Environmental history of the United States

The Environmental history of the United States covers the history of the environment over the centuries to the late 20th century, plus the political and expert debates on conservation and environmental issues. The term "conservation" was gradually replaced by "environmentalism" in the 1970s as the focus shifted from managing and protecting natural resources to a broader concern for the environment as a whole and the negative impact of poor air or water on humans.

For recent history see Environmental policy of the United States.

Environmental trends

The Pre-Columbian Environment

Main articles: History of the Americas and Peopling of the Americas

According to Erin Stewart Mauldin, the geological history of the United States predates human settlement by millions of years. The landscape of the North American continent's landscape was shaped by plate tectonics, volcanic activity, and glaciation. The Appalachian Mountains resulted from plate collisions, the Rocky Mountains from the subduction of the Pacific Ocean floor, and the Pacific Northwest and New England from the accretion of microcontinents. Glaciation formed the Great Lakes and influenced soil composition across the country, with volcanic activity contributing to regions like the Columbia Plateau. Paleoindians from Siberia were the continent's first human inhabitants starting 30,000 BCE. They coexisted with megafauna like mammoths. The reasons for these species' extinction, possibly due to climate change or human hunting, remain debated. The absence of large domesticable animals in North America affected the development of societies, limiting hunting and herding and later giving European colonizers a biological edge. Native Americans developed diverse subsistence strategies, including agriculture, hunting, and fishing, with varying practices across regions. They also impacted the landscape through land clearing and hunting practices, leading to environmental changes. The pre-Columbian landscape encountered by Europeans was significantly shaped by human activity, challenging the idea of an untouched wilderness.

Public lands controlled by federal government

Map of US federal lands.

Among the first pieces of legislation passed following independence was the Land Ordinance of 1785, which provided for the surveying and sale of lands in the area created by state cessions of western land to the national government. Later, the Northwest Ordinance provided for the political organization of the Northwest Territories (now the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana.

To encourage settlement of western lands, Congress passed the first of several Homestead Acts in 1862, granting parcels in 40-acre (160,000 m²) increments to homesteaders who would maintain a living on the land for five years, and then they would own it. Congress also made huge land grants to various railroads working to complete a transcontinental rail system. The railroad grants included mineral and timber-rich lands so that the railroads could get financing to build. Again, the plan was that the railroads would sell off the land to get money, and the new transportation network would not use taxpayer money.

It turned out that much western land was not suited for homesteading because of mountainous terrain, poor soils, lack of available water, and other problems. By the early 20th century, the federal government held significant portions of most western states that had simply not been claimed for any use. Conservationists prevailed upon President Theodore Roosevelt to set aside lands for forest conservation and for special scientific or natural history interest. Much land still remained unclaimed even after such reserves had been initially set up. The US Department of the Interior held millions of acres in the western states, with Arizona and New Mexico joining the union by 1913. US President Herbert Hoover proposed to deed the surface rights to the unappropriated lands to the states in 1932, but the states complained that the lands had been overgrazed and would also impose a burden during the [[Great Depression] in the United States|cash-strapped state budgets]]. The Bureau of Land Management was created to manage much of that land.

History of conservation and environmentalism

Michael Kraft examines the rise and evolution of conservation and environmental politics and policies. "Conservation" originated in the late 19th century as a movement built around the conservation of natural resources and an attempt to stave off air, water, and land pollution. By the 1970s environmentalism evolved into a much more sophisticated control regime, one that employed the Environmental Protection Agency to slow environmental degradation.

According to Chad Montrie, historians largely agree on the basic points of this account: The conservation of natural resources was a significant topic of debate in the early and mid-20th century, highlighted by a tension between the business sector's push for efficient resource utilization and the advocates for preserving wilderness and natural beauty. In the 1960s and 1970s the conservation movement morphed into modern environmentalism. The seminal moment that ignited the transition occurred in 1962 with the publication of Rachel Carson's ground breaking book, "Silent Spring." Carson's urgent message warned about the perils of harmful chemical pollutants, notably substances like DDT with immediate benefits but long-term detrimental impacts, resonated with an educated audience deeply concerned about quality of life issues. The environmental awakening spurred by Carson's work was further fueled by events like the 1969 televised oil spill off the California coast. It prompted many to join mainstream environmental organizations led by visionaries such as David Brower of the Sierra Club. The momentum was bolstered by the inaugural Earth Day in 1970. President Richard Nixon took proactive steps through executive actions and collaboration with Congress to enact pivotal legislation establishing regulatory frameworks that curbed air and water pollution and mitigated adverse effects of corporate greed and rampant consumerism. The emergence of a more radical activism came in the late 1970s and early 1980s, exemplified by chemical disaster at Love Canal in 1977, and a battle in 1982 against a PCB toxic waste dump in a Black community in North Carolina. The result was confrontational grassroots environmentalism that marked the genesis of the "environmental justice" movement. It focused on issues of toxic substances and addressing concerns of "environmental racism." The collective efforts during this period laid a foundation for ongoing environmental advocacy and policy development aimed at safeguarding our planet for future generations.

