1950’s, Brower became one of the most prominent figures in creating the US Environmental Movement of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.
Born in Berkeley, California on July 1, 1912, David Ross Brower first visited the High Sierras and Yosemite National Park when he was only six years old. Attracted to the US Environmental Movement through his passion for mountaineering, Brower made first ascents of more than 70 peaks in the western US. During World War II, he also served in the legendary 10th Mountain Division in which he led daring assaults involving hazardous rock climbing to overcome enemy positions. Not surprisingly, his amazing array of outdoor skills eventually led him to the Sierra Club where he proudly served as the first Executive Director (ED) from 1952 to 1969.
It was in this position that Brower achieved national fame—leading the opposition to several Bureau of Reclamation Dam proposals in Dinosaur National Monument (now Park) and the Grand Canyon. His advocacy also led to the establishment of nine national parks and seashores—including Kings Canyon National Park, Redwoods National Park, and Point Reyes National Seashore. Under his direction, the Sierra Club began publishing their now famous large-format “coffee table books” that combined mind-blowing outdoor photography with poignant and powerful conservation messages.
Brower was also one of the first environmental activists to feature full-page advertisements in prominent newspapers as a way of shifting public opinion and building grassroots support for his causes. Owing to his tireless drive and passion, the Sierra Club’s membership boomed—from 2,000 members (mostly in California) to 77,000 across the United States—during his 17 years as Executive Director.
Writing in Publishers Weekly, environmentalist and author Paul Hawken commented about Brower, “No single person created more ways and means for people to become active and effective with respect to the environment than David Brower.”Russell Train, Head of the Environmental Protection Agency under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford continued with the plaudits, “Thank God for Dave Brower; he makes it so easy for the rest of us to look reasonable.”
Brower’s passion for the Earth and its inhabitants earned him international respect. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times (in 1978 and 1979, and then in 1998—jointly with professor Paul Ehrlich). In 1998, Brower received the Blue Planet Prize for his lifetime achievements. His successful advocacy for many environmental causes led acclaimed author, John McPhee, to publish a series of articles and then a best-selling book entitled Encounters with the Archdruid. Brower liked the term “archdruid” so much that he used it in his e-mail address until his death in 2000.
“I believe that the average guy in the street will give up a great deal, if he really understands the cost of not giving it up. In fact, we may find that, while we’re drastically cutting our energy consumption, we’re actually raising our standard of living.”
David Brower, The Archdruid
“Polite conservationists leave no mark save the scars upon the Earth that could have been prevented had they stood their ground.”
– David Brower, The Archdruid
If he were still alive today, David Brower would certainly be in the forefront of the Climate Change battles. He never gave up on finding innovative ways of getting his environmental messages across to non-believers and naysayers. He was the most forceful —and also most controversial—conservation activist in the history of the US Environmental Movement. His brazen willingness to take and then defend positions that he believed in—even when they meant getting fired as Executive Director of the Sierra Club—represent exactly the type of person we need to assume the leadership role in solving the Climate Change crisis. Brower’s skills for organizing activist groups and then devising methods for rallying public support need to be carefully studied and then applied to our cause.
Text excerpted from book: “PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change” written by Budd Titlow and Mariah Tinger and published by Prometheus Books. Photo credit: Copyright Shutterstock (2)
Author’s bio:For the past 50 years, professional ecologist and conservationist Budd Titlow has used his pen and camera to capture the awe and wonders of our natural world. His goal has always been to inspire others to both appreciate and enjoy what he sees. Now he has one main question: Can we save humankind’s place — within nature’s beauty — before it’s too late? Budd’s two latest books are dedicated to answering this perplexing dilemma. “PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change”, a non-fiction book, examines whether we still have the environmental heroes among us — harking back to such past heroes as Audubon, Hemenway, Muir, Douglas, Leopold, Brower, Carson, and Meadows — needed to accomplish this goal. Next, using fact-filled and entertaining story-telling, his latest book — “COMING FULL CIRCLE: A Sweeping Saga of Conservation Stewardship Across America” — provides the answers we all seek and need. Having published five books, more than 500 photo-essays, and 5,000 photographs, Budd Titlow lives with his music educator wife, Debby, in San Diego, California.
When it was designated as a protected area in 1915, Dinosaur National Monument confined the confluence of two of the Colorado River’s major and most magnificent tributaries—the Yampa and the Green Rivers. In the 1950’s, the fantastic palette of scenic, archaeological, and paleontological beauty in this remote corner of Colorado was still little known outside of the sparsely settled local communities. In the minds of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s (BuRec) chief bureaucrats these characteristics offered them exactly what they were looking for to “hit another home run” like Hoover Dam had done decades earlier.
The BuRec’s engineers began work by focusing their attention on Echo Park—a lonely, lovely, canyon that looped its way around an 800-foot high sandstone monolith called Steamboat Rock. Steamboat Rock stood in the riverbed just below the confluence of the Yampa and Green Rivers and, topographically, provided the ideal location for constructing a massive dam. The channel’s narrow trough here would require a relatively minimum concrete span while backing up the water in both channels of the two major rivers. The resulting long expanse of open water would provide plentiful hydroelectric power and boundless recreational opportunities—serving as the perfect complement to other downstream dams and reservoirs that were also already on the engineers’ drafting tables.
All systems were go for this Echo Park Project, or so the Washington politicians and BuRec bureaucrats thought until they met up with the dissenting minds of the Sierra Club led by the Archdruid himself—Executive Director David Brower—and leaders of several other conservation groups. Far from becoming another showcase for the western water controllers, the proposed Echo Park Dam became one of the most momentous victories ever recorded in the history of the US Environmental Movement.
The opposition to Echo Park actually first started when a group of downstream river guides in Utah got wind of what was being bandied about upstream. Both rugged and astute, the guides moved quickly to rally support for their cause and invited Brower and the other conservation leaders to join them for a free trip to see exactly what would be lost to this flooding fiasco.
After spending a few days with the guides, Brower and his fellow conservationists oversaw the formation of an alliance that challenged the BuRec’s claims about the project’s major benefits and limited impacts. The opposition group’s catch phrases included, “We’re not opposed to development. We’re not opposed to dams. We’re just opposed to dams in national parks.” Plus, “We’re not going to stand for another Hetch Hetchy!”
Facing such difficult to refute logic plus withering opposition led by a master organizer like Brower, Congress—after a prolonged and controversial battle—eventually removed Dinosaur National Monument and Echo Park from the act that created the Colorado River Storage Project. But unfortunately—at least in the minds of environmentalists—the story of Echo Park doesn’t end there. In their crusade to preserve Echo Park and Steamboat Rock, Brower and his band of activists accepted a tradeoff—a loss downstream that would anguish them and others for years to come. The deal involved an agreement not to oppose a dam on the Colorado River in a little-known place called Glen Canyon.
In the 1950s, the Sierra Club still was smarting from the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park and the group’s focus was squarely on national parks and monuments, and Glen Canyon had no such protected status. The rationale was that since Glen Canyon wasn’t in a national park, it probably wasn’t all that valuable. But this time the Sierra Club was wrong—very wrong—and Brower deeply regretted his compromise decision. The problem was that no one had really taken the time to check Glen Canyon out and—by the time they did—it was too late.
The Glen Canyon Dam drowned more than 100 miles of spectacular canyon, a rippling desert wilderness that few had ever seen. Salt Lake City River guide, Richard Quist, called Glen Canyon “a sprawling labyrinth of wonder” and said the canyon’s ancient, still-colorful pictographs were “stunningly beautiful.” He also described stumbling onto the canyon’s long-abandoned pit houses as being among his greatest childhood adventures when his dad turned him loose in the side canyons during their float trips.
Brower later wrote a foreword to a 1963 book honoring Glen Canyon entitled, The Place No One Knew, which featured the stunning nature photographs of master photographer, Eliot Porter. But by the time Glen Canyon’s beauty and wildness became more widely known, the dam fighters couldn’t backtrack. The dam was completed in the fall of 1963, and Lake Powell was filled to capacity by 1980—drowning Glen Canyon presumably forever.
The odds of defeating Glen Canyon Dam would have been slim even if the coalition had turned its attention to land outside national parks, instead of focusing solely on Echo Park. The dams weren’t equals—Echo Park would have held about a quarter of what Lake Powell holds—and Glen Canyon Dam was always intended to anchor the upper Colorado River’s water storage system.
Nonetheless, Echo Park became “a symbol of wilderness,” and the battle to save it was chronicled in a 1994 book by this same name. The project’s showdown between Congress, the BuRec, and the Sierra Club—led by David Brower—and other opposing conservation organizations was also widely hailed as a major steppingstone that led to passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964.
Text excerpted from book: “PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change” written by Budd Titlow and Mariah Tinger and published by Prometheus Books.
Author’s bio:For the past 50 years, professional ecologist and conservationist Budd Titlow has used his pen and camera to capture the awe and wonders of our natural world. His goal has always been to inspire others to both appreciate and enjoy what he sees. Now he has one main question: Can we save humankind’s place — within nature’s beauty — before it’s too late? Budd’s two latest books are dedicated to answering this perplexing dilemma. “PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change”, a non-fiction book, examines whether we still have the environmental heroes among us — harking back to such past heroes as Audubon, Hemenway, Muir, Douglas, Leopold, Brower, Carson, and Meadows — needed to accomplish this goal. Next, using fact-filled and entertaining story-telling, his latest book — “COMING FULL CIRCLE: A Sweeping Saga of Conservation Stewardship Across America” — provides the answers we all seek and need. Having published five books, more than 500 photo-essays, and 5,000 photographs, Budd Titlow lives with his music educator wife, Debby, in San Diego, California.
The late 1940’s were also significant in the life of another of our Past Environmental Heroes—this time a feisty little woman with the heart of a lion and the tenacity of a wolverine. She always looked more like a wealthy socialite—in her characteristic Panama hat and horn-rimmed glasses—than an outdoor lover. But—as the old saying goes—“looks can be deceiving” and such was certainly the case for Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
Always looking more like a wealthy socialite—in her characteristic Panama hat and horn-rimmed glasses—than an outdoor lover, Marjory Stoneman Douglas had the heart of a lion and the tenacity of a wolverine.
Douglas worked diligently to gradually turn a lifelong passion for doing the right thing into her own personal environmental justice movement that culminated in preserving one of the most unique ecological areas on the face of the earth. In 1947, ending more than 30 years of pugnacious battling with politicians, land developers, and—perhaps most notably—the US Army Corps of Engineers (US ACOE)—she published her book, Everglades – The River of Grass.
In her landmark work—which has been favorably compared to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac—Douglas lovingly described the unfathomable beauty and untold treasures encompassed by Florida’s Everglades. And she did so at a time when most Americans—especially those who had recently moved to South Florida—considered wetlands to be just worthless square miles of mosquito and snake-infested wastelands. Not only did The River of Grass spark a movement to protect the Everglades from uncontrolled filling, land development, and wanton destruction but it also opened the eyes of the rest of the country to see and appreciate the many critical functions—including flood control, water quality protection, aquifer recharge, and wildlife habitat—provided by wetlands.
Ironically, Douglas was born in 1890 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and grew up in Taunton, Massachusetts, two places and environments that were about as far removed as possible from the South Florida landscape she grew to love and cherish. During her undergraduate years at Massachusetts’ Wellesley College, Douglas earned Straight A’s and was voted “Class Orator”—a prophetic title—as wealthy landowners and their corrupt politicians throughout South Florida were about to learn.
In 1915, Douglas moved to South Florida and began working as a columnist for her father’s newspaper—the precursor to the Miami Herald. Combining skillful writing with a firebrand personality, she quickly gained local notoriety by getting hotly embroiled in the battles over racial inequality, feminism, and resource conservation—long before these issues became the focus of the national spotlight.
The State of Florida’s wacky land development provided the perfect grist for Douglas during her early years as a columnist/poet for the Miami Herald. As an Assistant Editor, she regularly wrote editorials urging protection of Florida’s unique regional character in the face of rapid commercial development. After leaving the Herald, Douglas continued to write short stories, 40 of which were published in the Saturday Evening Post, with many winning O. Henry and other awards.
As an aside here, if you’re interested in learning about the worst possible way to conduct land development, research the settlement history of south Florida, starting around 1900. The monumental comedy of errors—including “improving” (i.e., straightening) hundreds of miles of cool meandering streams and diking the sheet flow out of massive Lake Okeechobee costing thousands of lives—is simply beyond belief.
The litany of egregious environmental impacts continued through Walt Disney’s filling of hundreds of acres of pristine wetlands in the 1960’s. Many people will tell you that Disneyworld is the worst thing that ever happened to Central Florida. Even today, environmental atrocities are still rampant in South Florida. As Carl Hiaasen, best-selling novelist and columnist for the Miami Herald says, “The Florida in my novels is not as seedy as the real Florida. It’s hard to stay ahead of the curve. Every time I write a scene that I think is the sickest thing I have ever dreamed up, it is surpassed by something that happens in real life.”