Conservation Movement

Main article: Conservation in the United States

The American movement received its inspiration from 19th century works that exalted the inherent value of nature, quite apart from human usage. Author Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) made key philosophical contributions that exalted nature. Thoreau was interested in peoples' relationship with nature and studied this by living close to nature in a simple life. He published his experiences in the book Walden, which argued that people should become intimately close with nature. British and German standards were also influential in designing American policies and training. Bernhard Fernow (1851–1923) emigrated from Germany in 1876 and became was the third chief of the Department of Agriculture's Division of Forestry, 1886 to 1898. He helped design what in 1905 became the Forest Service. Carl A. Schenck (1868–1955), another German expert, migrated to the United States in 1895 and helped shape the education of foresters.

Both conservationists and preservationists spoke out in political debates during the Progressive Era (the 1890s–early 1920s). There were three main positions.

• Laissez-faire: The laissez-faire position first developed in 1776 by Adam Smith argued that owners of private property—including lumber and mining companies, should be allowed to do anything they wished on their properties. This individualism leads to lower prices, mass consumption, waste, and the exhaustion of natural resources. and
• Conservationists: The conservationists, led by Theodore Roosevelt and his close allies George Bird Grinnell and Gifford Pinchot, were motivated by the wanton waste that was taking place at the hand of market forces, including logging and hunting. This practice resulted in placing a large number of North American game species on the edge of extinction. Roosevelt recognized that the laissez-faire approach was too wasteful and inefficient. In any case, they noted, most of the natural resources in the western states were already owned by the federal government. The best course of action, they argued, was a long-term plan devised by national experts to maximize the long-term economic benefits of natural resources. To accomplish the mission, Roosevelt and Grinnell formed the Boone and Crockett Club, whose members were some of the best minds and influential men of the day. Its contingency of conservationists, scientists, politicians, and intellectuals became Roosevelt's closest advisers during his march to preserve wildlife and habitat across North America.
• Preservationists: Preservationists, led by John Muir (1838–1914), argued that the conservation policies were not strong enough to protect the interest of the natural world because they continued to focus on the natural world as a source of economic production.

The debate between conservation and preservation reached its peak in the public debates over the construction of California's Hetch Hetchy dam in Yosemite National Park which supplies the water supply of San Francisco. Muir, leading the Sierra Club, declared that the valley must be preserved for the sake of its beauty: "No holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man."

President Roosevelt put conservationist issues high on the national agenda. He worked with all the major figures of the movement, especially his chief advisor on the matter, Gifford Pinchot and was deeply committed to efficiency in conserving natural resources. He encouraged the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902 to promote federal construction of dams to irrigate small farms and placed 230 million acres (360,000 mi² or 930,000 km²) under federal protection. Roosevelt set aside more federal land for national parks and nature preserves than all of his predecessors combined.

Roosevelt was a leader in conservation, fighting to end the waste of natural resources.

Roosevelt established the United States Forest Service, signed into law the creation of five national parks, and signed the 1906 Antiquities Act, under which he proclaimed 18 new national monuments. He also established the first 51 bird reserves, four game preserves, and 150 national forests, including Shoshone National Forest, the nation's first. The area of the United States that he placed under public protection totals approximately 230,000,000 acres (930,000 km²).

Gifford Pinchot had been appointed by McKinley as chief of Division of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture. In 1905, his department gained control of the national forest reserves. Pinchot promoted private use (for a fee) under federal supervision. In 1907, Roosevelt designated 16 million acres (65,000 km²) of new national forests just minutes before a deadline.

In May 1908, Roosevelt sponsored the Conference of Governors held in the White House, with a focus on natural resources and their most efficient use. Roosevelt delivered the opening address: "Conservation as a National Duty".

In 1903 Roosevelt toured the Yosemite Valley with John Muir, who had a very different view of conservation, and tried to minimize commercial use of water resources and forests. Working through the Sierra Club he founded, Muir succeeded in 1905 in having Congress transfer the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley to the federal government. While Muir wanted nature preserved for its own sake, Roosevelt subscribed to Pinchot's formulation, "to make the forest produce the largest amount of whatever crop or service will be most useful, and keep on producing it for generation after generation of men and trees."

Theodore Roosevelt's view on conservationism remained dominant for decades. For example, the New Deal under Franklin D. Roosevelt authorised the building of many large-scale dams and water projects, as well as the expansion of the National Forest System to buy out sub-marginal farms. In 1937, the Pittman–Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act was signed into law, providing funding for state agencies to carry out their conservation efforts.

Environmentalism

"Environmentalism" emerged on the national agenda in 1970, with Republican Richard Nixon playing a major role, especially with his creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. From 1962 to 1998, the grass roots movement founded 772 national organizations focused primarily on environmental protection or pollution abatement. Furthermore many other organizations adopted such goals in addition to their primary goal, such as the American Lung Association. Using a broad definition, Jason T. Carmichael, J. Craig Jenkins, and Robert J. Brulle identified over 6,000 national and regional organizations, plus another 20,000 or more at the local and state levels that were working on behalf of a multitude of environmental causes in the year 2000.

Laissez-faire reappears

The success of Reagan in 1980 was facilitated by the rise of popular opposition to public lands reform and a return to laissez-faire ideology. For example, out west in the 1970s the Sagebrush Rebellion arose, demanding less environmental regulation. Conservatives drew on new organizational networks of think tanks such as The Heritage Foundation, as well as well-funded industry groups, the Republican Party state organizations, and new right-wing citizen-oriented grass-roots organizations. They deployed the traditional strategy based on the rights of owners to control their property; on the protection of mineral extraction rights; and on the right to hunt and recreate and to pursue happiness unencumbered by the federal government at the expense of resource conservation.

Reagan's top appointments in the environment field were James G. Watt as Secretary of the Interior and Anne Gorsuch as head of the EPA. They tried to help the Reagan agenda by slashing spending and lowering morale. Both proved incompetent at the jobs; they picked fights with friends and foes and soon made fools of themselves. Environmentalists seized on their opportunity and made Watt and Gorsuch the centerpiece of their campaigns of ridicule. Reagan realized his mistake and fired the two. He appointed a close friend and troubleshooter, William Clark at Interior. Clark successfully turned off the spotlight and kept the peace. At EPA, Reagan appointed William Ruckelshaus, the EPA's first director and a committed environmentalist. He reversed Gorsuch's policies. Vice President George H. W. Bush typically kept close to Reagan on most issues but in this area he announced that if elected he would be the nation's "environmental president." The long run results of Reagan's two terms were to undermine laissez-faire rhetoric and mobilize the membership, funding and momentum of the environmental movement.

Historiographical debates

William Cronon has criticized advocates for assuming that "wilderness" and "nature" have a reality beyond their creation in the human imagination. This has upset many environmentalists. Cronon writes, "wilderness serves as the unexamined foundation on which so many of the quasi-religious values of modern environmentalism rest." He argues that "to the extent that we live in an urban-industrial civilization but at the same time pretend to ourselves that our real home is in the wilderness, to just that extent we give ourselves permission to evade responsibility for the lives we actually lead."

Role of federal government

Interior Department

Main article: United States Department of the Interior

Most of the agencies dealing with conservation (before 1970) and environmentalism (since 1970) are based in the Interior Department, formed in 1849.

It is responsible for the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources. It also administers programs relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, territorial affairs, and insular areas of the United States, as well as programs related to historic preservation. As of mid-2004, the department managed 507 million acres (2,050,000 km²) of surface land, or about one-fifth of the land in the United States. It manages 476 dams and 348 reservoirs through the Bureau of Reclamation, 429 national parks, monuments, historical sites, etc. through the National Park Service, and 544 national wildlife refuges through the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Agriculture Department and Forestry

Main article: History of the United States Forest Service

From the early 1900s to the present, there has been a fierce rivalry over control of forests between the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior. From 1905 to the present the main forestry unit has been in the Department of Agriculture..

The concept of national forests was born from Theodore Roosevelt's conservation group, Boone and Crockett Club, due to concerns regarding poaching Yellowstone National Park beginning as early as 1875. In 1876, Congress formed the office of Special Agent in the Department of Agriculture to assess the quality and conditions of forests in the United States. Franklin B. Hough was appointed the head of the office. In 1881, the office was expanded into the newly formed Division of Forestry. The Forest Reserve Act of 1891 authorized withdrawing land from the public domain as forest reserves managed by the Department of the Interior. However, the Transfer Act of 1905 transferred the management of forest reserves from the United States General Land Office of the Interior Department to the Bureau of Forestry in the Agriculture department under the new name United States Forest Service. Gifford Pinchot was the first United States Chief Forester in the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.

The National Park Service was created in 1916. It included Yellowstone National Park, which in 1872 became the world's first national park. In 1956, the Fish and Wildlife Service became the manager of lands reserved for wildlife. The Grazing Service and the United States General Land Office were combined to create the Bureau of Land Management in 1946. In 1976 the Federal Land Policy and Management Act became the national policy for retaining public land for federal ownership.

Significant federal legislation affecting the Forest Service includes the Weeks Act of 1911, the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, P.L. 73-482; the Multiple Use – Sustained Yield Act of 1960, P.L. 86-517; the Wilderness Act, P.L. 88-577; the National Forest Management Act, P.L. 94-588; the National Environmental Policy Act, P.L. 91–190; the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act, P.L. 95-313; and the Forest and Rangelands Renewable Resources Planning Act, P.L. 95-307.

Army Corps of Engineers and dam building

Main article: United States Army Corps of Engineers

The Army Corps of Engineers is in charge of navigable waterways, and has built many of the major dams.

Tennessee Valley Authority

Main article: Tennessee Valley Authority

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility coverings all of Tennessee and portions of nearby states. The TVA was created in 1933 as part of a New Deal agency to build dams on the Tennessee River to provide flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, regional planning, economic development to the Tennessee Valley. The region was a very poor part of Appalachia and out of contact with the modern industrial and agricultural economy. Unlike private utility companies TVA was envisioned as regional economic development agency that would work to help modernize the region's economy and society. Its chairman Arthur Morgan was a visionary, who wanted a model for modernizing traditional society. Some New Dealers hoped it would be a model for other regions, but others strongly disagreed and the president was undecided. Any hope for opening "Seven Little TVAs" across the country died when conservatives regained control of Congress in 1938 and ended liberal experimentation.