Now back to the head-turning exploits of Ms. Douglas. Her diminutive size belied her zeal for standing up to the power interests in South Florida. In his introduction to her autobiography Voice of the River (1987), freelance writer John Rothchild describes Douglas’ appearance in 1973 at a public meeting in Everglades City: “Mrs. Douglas was half the size of her fellow speakers and she wore huge dark glasses, which along with the huge floppy hat made her look like Scarlet O’Hara as played by Igor Stravinsky. When she spoke, everybody stopped slapping [mosquitoes] and more or less came to order. … Her voice had the sobering effect of a one-room schoolmarm’s. The tone itself seemed to tame the rowdiest of the local stone crabbers, plus the developers, and the lawyers on both sides. I wonder if it didn’t also intimidate the mosquitoes. . . . The request for a Corps of Engineers permit was eventually turned down. This was no surprise to those of us who’d heard her speak.”
When it came to the Everglades, Douglas took on all comers, including greedy land developers who wanted to drain and fill the “worthless swamp” to political hacks and power brokers who would bend over backwards to “make things work out” for a little extra money under the table. For her tireless efforts to block land development in the Everglades and maintain its vital sheet flow water source emanating from Lake Okeechobee, Douglas endured pervasive hostility from both the powerful agricultural and business communities in South Florida. But, in the process, she also earned a great deal of respect as verified by her well-deserved nickname of “The Grande Dame of the Everglades”.
Douglas’ relentless campaigning for South Florida finally paid off big time both in 1947 with the establishment of Everglades National Park and again 22 years later, in 1969, with the founding of the conservation organization Friends of the Everglades. Her tireless efforts as a conservationist earned her numerous awards. In 1986, the National Parks and Conservation Association established the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Award “to honor individuals who often must go to great lengths to advocate and fight for the protection of the National Park System.” Then, in 1993, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom—America’s highest civilian honor.
Living to the remarkable age of 108, Douglas passed away in 1998 in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami. Even near the end of her life, she was still advocating for the ongoing federal and state efforts to restore the cookie panhydrologic sheet flow out of Lake Okeechobee that was historically the lifeblood of the Everglades. Upon her death, an obituary in The Independent—a British national morning newspaper stated, “In the history of the American environmental movement, there have been few more remarkable figures than Marjory Stoneman Douglas.” Per her request, Douglas was cremated and her ashes were scattered across Everglades National Park—her beloved “river of grass”.
“There are no other Everglades in the world. They are, they have always been, one of the unique regions of the earth—remote, never wholly known. Nothing anywhere else is like them.”
– Marjory Stoneman Douglas
No one in the history of the US Environmental Movement has ever been more dedicated to a singular conservation issue than Marjory Stoneman Douglas. She took on all the major power brokers that South Florida could throw at her during a time when support for natural resource conservation was minimal. Remarkably she won her war when the Everglades National Park was established just one month after her landmark book, The River of Grass, was published. Douglas’ emboldened fight to stand up for what she believed—even in the face of withering resistance and intimidating opposition—is the exactly the type of feistiness and resilience that is required to successfully take on Big Oil and win the Climate Change battle.
Text excerpted from book: “PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change” written by Budd Titlow and Mariah Tinger and published by Prometheus Books. Photo credit: Copyright Shutterstock.
Author’s bio: For the past 50 years, professional ecologist and conservationist Budd Titlow has used his pen and camera to capture the awe and wonders of our natural world. His goal has always been to inspire others to both appreciate and enjoy what he sees. Now he has one main question: Can we save humankind’s place — within nature’s beauty — before it’s too late? Budd’s two latest books are dedicated to answering this perplexing dilemma. “PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change”, a non-fiction book, examines whether we still have the environmental heroes among us — harking back to such past heroes as Audubon, Hemenway, Muir, Douglas, Leopold, Brower, Carson, and Meadows — needed to accomplish this goal. Next, using fact-filled and entertaining story-telling, his latest book — “COMING FULL CIRCLE: A Sweeping Saga of Conservation Stewardship Across America” — provides the answers we all seek and need. Having published five books, more than 500 photo-essays, and 5,000 photographs, Budd Titlow lives with his music educator wife, Debby, in San Diego, California.
In 1949, the majority of the US population still—somewhat inexplicably—held fast to the religious fervor that maintained the indomitable belief that the early colonists first brought with them from foreign shores. As we discussed at the very beginning of this section, the dominant thinking was that man had a God-given right to exert dominion over all of nature’s creatures. The general idea was that the beasts of the forests, fields, rivers, and streams were put there to serve man’s needs. Not taking advantage of this natural bounty was still considered a sacrilege and an affront to human integrity almost 175 years after our Nation was founded!
Ironically, the man who was to raise the greatest challenge—to date—to this deeply held belief was an avid outdoorsman himself. As a young adult, Aldo Leopold hunted and fished his native Wisconsin countryside with boundless zeal and aplomb. Then on a hunting trip to Arizona, something happened inside his heart and mind that changed his life forever after he shot a female wolf. But let’s hear the rest of this poignant vignette from the man himself:
“We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes—something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.”
– Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
As Aldo Leopold matured from a gung-ho young hunter to a serious researcher of wildlife ecology, he was more often seen with a pair of binoculars around his neck than a rifle slung over his shoulder.
Born in January of 1889 in Burlington, Iowa, Leopold was an outdoorsman almost before he could walk. His dad, a German immigrant and woodcrafter, regularly took the young Aldo on nature forays around the Iowa countryside and—during the summers—in Michigan’s Les Cheneaux Islands in Lake Huron. Attending Yale University, Leopold became one of the first graduates of the Yale school of Forestry which had been created by an endowment from Gifford Pinchot, the first Chief Forester of the US Forest Service.
The experience with the old wolf changed Leopold from a man who took great pleasure in killing animals to one who often relished just watching and documenting what they did. In his younger years—before the “fierce green fire”, he was seldom seen without a hunting jacket on and a high-powered rifle slung over his shoulder. After he shot the wolf—although he didn’t give up hunting—he was more likely to have a long-stem pipe poking thoughtfully out of the corner of his mouth and a pair of binoculars hanging around his neck. Forty years later in 1949, this dramatic change in Leopold’s personal thinking led to the publication of A Sand County Almanac—a book that also changed the thoughts of the entire US Environmental Movement and ushered in a totally new field, the science of wildlife management.
Acknowledged by many as the “Father of Wildlife Conservation” and one of the most influential conservation thinkers of the 20th Century, Leopold was also one of the early leaders of the American wilderness movement. As we have previously discussed—prior to Leopold around the turn of the century—conservation was based almost solely on economics and benefits to humanity.