Environmental Protection Agency

Main article: History of the Environmental Protection Agency

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent federal agency created by an executive order of President President Nixon in 1970 and is part of the executive branch of the government. It reports to the president and was not created by act of Congress. The primary mission of the EPA is to protect human health and safeguard the natural environment (air, water and land) of the nation. The EPA was established to combine into a single agency many of the existing federal government activities of research and development, monitoring, setting of standards, compliance and enforcement related to protection of the environment. Its most important role is to evaluate every Environmental impact statement that is required whenever a federal role is involved. Thereby EPA has the power to demand changes from most federal agencies to protect the environment according to EPA's standards. In addition, the Environmental impact statement allows a public role—private citizen watchdogs can and often do sue to tie up proposed non-government projects for years.

In 2000 to 2010 the budget held fairly steady at $7.6 to $8.4 billion (with no adjustment for inflation). In terms of objectives, 13% is budgeted for clean air and global climate change, 36% for clean and safe water, 24% for land preservation and restoration, 17% for healthy communities and ecosystems, and 11% for compliance and environmental stewardship. In 2008 it had a staff of about 18,000 people in headquarters and departmental or divisional offices, 10 regional offices, and over 25 laboratories located across the nation. More than half of the staff are engineers, scientists and environmental protection specialists. The others include legal counsel, financial, public affairs and computer specialists.

EPA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

President Nixon, on July 9, 1970, told Congress of his plan to create the EPA by combining parts of three federal departments, three bureaus, three administrations and many other offices into the new single, independent agency to be known as the Environmental Protection Agency. Congress had 60 days to reject the proposal, but opinion was favorable and the reorganization took place without legislation. On December 2, 1970, the EPA was officially established and began operation under director William Ruckelshaus. The EPA began by consolidating 6550 employees from different agencies in several cabinet-level departments into a new agency with a $1.4 billion budget.

Kraft notes that despite its limited charter from 1970, over time EPA has expanded its regulatory function and jousted with the forces of business and economic development. Kraft considers the next major transition in environmental policy to be the process of insuring the "sustainability" of resources through a coalition of interests ranging from policymakers to business leaders, scholars, and individual citizens. At the turn of the 21st century, these often competing groups were wrestling with disparate environmental, economic, and social values.

Russell shows that from 1970 to 1993, the EPA devoted more of its resources to human health issues, notably cancer prevention, than to the protection of nonhuman species. The limited scope of environmental protection was due to a variety of reasons. An institutional culture favored human health issues because most employees were trained in this area. The emphasis on cancer came from the legal division's discovery that judges were more persuaded by arguments about the carcinogenicity of chemicals than by threats to nonhumans. The views of the agency leaders, who followed politically realistic courses, also played an important part in shaping the EPA's direction. Those supporting ecological issues acquired a new tool in the 1980s with the development of risk assessments so that advocates of ecological protection could use language framed by advocates of human health to protect the environment.

Complaints about federal management

Complaints about federal management of public lands constantly roil relations between public lands users (ranchers, miners, researchers, off-road vehicle enthusiasts, hikers, campers and conservation advocates) and the agencies and environmental regulation on the other. Ranchers complain that grazing fees are too high and that grazing regulations are too onerous despite environmentalist complaints that the opposite is true and that promised improvements to grazing on federal lands do not occur. Miners complain of restricted access to claims, or to lands to prospect. Researchers complain of the difficulty of getting research permits, only to encounter other obstacles in research, including uncooperative permit-holders and, especially in archaeology, vandalized sites with key information destroyed. Off-road vehicle users want free access, but hikers and campers and conservationists complain grazing is not regulated enough and that some mineral lease holders abuse other lands or that off-road vehicle destroy the resource. Each complaint has a long history.

White House roles

Theodore Roosevelt presidency 1901-1909

A 1908 editorial cartoon describing Roosevelt's creed as "a practical forester"

Further information: List of lands nationalized by Theodore Roosevelt through executive action

Conservation was a minor issue for most presidents. Theodore Roosevelt carved a leadership role that several successors followed.

Roosevelt was a prominent conservationist, putting the issue high on his national agenda. He changed the land by creating 50 wildlife refuges, 18 national monuments, and five national parks, and above all by publicizing conservation issues. Roosevelt's conservation efforts were aimed not just at environment protection, but also at ensuring that society as a whole, rather than just select individuals or companies, benefited from the country's natural resources. His key adviser on conservation matters was Gifford Pinchot, the head of the Bureau of Forestry. Roosevelt increased Pinchot's power over environmental issues by transferring control over national forests from the Department of the Interior to the Bureau of Forestry, which was part of the Agriculture Department. Pinchot's agency was renamed to the United States Forest Service, and Pinchot presided over the implementation of assertive conservationist policies in national forests. Under William Howard Taft, Pinchot had a heavily publicized dispute over environmental policy with Secretary of the Interior Richard A. Ballinger that led to Pinchot's dismissal and to Roosvelt's break with Taft in 1912.

Roosevelt relied on the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902, which promoted federal construction of dams to irrigate small farms and placed 230 million acres (360,000 mi² or 930,000 km²) under federal protection. In 1906, Congress passed the Antiquities Act, granting the president the power to create national monuments in federal lands. Roosevelt set aside more federal land, national parks, and nature preserves than all of his predecessors combined. Roosevelt established the Inland Waterways Commission to coordinate construction of water projects for both conservation and transportation purposes, and in 1908 he hosted the Conference of Governors. This was the first time governors had ever met together and the goal was to boost and coordinate support for conservation. Roosevelt then established the National Conservation Commission to take an inventory of the nation's natural resources.

Opposition

Roosevelt's policies faced opposition from both liberal environmental activists like John Muir and conservative proponents of laissez-faire like Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado. While Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club, wanted nature preserved for the sake of pure beauty, Roosevelt subscribed to Pinchot's formulation, "to make the forest produce the largest amount of whatever crop or service will be most useful, and keep on producing it for generation after generation of men and trees." Teller and other opponents of conservation, meanwhile, believed that conservation would prevent the economic development of the West and feared the centralization of power in Washington. The backlash to Roosevelt's ambitious policies prevented further conservation efforts in the final years of Roosevelt's presidency and would later contribute to the Pinchot–Ballinger controversy during the Taft administration.

Franklin D. Roosevelt presidency, 1933-1945

Main article: Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, first and second terms

Franklin D. Roosevelt had a lifelong interest in the environment and conservation starting with his youthful interest in forestry on his family estate. Although he was never an outdoorsman or sportsman on the scale of his distant cousin Theodore Roosevelt, their presidential roles in conservation were comparable. When Franklin was Governor of New York, the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration was a state-level system that became the model for his federal Civilian Conservation Corps, with 10,000 or more men building fire trails, combating soil erosion and planting tree seedlings in marginal farmland in upstate New York. The governor worked closely with Harry Hopkins and in 1933 brought Hopkins to Washington to use the New York experience to shape the national programs of work relief.

Roosevelt's New Deal was active in expanding, funding, and promoting the National Park and National Forest systems. Their popularity soared, from three million visitors a year at the start of the decade to 15.5 million in 1939. Every state had its own state parks, and Roosevelt made sure that WPA and CCC projects were set up to upgrade them as well as the national systems.

From 1933 to 1942 the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrolled 3.4 million young men for six months service. It built 13,000 miles (21,000 kilometres) of trails, planted two billion trees, and upgraded 125,000 miles (201,000 kilometres) of dirt roads. CCC made permanent "improvements" on 118 million acres (triple the size of Connecticut). A 1936 CCC press release claimed it “greatly increased the value of the forest and added to its usefulness to the public,” while CCC Director Robert Fechner boasted in his 1939 annual report, the Corps had “constructively altered the landscape of the United States.” Even more important to the New Deal's ambitions, it clothed, fed, housed and gave medical, dental, and eye care, as well as vigorous outdoor exercise, to unemployed urban youth who needed help that their poverty stricken families could not provide. Furthermore the parents received $25 a month while their sones were away. Likewise Arno B. Cammere, the energetic head of the National Park system, realized that helping solve the unemployment crisis was Roosevelt's main goal. The conservation projects of the Park and Forest services were dramatically expanded. According to Richard Lowitt, the New Deal Interior Department under Harold L. Ickes emphasized economic benefits from hydroelectric power. The Department sought to build "the foundations for a more stable economy in the West that would expand enormously and bring in its wake a rising standard of living, increased population, and a greater measure of equality with other sections of the country". The New Deal ignored the fears of the upper class purists who realized their single goal of preserving wilderness instead of "improving" it was being undermined.

Eisenhower presidency, 1953-1960

Main article: Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower § Environmental policy

The environmental movement was slowly starting to grow in the 1950s. Liberals (and the Democratic Party) wanted national control of natural resources—the level at which organized ideological pressures were effective. Conservatives (and the Republican Party) wanted state or local control, whereby the financial benefit to local businesses and jobs could be decisive. In a debate going back to the early 20th century, preservationists wanted to protect the inherent natural beauty of the national parks, whereas economic maximizers wanted to build dams and divert water flows. Eisenhower articulated the conservative position in December 1953, declaring that conservation was not about "locking up and putting resources beyond the possibility of wastage or usage," but instead involved "the intelligent use of all the resources we have, for the welfare and benefit of all the American people." Liberals and environmentalists forced the resignation of Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay in 1956. He was a businessman with little intererest in the environment who allegedly promoted "giveaways" to mining companies regardless of environmental damage.

Eisenhower's personal activity on environmental issues came in foreign policy. He supported the UN convention of 1958 that provided a strong foundation for international accords governing the use of the world's high seas, especially regarding fishing interests. Eisenhower also promoted the peaceful use of atomic energy for the production of electricity, with strong controls against diversion into nuclear weapons. However, there was little attention to nuclear waste.

Kennedy and Johnson presidencies, 1961-1968

Further information: Presidency of John F. Kennedy and Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson

President Johnson signs the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act into law, October, 1968. His wife Lady Bird Johnson is in red.

John F Kennedy was a city boy like his constituents. He did not hunt or fish, hike or explore, nor seek out the wilderness. He did greatly enjoy the ocean and the seashore but otherwise the environment and environmentalism bored him.