But in his stirring essay, “The Land Ethic” that concluded A Sand County Almanac, Leopold described his groundbreaking concepts that everything on earth was interrelated and that man and nature existed in a harmonious relationship. These beliefs—which were the precursor to the modern concept of ecology—stressed that man was just part of the overall global ecosystem. Plus—as the most intelligent component of this global ecosystem—man had the responsibility of being the caretaker of all living things on Earth. Leopold also stressed that all living things were owed the right to a healthy existence. These concepts were not only incredibly innovative but also were far ahead of their time.
Leopold wrote A Sand County Almanac from a refurbished chicken coop—which he called simply “The Shack”—located on a farm he was restoring in the sand counties of Wisconsin near Baraboo. With more than two million copies in print and having been translated into 12 languages, this book is one of the most beloved and respected books about the environment ever published.
Ironically, Leopold died in 1948—just a few months before publication of his most famous work—from a heart attack while fighting a forest fire on the property of one of his neighbors. Despite this, his legacy and writings will always live on—both spanning and blending the disciplines of forestry, wildlife management, conservation biology, sustainable agriculture, restoration ecology, private land management, environmental history, literature, education, esthetics, and ethics.
Although Aldo Leopold did not live long enough to hear much—if anything—about Global Warming, his “land ethic” views form the basis of the rationale for combating Climate Change. If he were alive today, he would have most certainly taken a firm stance that as an integral—and supposedly harmonious—part of the natural world, humanity must not only take responsibility for the warming climate, we must also take the lead in combating it. He would emphasize that studying our place within—not outside of—nature will allow us to most effectively see how we are influencing these changes. Then—once we have this understanding—we can go about making the necessary corrections to counteract the looming crisis. As Mike Dombeck, Emeritus Professor of Global Environmental Management at Wisconsin–Stevens Point, recently wrote “As a society, we are just now beginning to realize the depth of Leopold’s work and thinking.”
“Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now, we face the question whether a still higher ‘standard of living’ is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free.”
– Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
“The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: ‘What good is it?’ To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.”
– Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
Text excerpted from book: “PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change” written by Budd Titlow and Mariah Tinger and published by Prometheus Books. Photo credit: Copyright Shutterstock(2).
Author’s bio:For the past 50 years, professional ecologist and conservationist Budd Titlow has used his pen and camera to capture the awe and wonders of our natural world. His goal has always been to inspire others to both appreciate and enjoy what he sees. Now he has one main question: Can we save humankind’s place — within nature’s beauty — before it’s too late? Budd’s two latest books are dedicated to answering this perplexing dilemma. “PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change”, a non-fiction book, examines whether we still have the environmental heroes among us — harking back to such past heroes as Audubon, Hemenway, Muir, Douglas, Leopold, Brower, Carson, and Meadows — needed to accomplish this goal. Next, using fact-filled and entertaining story-telling, his latest book — “COMING FULL CIRCLE: A Sweeping Saga of Conservation Stewardship Across America” — provides the answers we all seek and need. Having published five books, more than 500 photo-essays, and 5,000 photographs, Budd Titlow lives with his music educator wife, Debby, in San Diego, California.
Our next Past Environmental Hero had the best name in the history of the US Environmental Movement and—like Roger Tory Peterson— also used his creative artistic ability in a very special way. But this time, the craftsmanship was combined with offbeat humor—instead of birding field marks—to get the public’s attention and build a consensus of support. Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling combined an artist’s eye with a humorist’s ear and—or 50 years—produced prize-winning political cartoons that bemused the American public while galvanizing their support for landmark conservation initiatives.
Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling enjoys his dual passions, working as a Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist and advocating for the protection of wild birds—as demonstrated by the photo posted behind his newspaper desk.
Born in Norwood, Michigan in 1876, Darling always considered himself an Iowan—even though his middle name derived from his place of birth. When he moved with his parents to Sioux City, Iowa in 1886, he reveled in getting out and exploring the “edge of the American frontier”. Gallivanting about through unspoiled prairie teeming with seemingly limitless wildlife gave Darling a life-long passion for protecting nature’s bounty.
An affable and energetic man with a penchant for a bow tie and a strong resemblance to long-time news anchor Walter Cronkite—“the most trusted man in America”, Darling began his political cartooning career in 1900 with the Sioux City Journal. After joining the Des Moines Register in 1906, he began signing his cartoons with his nickname “Ding”, a pseudonym he came up with in college by combining the first initial of his last name with the last three letters. By 1917, his work was syndicated across the country through the New York Herald Tribune.
Appearing in 130 daily newspapers, Darling’s witty and insightful drawings entertained an audience of millions. Awarded Pulitzer Prizes in 1923 and 1942, Darling specialized in using his satirical pen to promote issues of conservation and bring national attention to environmental concerns.
While he always claimed that he was a conservationist as “only a hobby”, Darling’s monumental accomplishments in the conservation arena belie that statement. In 1934, as Chief of the Bureau of Biological Survey—predecessor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—he dramatically cut waterfowl bag limits and seasons to bolster dwindling waterfowl populations. This action earned him his life-long reputation as “the man who saved ducks”.
Always an articulate speaker and tireless activist, Darling convinced President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to call the first North American Wildlife Conference in 1936—a landmark meeting that emphasized the need to have a permanent organization espousing protection of wildlife and wild places throughout the US. Out of this conservation confab, the General Wildlife Federation (GWF)—forerunner of today’s esteemed National Wildlife Federation—was born. The GWF—with Darling as its first president—provided a long-term public platform for taking care of one of Darling’s life concerns, the uncontrolled exploitation of wildlife.
Darling solved his other primary concern—wanton destruction of key waterfowl habitat—by initiating the Federal Duck Stamp Program. Proceeds from the sale of duck hunting stamps—the first of which Darling drew himself—went into a fund set aside specifically for purchasing wetlands to preserve waterfowl nesting and migratory habitat.
Darling was also—in large part—responsible for establishing the network of National Wildlife Refuges that now lace across our country in all directions. The Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937 (also known as the “Pittman-Robertson Act”)—which provides money to states for the purchase of game habitat and helps fund wildlife research through a tax on sporting firearms and ammunition—also owes its existence to Darling’s work.
For many years of his life, Darling owned a winter home on Captiva Island in South Florida. Thanks to the efforts of many of his island neighbors and the J.N. “Ding” Darling Foundation, the adjacent Sanibel National Wildlife Refuge—which had dutifully protected wildlife habitat since 1948—was renamed the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge and officially dedicated to him in 1978. Today, “The Ding” is a mecca for both birdwatchers and photographers living throughout South Florida and around the world.
For many years starting in the winter of 1995, I often enjoyed the distinct avian pleasure of visiting “The Ding”. Every morning just before sunrise, serious photographers armed with telephoto lenses the size of bazookas and life birders toting their Swarovski binoculars line up to be the first to see what new birds have arrived on the refuge overnight. What many of them may not realize is that the refuge’s namesake is the primary reason the birds are there in the first place!
“Land, water and vegetation … Without these three primary elements in natural balance, we can have neither fish nor game, wildflowers nor trees, labor nor capital, nor sustaining habitat for humans.”
– Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling
Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling used his cartoonist fame as a springboard to create two American wildlife management institutions—the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Wildlife Federation. But, more importantly, he also found creative ways to finance his two favorite conservation causes—wildlife research and waterfowl management. Fees collected from the very people that participated in—and therefore benefited from—sport hunting were used to purchase habitat and protect nesting areas. The same fund-raising approach could be used in combating Climate Change. Fossil fuel consumers could be charged a user fee and then the collected money—no doubt in the billions of dollars—could be applied to research facilities for renewable energy power generation and distribution.
Author’s footnote: As I’m sure you know, both Sanibel Island and Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge took a direct hit from Category 4 Hurricane Ian on September 28, 2022. While the full extent of the damage to the “Ding’s” wildlife habitats may not be known for years, I’m sure hoping the refuge recovers to again become one of the best places in the world to watch and photograph wild birds.
Text excerpted from book: “PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change” written by Budd Titlow and Mariah Tinger and published by Prometheus Books. Photo credit: Copyright Shutterstock(2).
Author’s bio:For the past 50 years, professional ecologist and conservationist Budd Titlow has used his pen and camera to capture the awe and wonders of our natural world. His goal has always been to inspire others to both appreciate and enjoy what he sees. Now he has one main question: Can we save humankind’s place — within nature’s beauty — before it’s too late? Budd’s two latest books are dedicated to answering this perplexing dilemma. “PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change”, a non-fiction book, examines whether we still have the environmental heroes among us — harking back to such past heroes as Audubon, Hemenway, Muir, Douglas, Leopold, Brower, Carson, and Meadows — needed to accomplish this goal. Next, using fact-filled and entertaining story-telling, his latest book — “COMING FULL CIRCLE: A Sweeping Saga of Conservation Stewardship Across America” — provides the answers we all seek and need. Having published five books, more than 500 photo-essays, and 5,000 photographs, Budd Titlow lives with his music educator wife, Debby, in San Diego, California.
Who would you say the local townspeople in the small city of Jamestown, New York voted for in 1975 as their most famous native daughter or son? If you guessed the world-famous television star and comedienne Lucille Ball, you’d be wrong. Although Lucille Ball was indeed born in Jamestown, the townsfolk chose Roger Tory Peterson as their best-known local resident.
Yes, this man with a handsomely-craggy face and—by many accounts—a somewhat obstinate personality—was then known to some 20 million birdwatchers around the nation as simply “Peterson”—as in “quick, look it up in your Peterson”. You see—in 1934—ardent naturalist and profound wildlife artist Roger Tory Peterson published his first of many field guides that kicked off a long-lasting trend in the dissemination of natural resource information that sold millions of copies throughout the US.
Born on August 28, 1908 in Jamestown, Peterson seemed destined to be anything but a famous artist and writer. He was known to his teachers and other townsfolk as a constant troublemaker—always pulling pranks and raising hijinks. But Peterson’s epiphany occurred at age 11 when he joined the local Junior Audubon Bird Club. Once he latched onto his first birding field guide and pair of binoculars, his wayward days ended and a life-long passion began.
Peterson’s interest in art also kicked in when—as a young adult—he enrolled in the Art Students League in New York City and also studied at the National Academy of Art Design. Along the way during this educational process, Peterson was heavily influenced by a bevy of serious young birders—including Joe Hickey, Allan Cruickshank, and John Aldrich.
In his early twenties—while he was struggling to make a living as an artist—Peterson’s two life passions first merged into his psyche. He began to notice that each bird species had distinctive field marks that obviously set them apart from other—even closely related—species. He realized from these initial observations that he had discovered a way for birds to be quickly identified—even at a distance.
Barely able to contain his excitement, Peterson set to work drawing and writing his first book, A Field Guide to the Birds, which was first published in 1934. Since then—through more than forty-seven total re-printings—over seven million copies of his two primary birding field guides—Guide to the Eastern Birds and Guide to the Western Birds—have been sold. Even after his birding guides became huge successes, Peterson continued to boost public interest in wild birds by writing articles for popular publications that bridged the gap between professional ornithologists and amateur backyard birdwatchers.
Roger Tory Peterson at work on his magnum opus, “A Field Guide to the Birds”.
Peterson’s 1948 book, Birds Over America, also demonstrated his depth and breadth as a dedicated conservationist. While primarily describing birds and birdwatching across North America, this book also packs wallops in the arenas of both ecological principles and environmental ethics. In particular, Birds Over America features the interconnected web of all living things, how hunters and farmers affect conservation, the ominous threats posed by invasive species, and the importance of protecting endangered species and the critical habitats they depend on.
For the 50 million folks that regularly watch birds in the US, Peterson is now known as the “Father of the Field Guide”. Birders everywhere now always carry these trusty pocket-sized books that provide vital field mark clues for accurate bird identification. Plus the bird paintings included in his first field guides also earned Peterson the most appropriate acclaim as “The Audubon of the Twentieth Century.”
In fact, during the entire 20th Century‚ no one did more to promote interest in nature and the environment than Peterson. His entire series of Peterson’s Field Guides—including everything from amphibians to butterflies, fish, reptiles, wildflowers, and even seashells—fostered an appreciation for the natural world and helped set the stage for ramping up the US Environmental Movement during the Sixties and Seventies. It became impossible to find someone who was interested in the environment that didn’t have at least ten or more Peterson Field Guides on their home or office bookshelves.
Although never a professed activist, Peterson always maintained his dedication to environmental protection and dogged opposition to environmental hazards—like the use of DDT—throughout his career. In fact, when Rachel Carson’s 1962 Silent Spring[i] boomed its warning about pesticides’ threat to bird habitats, the Peterson Field Guide Series had already called on the American public and the scientific community to heed the battle cry and fight to save habitat and protect endangered species.
Following his move to Old Lyme, Connecticut, Peterson continued to write and publish an array of field guides and other books and was rewarded by many public accolades; including the American Ornithologists’ Union Brewster Medal, the Gold Medal of the New York Zoological Society, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Linnaean Society of New York’s Eisenmann Medal, and the Order of the Golden Ark of the Netherlands.
Also catering to the serious nature photographers of the world in 1994, Peterson invited a cadre of world famous outdoor photographers, editors, vendors, and authors to his institute in Jamestown, New York for the founding of the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA). NANPA is now the world’s only organization devoted solely to practitioners of outdoor photography. I am very proud to say that I am a Charter Member of NANPA—having joined in 1995 at the first “Nature Photography Summit” in Ft. Myers, Florida—while also serving on NANPA’s Board of Directors from 2009 to 2015.