The 1962 publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson brought new attention to environmentalism and the danger that pollution and pesticide poisoning (i.e., DDT) posed to public health.

When Vice President Lyndon Johnson succeeded the assassinated president in November 1973, he retained Kennedy's staunchly pro-environment Secretary of the Interior, Stewart Udall. Johnson helped pass a series a series of bills designed to protect the environment. He signed into law the Clean Air Act of 1963, which had been proposed by Kennedy. The Clean Air Act set emission standards for stationary emitters of air pollutants and directed federal funding to air quality research. In 1965, the act was amended by the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act, which directed the federal government to establish and enforce national standards for controlling the emission of pollutants from new motor vehicles and engines. In 1967, Johnson and Senator Edmund Muskie led passage of the Air Quality Act of 1967, which increased federal subsidies for state and local pollution control programs.

During his time as President, Johnson signed over 300 conservation measures into law, forming the legal basis of the modern environmental movement. In September 1964, he signed a law establishing the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which aids the purchase of land used for federal and state parks. That same month, Johnson signed the Wilderness Act, which established the National Wilderness Preservation System; saving 9.1 million acres of forestland from industrial development.

In 1965, Muskie led passage of the Water Quality Act of 1965, though conservatives stripped a provision of the act that would have given the federal government the authority to set clean water standards. The Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, the first piece of comprehensive endangered species legislation, authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to list native species of fish and wildlife as endangered and to acquire endangered species habitat for inclusion in the National Wildlife Refuge System. The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 established the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. The system includes more than 220 rivers, and covers more than 13,400 miles of rivers and streams. The National Trails System Act of 1968 created a nationwide system of scenic and recreational trails.

As First Lady and trusted presidential confidant, Lady Bird Johnson helped establish the public environmental movement in the 1960s. She worked to beautify Washington D.C. by planting thousands of flowers, set up the White House Natural Beauty Conference, and lobbied Congress for the president's full range of environmental initiatives. In 1965, she took the lead in calling for passage of the Highway Beautification Act. The act called for control of outdoor advertising, including removal of certain types of signs, along the nation's growing Interstate Highway System and the existing federal-aid primary highway system. It also required certain junkyards along Interstate or primary highways to be removed or screened and encouraged scenic enhancement and roadside development. According to Secretary of Interior Stewart Udall, she single-handedly, "influenced the president to demand-and support-more far-sighted conservation legislation."

Nixon presidency, 1969-1974

Main articles: Presidency of Richard Nixon § Environmental policy, and Russell E. Train

Time magazine called Barry Commoner, the "Paul Revere of ecology" for his work on the threats to life from the environmental consequences of fallout from nuclear tests and other pollutants of the water, soil, and air. Time's cover on February 2, 1970, represented a "call to arms", to mobilize public opinion by appeals to fears of chemical pollution of food and water. On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day took place, which saw 20 million Americans demonstrating peacefully in favor of environmental reform, accompanied by special events held at university campuses across the nation. The huge response to Earth Day convinced Richard Nixon that he could expand his political base by championing the new environmental movement. His instincts were right: there was especially strong popular support for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Clean Air Act of 1970. Polls showed support was high among men and women of all ages, and among conservatives as well as liberals. The media led the stampede. A survey of 21,000 editorials in 5 major newspapers from October 1970 to September 1971 showed that environmental topics were the number one social issue. The top concerns were water quality, land use, air quality and waste disposal.

Richard Nixon (President 1969–1975) came late to the conservation movement. Environmental policy had not been a significant issue in the 1968 election, and the media rarely asked about the subject. Nixon broke the silence by highlighting the environment in his State of the Union speech in January 1970:

The great question of the seventies is: shall we surrender to our surroundings, or shall we make our peace with nature and begin to make reparations for the damage we have done to our air, to our land, and to our water? Restoring nature to its natural state is a cause beyond party and beyond factions. It has become a common cause of all the people of this country. It is a cause of particular concern to young Americans, because they more than we will reap the grim consequences of our failure to act on programs which are needed now if we are to prevent disaster later. Clean air, clean water, open spaces—these should once again be the birthright of every American. If we act now, they can be.

The president then introduced 36 environmental initiatives, and pushed most of them through. He strongly supported advisors who deeply believed in environmentalism, especially Russell E. Train, John Ehrlichman, William Ruckelshaus, and John C. Whitaker.

In June 1970 Nixon announced the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), using an Executive order that did not require Congressional approval. Other beakthrough initiatives supported by Nixon included the Clean Air Act of 1970, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). His National Environmental Policy Act required environmental impact statements for many Federal projects. Furthermore, he put protection of the global environment on the international diplomatic agenda for the first time in world history. Then Nixon reversed himself and in 1972 he vetoed the Clean Water Act —objecting not to the policy goals of the legislation but to the amount of money to be spent on them, which he deemed excessive. After Congress overrode his veto, Nixon impounded the funds he deemed unjustifiable.

Nixon's achievements

Political scientists Byron Daines and Glenn Sussman identify six major achievements for which they give credit to Nixon.