Peterson also received nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize as well as honorary doctorates from several universities. Since he passed away in 1996 at his Old Lyme home, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute has continued to publish and promote his field guides, display his fine art paintings, and carry on his work in conservation and education.
In the final analysis, it can be said that Roger Tory Peterson—a troubled youth with seemingly no discernible drive or sense of direction—started a revolution in the field of environmental education that has continued to this day. He brought the study and understanding of the natural world out of the halls of academia and into the farms, fields, meadows, and mountains of North America. This is exactly the type of educational effort that will be required to create the groundswell of public support that will truly make a difference in the Climate Change movement.
“The philosophy that I have worked under most of my life is that the serious study of natural history is an activity which has far-reaching effects in every aspect of a person’s life. It ultimately makes people protective of the environment in a very committed way. It is my opinion that the study of natural history should be the primary avenue for creating environmentalists.”
– Roger Tory Peterson
Text excerpted from book:“PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change” written by Budd Titlow and Mariah Tinger and published by Prometheus Books. Photo credit: Copyright Shutterstock (2).
Author’s bio:For the past 50 years, professional ecologist and conservationist Budd Titlow has used his pen and camera to capture the awe and wonders of our natural world. His goal has always been to inspire others to both appreciate and enjoy what he sees.Now he has one main question: Can we save humankind’s place — within nature’s beauty — before it’s too late? Budd’s two latest books are dedicated to answering this perplexing dilemma. “PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change”, a non-fiction book, examines whether we still have the environmental heroes among us — harking back to such past heroes as Audubon, Hemenway, Muir, Douglas, Leopold, Brower, Carson, and Meadows — needed to accomplish this goal. Next, using fact-filled and entertaining story-telling, his latest book — “COMING FULL CIRCLE: A Sweeping Saga of Conservation Stewardship Across America” — provides the answers we all seek and need.Having published five books, more than 500 photo-essays, and 5,000 photographs, Budd Titlow lives with his music educator wife, Debby, in San Diego, California.
Many people would call John Steinbeck—another one of our Past Environmental Heroes— America’s greatest writer. We are among those, not just because of Steinbeck’s empathy with the human spirit but also because of the ardent environmentalism he displayed in his works. Steinbeck’s perpetually exasperated look, thin—almost evil looking mustache overtopping his ever-present cigarillo—somewhat belied his strong feelings about and support for the everyday working man and his living conditions.
From The Grapes of Wrath to Cannery Row, Steinbeck wrote searingly about America’s degradation of our environment. He lashed out at overharvesting fisheries stocks, about harmful farming practices, and – most emphatically—about the global evils of human overpopulation. In his novel, Sweet Thursday, Steinbeck warns that, “Man, in saving himself, has destroyed himself”.
Throughout his writings, Steinbeck staunchly preached conservation and, in his last work, America and Americans, he put forth the hope that we could learn to not “destroy wantonly”. If he were still alive today, we strongly suspect his next book would be entitled something along the lines of: Dark and Angry Skies – Fighting the World’s War Against Climate Contaminants.
Born in Salinas, California in 1902, John Steinbeck lived in a modest family home in the midst of a prosperous farming community that formed the background for his novels and the basis for his characters who strongly identified with the land. Beginning in early adolescence, he demonstrated his strong propensity for the pen. In high school, he would hide away in his secret attic cubby and write short stories that he would send out to magazines under pseudonyms without a return address. In later years, he sheepishly admitted that “he was scared to death to get a rejection slip, but more afraid of getting an acceptance.”
In 1919, Steinbeck enrolled at Stanford University but never graduated after five years of taking courses on and off. It was during this time, however, that he became enamored with science and biology. While working for a fish hatchery in Tahoe City, California, he met and married Carol Henning. The couple moved to a cottage owned by his Dad on the Monterey Peninsula of which Steinbeck wrote, “Financially we are in a mess, but spiritually we ride the clouds. Nothing else matters.”
Finally with the acceptance and publication of Pastures of Heaven, a loosely connected collection of short stories about the Salinas Valley, Steinbeck’s writing career took off in earnest. What many consider his best work that we’ve just discussed, TheGrapes of Wrath, won both a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award in 1939.
Steinbeck’s ties to environmentalism and ecology—before each became a watchword in the US—have been acknowledged and described by many scientists. In the book entitled Steinbeck and the Environment, Clifford and Mimi Gladstein describe his beliefs this way: “Literary works often precede and foretell the articulation of philosophical concepts. And lovers of the natural world have been among the most devoted readers of John Steinbeck. Maybe it is because they see in his works strong identification with and respect for tillers of the soil and harvesters of the sea as well as an abiding reverence for the earth in its pristine state.”
Writing in the same book, Lorelei Cederstrom takes things a step further, “In his depiction of the fertile earth and the lives of those who have depended on her for abundance, John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath presents a visionary foreshadowing of the universal ecological disaster that looms so prominently on the horizon today.”
Steinbeck continued to write in his later years, including many highly acclaimed and widely read other books—Burning Bright (1950),East of Eden (1952), The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), and Travels with Charley: In Search of America(1962). In 1962, he received the vaunted Nobel Prize for Literature which was awarded for his“… realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception.” Steinbeck died of heart disease on December 20, 1968, at his home in New York City at the age of 66—far too young for an environmental savant of his stature.
The best two pieces of advice any writer can ever receive are “be observant of the world around you” and “write about what you know”. Based on his prolific and heartfelt works, Steinbeck was a master at both of these directives. Those of us with writing predilections who are working today to counter Climate Change would do well to study Steinbeck’s books. We need to learn how to emulate his marvelous skills at perfectly portraying the absolute essence of the social, business, and environmental inequities he saw happening in his day and time. If we can figure out how to transfer our feelings about the perils that Climate Change pose with the same burning passion that John Steinbeck displayed, we will surely be successful at rallying the world to our cause.
Text excerpted from book:“PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change” written by Budd Titlow and Mariah Tinger and published by Prometheus Books. Photo credit: Copyright Shutterstock.
Author’s bio:For the past 50 years, professional ecologist and conservationist Budd Titlow has used his pen and camera to capture the awe and wonders of our natural world. His goal has always been to inspire others to both appreciate and enjoy what he sees.Now he has one main question: Can we save humankind’s place — within nature’s beauty — before it’s too late? Budd’s two latest books are dedicated to answering this perplexing dilemma. “PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change”, a non-fiction book, examines whether we still have the environmental heroes among us — harking back to such past heroes as Audubon, Hemenway, Muir, Douglas, Leopold, Brower, Carson, and Meadows — needed to accomplish this goal. Next, using fact-filled and entertaining story-telling, his latest book — “COMING FULL CIRCLE: A Sweeping Saga of Conservation Stewardship Across America” — provides the answers we all seek and need.Having published five books, more than 500 photo-essays, and 5,000 photographs, Budd Titlow lives with his music educator wife, Debby, in San Diego, California.
Our next Past Environmental Hero is Franklin Delano Roosevelt (“FDR”) who was a true American hero on three other major fronts—health care, economic issues, and military prowess—in addition to land conservation. Born in 1882 on his family’s estate in Hyde Park, New York, FDR was availed the best schooling at the prestigious Groton School in Massachusetts, Harvard University, and Columbia University. As an adult standing more than six feet tall, Roosevelt was a strikingly handsome, lean, and athletic young man with deep blue eyes, dark wavy hair, and a strong thrusting jaw. He was also ebullient, charming, persuasive, gregarious, and genuinely interested in people and their problems.
Bronze statue of a multi-faceted hero: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (“FDR”) and his beloved dog, “Fala”.
In 1921 while visiting his beloved Campobello Island on the border of New Brunswick, Canada and the State of Maine, Roosevelt contracted poliomyelitis otherwise known as infantile paralysis or simply the dreaded—at the time—disease called “polio”. Perhaps his most heroic feat was how he dealt with this debilitating affliction with dignity for the rest of his life. He not only worked out ways to make it appear that he wasn’t really disabled—which was, unfortunately, considered a dehumanizing disgrace in those days—but he also initiated the “March of Dimes”, a fundraising organization which led to the development of the Salk Vaccine that eventually wiped out polio in the US.
From an economic perspective, Roosevelt’s electionin 1932 proved to be the saving grace of the United States and the US Environmental Movement. Known as the “New Deal”, his program for relief, recovery, and reform included a great expansion of the role the federal government played in the economy. New Deal policies introduced an array of social programs—including Social Security, the Wagner Act, and Fair Labor Standards Act—that still form the backbone of the federal government’s provision of economic prosperity and wellbeing for all of its citizens. According to Benjamin Kline: “If it were not for the ravages of the Great Depression, Roosevelt may have ranked among the most successful of environmental leaders in American history.”
Roosevelt’s “alphabet soup” of other federal programs included the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The AAA paid subsidies to farmers for not planting crops—intentionally leaving fields fallow—and not slaughtering livestock. This avoided having surplus agricultural products—like wheat, corn, livestock, and dairy products—which would have driven the price of these commodities down and put many farmers out of business. Although always controversial, the federal price subsidy program still exists today—using federal subsidies to maintain the price of agricultural products.
The CCC put young men to work on federal lands all across the nation. Many of the hundreds of infrastructure improvements—including bridges, dikes, impoundments, roads, trails, and shelters—still form the backbone of recreational uses in our national parks and monuments, national forests, and national wildlife refuges. FDR’s concepts for multi-purposing conservation and development were perhaps best epitomized by his TVA projects that were established to bring water supplies, flood control, and inexpensive and renewable hydropower—as well as recreational amenities—to underserved areas of the nation.
Several new national parks—Olympic, Shenandoah, Kings Canyon, plus the groundwork for Grand Teton—came to fruition during FDR’s administration. He also oversaw two momentous turns in wildlife management—the outlawing of killing predators in national parks and the establishment of the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 1940.
Today, there are more than 560 national wildlife refuges across the country, with at least one in every US state and territory. Today, wildlife refuges attract nearly 50 million visitors every year in pursuit of a mix of active and passive recreational activities— including wildlife-watching, hunting, fishing, photography, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, and environmental education.
Roosevelt’s final heroic act occurred during his unprecedented third term in office when he assumed the role of Commander-in-Chief throughout WWII’s conflict with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. We’ll discuss this war that saved the world from dictatorial enslavement in more detail later in this section. But it’s important to note that Roosevelt served as the American counterpart to Great Britain’s Winston Churchill throughout the war, staying actively involved in all military activities and even overriding the decisions of field commanders when he believed the situations were called for.
Roosevelt also moved to create a “Grand Alliance” against the Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—through a peacekeeping organization that is today known as the United Nations. Many historians believe that the additional stress of WWII—on top of managing his severe handicap and the nation’s economic problems—proved too much for Roosevelt. He died a few hours after experiencing a massive stoke at his Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia, ironically on the eve of the US’s complete military victory in Europe and just months before the victory over Japan in the Pacific Theatre.
“We seek to use our natural resources not as a thing apart but as something that is interwoven with industry, labor, finance, taxation, agriculture, homes, recreation, and good citizenship. The results of this interweaving will have a greater influence on the future American standard of living than the rest of our economics put together.”
– Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Despite FDR’s diligent remediation efforts, most of the concerns about environmental protection went out the window—along with just about everyone’s dutifully scrimped-and-saved-for life savings—during “The Depression Decade” of the Thirties. In the minds of many preservationists, this was payback for generations of disregard for and rampant misuse and degradation of the Nation’s natural resources.
On a positive note, however, many of the ideas FDR put into practice—in an effort to bring the US out of the Great Depression—have relevancy to solving the Climate Change crisis. As with the AAA’s price subsidies for agriculture, providing payments to fossil fuel companies not to extract new reserves could maintain their financial statuses while forcing them to develop renewable energy sources to meet the customer demands on their systems. Also a new federal agency along the lines of FDR’s TVA could be established. This new agency would be specifically tasked with solving the Climate Change crisis by promoting and managing the concurrent reduction in fossil fuels with the expansion of renewable energy supplies. Finally a CCC-like organization could put hundreds of scientists and laborers to work immediately on designing and constructing the sources and infrastructure required to deliver renewable energy supplies to every corner of the US.
Text excerpted from book:“PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change” written by Budd Titlow and Mariah Tinger and published by Prometheus Books. Photo credit: Copyright Zack Frank/Shutterstock.
Author’s bio:For the past 50 years, professional ecologist and conservationist Budd Titlow has used his pen and camera to capture the awe and wonders of our natural world. His goal has always been to inspire others to both appreciate and enjoy what he sees.Now he has one main question: Can we save humankind’s place — within nature’s beauty — before it’s too late? Budd’s two latest books are dedicated to answering this perplexing dilemma. “PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change”, a non-fiction book, examines whether we still have the environmental heroes among us — harking back to such past heroes as Audubon, Hemenway, Muir, Douglas, Leopold, Brower, Carson, and Meadows — needed to accomplish this goal. Next, using fact-filled and entertaining story-telling, his latest book — “COMING FULL CIRCLE: A Sweeping Saga of Conservation Stewardship Across America” — provides the answers we all seek and need.Having published five books, more than 500 photo-essays, and 5,000 photographs, Budd Titlow lives with his music educator wife, Debby, in San Diego, California.