• He broadened the attention span of the Republican Party to include environmental issues, for the first time since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. He thereby "dislodged the Democratic Party from its position of dominance over the environment."
• He used presidential powers, and promoted legislation in Congress to create a permanent political structure, most notably the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and others.
• He helped ensure that Congress build a permanent structure supportive of environmentalism, especially the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970, which enjoined all federal agencies to help protect the environment.
• Nixon appointed a series of strong environmentalists in highly visible positions, most notably William Ruckelshaus, Russell Train, Russell W. Peterson, and John C. Whitaker (who was a senior White House aide for four years, becoming Undersecretary of the Interior in 1973).
• Nixon initiated worldwide diplomatic attention to environmental issues, working especially with NATO.
• Finally, state: "Nixon did not have to be personally committed to the environment to become one of the most successful presidents in promoting environmental priorities."

Historians pose a strange paradox regarding Nixon. In 1970-1971 he unexpectedly emerged as a great environmentalist who deserves credit for several of the most important environmental laws in American history. By 1972, however, he suddenly moved far to the right, despising environmentalists as left-wing fanatics who would bankrupt the economy.

For subsequent presidents see Environmental policy of the United States.

Organizations

There are a multitude of environmental organizations—over 160 are covered at the List of environmental and conservation organizations in the United States. However the "Group of Ten" (or "Big Green") have been preeminent since the late 20th century: Sierra Club (founded 1892); Audubon (founded 1905); National Parks Conservation Association (1919); Izaak Walton League (1922); National Wildlife Federation (1936); The Wilderness Society (1937); Environmental Defense Fund (1967); Friends of the Earth (1969); Natural Resources Defense Council (1970); and Earthjustice (1971).

Stopping the Echo Park Dam

Main article: Echo Park Dam

Whirlpool Canyon, which would have been flooded by one of the proposed Echo Park dams

A critical transition took place after World War II that turned these groups into activist organizations working to save the Wilderness. The clientele for the clubs had been an upper-class conservative Republican audience with close ties to big business. They enjoyed expensive and exotic vacations at uncrowded wilderness sites. Mountain climbing was popular. The older leaders retired and were replaced by men with a mission, especially Howard Zahniser at the Wilderness Society in 1945 and David Brower at the Sierra Club in 1952. They were dismayed at the aggressive plans put forward by the "Iron Triangle" that controlled conservation policy. The Iron Triangle was the informal backstage coalition of key members of Congress, plus leaders of the major federal agencies, plus local businessmen keen on speeding up economic development by using natural resources. After a decade of depression and war, the nation was ready to move ahead. The Bureau of Reclamation took the lead with an elaborate plan to develop dams on the Colorado River for the benefit of the economies of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. The centerpiece would be a huge new Echo Park Dam inside Dinosaur National Monument. Zahniser and Brower, working with 30 other groups, launched recruiting drives to bring in middle class members with idealistic goals to fight the destruction of the wilderness at Echo Park. They raised money for staff; mobilized local branches; and flooded the market with glossy magazines featuring nature photography by the likes of Ansel Adams; and petitioned local, state and national politicians. They convinced Congress to delete Echo Park Dam from the Colorado River Storage Project in 1955, but had to agree on an alternative dam site at Glen Canyon Dam. They went on to oppose other grandiose projects. To make their goals permanent Zahniser drafted an ambition "Wilderness Act" designed to permanently protect 50 million acres of wilderness with no commercial activities such as mining or hydroelectric power dams. In the end he achieved a Wilderness Act in 1964 that protected 9 million acres and set a national standard, while mobilizing grass roots voters and setting a model of activism for other national and local organizations to emulate in challenging the Iron Triangle.

The Sierra Club

Main articles: Sierra Club, John Muir, and David Brower

The Sierra Club is a major environmental organization. It was founded in May, 1892, by preservationist John Muir (1838–1914). He became the first president, serving for 20 years. The Club did not engage in lobbying. Instead it provided its upscale clientele with outdoor adventures, such as guided tours, wilderness camping and mountain climbing. Reform-minded activists known as the "John Muir Sierrans" wanted a more aggressive role in protecting the environment. They brought in the hyperenergetic and controversial David Brower (1912–2000) as Executive Director 1952 to 1969. The Club now became the first large-scale environmental preservation organization in the world, best known for systematic lobbying of politicians to promote environmentalist policies. Major activities include promoting sustainable energy and mitigating global warming, as well as opposition to the use of coal, hydropower, and nuclear power. The organization takes strong positions on issues that sometimes create controversy, criticism, or opposition either internally or externally or both. The club is known for its political endorsements generally supporting liberal and progressive candidates in elections.

Under Brower's leadership, Sierra's membership grew rapidly, from 7,000 in 1952 to 70,000 members in 1969. It was the largest and most prominent conservation organization. Building on the biennial Wilderness Conferences which the Club launched in 1949 together with The Wilderness Society, Brower helped win passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964. Brower and the Sierra Club also led a major battle to stop the Bureau of Reclamation from building two dams that would flood portions of the Grand Canyon. Brower was keen on publicity and sponsored numerous heavily illustrated books to promote knowledge and admiration for the nation's wilderness. On the other hand powerful members of Congress fought for new high dams to use water power to promote the local economy, regardless of the flooding they caused to wilderness areas. Their leader in Congress was Wayne N. Aspinall, the Democrat from western Colorado who dominated the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs as chairman from 1959 to 1973. Brower complained that the environmental movement had seen "dream after dream dashed on the stony continents of Wayne Aspinall." The congressman shot back that the environmentalists were "over-indulged zealots" and "aristocrats" to whom "balance means nothing."