There’s a revered—many would say mythical—landscape in northwestern Montana that features 1.5 million acres of pristine lakes, crystal rivers, snow-capped mountains, and evergreen valleys. The name of this magnificent wilderness jewel is simply “The Bob”.
Wilderness has always been in Dr. Robert “Bob” Marshall’s blood. While he didn’t live to see the completion of his namesake wilderness area—a fitness fanatic, he ironically died far too early at age 38—his legacy as a conservationist and humanitarian will forever stand strong in Montana as well as throughout all the other wilderness areas now found scattered throughout the US.
Born on January 2, 1901 as the son of Louis Marshall—a wealthy civil rights lawyer and philanthropist—in New York City, Marshall spent his summers at the family home, named “Knollwood”, on Lower Saranac Lake in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains. As a teenager and young adult, he roamed all over his beloved mountain group, eventually becoming a member of “46ers Club” by virtue of climbing all 46 of the range’s peaks that are above 4,000 feet.
After graduating from the Ethical Culture School in New York, Marshall attended Columbia College, the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse, and then Harvard University. From there, his national wanderings took him to the Northern Rocky Mountain Forest Experiment Station in Missoula, Montana where he worked from 1925–28. Then his peripatetic habit kicked in again and he went back to school in 1928 at Johns Hopkins University to get a Ph.D. degree in plant physiology—one of three doctorate degrees he earned in his lifetime.
In February 1930, Marshall’s most poignant essay, The Problem of the Wilderness, was published by The Scientific American and became one of the most important works in conservation history. In this piece, Marshall opined that there are many reasons for preserving wilderness beyond just its esoteric value as landscape untrammeled by human activities: “There is just one hope of repulsing the tyrannical ambition of civilization to conquer every niche on the whole earth. That hope is the organization of spirited people who will fight for the freedom of the wilderness.” Today, many wilderness historians credit The Problem of the Wilderness as being a seminal “call-to-action” while setting the stage—more than 30 years later—for the passage of the 1964 Wilderness Protection Act.
While much has been made—and rightfully so—about Marshall’s work for wilderness preservation, his life’s interests extended far beyond such backcountry pursuits as hiking, mountain climbing, fishing, and horseback riding. Although he came from a very wealthy family, he had a deep and abiding—bordering on the spiritual—concern for those who were less fortunate than himself. In particular, Marshall cared about the indigenous groups of people he met during his extensive travels in pursuit of wilderness preservation.
For example in 1930 and 1931, while living among the native Koyukuk people in the remote Alaskan village of Wiseman, Marshall got the inspiration for writing his first book, Arctic Village. The book became a best-seller in 1933 and earned him $3,600—a princely sum of money back then. After the book came out—instead of pocketing all the money for himself—Marshall gave away half of the profits in the form of checks made out to each of the Koyukuk he had known during his stay in Wiseman.
Then throughout his multi-faceted career as a federal public lands administrator, he made equal rights for all people—no matter what race, sex, creed, or religion—a personal priority. He worked diligently to fully involve all Native Americans in the management of their tribal forests and mountain ranges. After realizing that their customs and freedoms of religious worship had been stripped away, he fought to provide them with the level of equality he felt all Americans should enjoy. In fact, Marshall diligently worked to provide every American with equal access and visitation rights to all recreational areas on all federal lands. He even proposed subsidized travel so families with less expendable incomes could experience the beauty of the American landscapes on a first-hand, “up-close-and-personal” manner. [i]
Back now on the wilderness track, Marshall believed that truly wild lands had intrinsic values for the human spirit—providing places where people could go to find themselves and rekindle their souls. While serving as Chief Forester for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1935, Marshall—along with Aldo Leopold, whom we’ll meet later in this section, and others—established the Wilderness Society, an organization dedicated to preserving the wilderness in its unspoiled state. Then as Assistant to the Chief of the US Forest Service—a position he held until he died—Marshall devoted much of his energy and intelligence to the development of the National Forest’s wilderness system.
Marshall’s name and strong promotion of America’s wilderness preservation system will forever remain a driving force for land conservation today. When he passed away in 1939, he bequeathed one-fourth of his $1.5 million estate to the Wilderness Society— thus assuring the organization’s future in the name of wilderness preservation. Today, the “Bob Marshall Award” is the highest honor bestowed by the Wilderness Society.
“(Wilderness) is the song of the hermit thrush at twilight and the lapping of waves against the shoreline and the melody of the wind in the trees. It is the unique odor of balsams and of freshly turned humus and of mist rising from mountain meadows. It is the feel of spruce needles under foot and sunshine on your face and wind blowing through your hair. It is all of these at the same time, blended into a unity that can only be appreciated with leisure and which is ruined by artificiality.”
– Robert “Bob” Marshall
“How many wilderness areas do we need? How many Brahms symphonies do we need?”
– Robert “Bob” Marshall
Throughout Bob Marshall’s remarkable—albeit far too short—life he demonstrated an uncanny blend of caring deeply about both natural preservation and equal human rights for all people. This is exactly the type of dual thinking that will allow us to bring Climate Change solutions home to all people on Earth. The people in developing countries must understand and believe that they are fully involved in every decision that is being made and every action that is being taken. They can no longer feel like the “Environmental Justice Movement” has bypassed them in favor of catering to the wealth and power of the countries.
Text excerpted from book: “PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change” written by Budd Titlow and Mariah Tinger, published by Prometheus Books.
Author’s bio:For the past 50 years, professional ecologist and conservationist Budd Titlow has used his pen and camera to capture the awe and wonders of our natural world. His goal has always been to inspire others to both appreciate and enjoy what he sees.Now he has one main question: Can we save humankind’s place — within nature’s beauty — before it’s too late? Budd’s two latest books are dedicated to answering this perplexing dilemma. “PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change”, a non-fiction book, examines whether we still have the environmental heroes among us — harking back to such past heroes as Audubon, Hemenway, Muir, Douglas, Leopold, Brower, Carson, and Meadows — needed to accomplish this goal. Next, using fact-filled and entertaining story-telling, his latest book — “COMING FULL CIRCLE: A Sweeping Saga of Conservation Stewardship Across America”— provides the answers we all seek and need.Having published five books, more than 500 photo-essays, and 5,000 photographs, Budd Titlow lives with his music educator wife, Debby, in San Diego, California.
CONSERVING NATURE WITH WORDS & PHOTOS 