The Wilderness Society

Main article: The Wilderness Society (United States)

The Wilderness Society is a non-profit conservation organization founded in 1937 by Bob Marshall (1901–1939), who largely funded its startup. It is dedicated to protecting natural areas and federal public lands in the United States and advocates for the designation of federal wilderness areas and other protective designations, such as for national monuments. It calls for balanced uses of public lands, and advocate for federal politicians to enact various land conservation and balanced land use proposals. The Society specializes in issues involving lands under the management of federal agencies; such lands include national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges, and areas overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. In the early 21st century, the society has been active in fighting recent political efforts to reduce protection for America's roadless and undeveloped lands and wildlife. It was instrumental in the passage of the 1964 Wilderness Act. The primary drafter of the Wilderness Act was Howard Zahniser (1906–1964), who served as executive secretary of the Wilderness Society from 1945 until his death. The Wilderness Act led to the creation of the National Wilderness Preservation System, which protects 109 million acres of U.S. public wildlands.

Activism

Environmental justice

Main article: Environmental justice

Environmental justice or eco-justice, is a social movement to address environmental injustice, which occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement began in the United States in the 1980s. It was heavily influenced by the American civil rights movement and focused on environmental racism within rich countries. The movement was later expanded to consider gender, international environmental injustice, and inequalities within marginised groups. As the movement achieved some success in rich countries, environmental burdens were shifted to the Global South (as for example through extractivism or the global waste trade). The movement for environmental justice has thus become more global, with some of its aims now being articulated by the United Nations. The movement overlaps with movements for Indigenous land rights and for the human right to a healthy environment.

The goal of the environmental justice movement is to achieve agency for marginalised communities in making environmental decisions that affect their lives. The global environmental justice movement arises from local environmental conflicts in which environmental defenders frequently confront multi-national corporations in resource extraction or other industries. Local outcomes of these conflicts are increasingly influenced by trans-national environmental justice networks. Environmental justice scholars have produced a large interdisciplinary body of social science literature that includes contributions to political ecology, environmental law, and theories of sustainability.

Leadership

See Category:American environmentalists

• Ansel Adams
• Bruce Babbitt
• David Brower
• Rachel Carson
• Barry Commoner
• William Cronon
• William O. Douglas
• Al Gore
• Lady Bird Johnson
• Aldo Leopold
• George Perkins Marsh
• Robert Marshall
• John Muir
• Gifford Pinchot
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Theodore Roosevelt
• William Ruckelshaus
• Dorceta Taylor
• Henry David Thoreau
• Russell E. Train
• Stewart Udall
• Howard Zahniser

See also

• Conservation in the United States, history of activism before 1960
  • The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850–1920 an exhibit from Library of Congress
  • American Society for Environmental History
  • Conservation organizations based in the United States
• Environmental history, global perspective
  • Forestry
  • Nature conservation
  • Timeline of environmental history, history of humanity's influence and perspective
  • Timeline of history of environmentalism, on organized efforts
• Environmental movement in the United States, after 1960
  • Prairie restoration
  • George Perkins Marsh Prize for best book in environmental history
• Pittman–Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act, of 1937
• Environmental policy of the United States
  • United States Bureau of Reclamation on water policy
  • United States Environmental Protection Agency
  • United States environmental law
  • Pittman–Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act
• Environmental issues in the United States, current issues
  • List of environmental issues
  • Environmental justice
  • Environmental protection
  • Environmental science
    • Environmental education in the United States
  • Environmental justice
    • Environmental racism in the United States
  • Green New Deal
  • Climate change in the United States
    • Climate change and agriculture in the United States
• Holocene extinction#Americas, extinction of species caused by human action
  • Talk:List of North American animals extinct in the Holocene

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Further reading

General

• Allaby, Michael, and Chris Park, eds. A dictionary of environment and conservation (Oxford University Press, 2013), with a British emphasis.
• Allitt, Patrick. A Climate of Crisis: America in the Age of Environmentalism (2014), wide-ranging scholarly history since 1950s blurb
• Andrews, Richard N.L., Managing the Environment, Managing Ourselves: A History of American Environmental Policy (Yale UP, 1999)
• Bates, J. Leonard. "Fulfilling American Democracy: The Conservation Movement, 1907 to 1921", Mississippi Valley Historical Review (1957) 44#1 pp. 29–57. in JSTOR
• Becher, Anne. American environmental leaders: From colonial times to the present (2 vol. ABC-CLIO, 2000) 320 brief biographies; vol 1 online
• Black, Brian C., and Donna L. Lybecker. Great Debates in American Environmental History (2 vol. Greenwood, 2008), covers 150 topics in encyclopedic fashion with pro and con arguments. online book review
• Block, Walter. "Environmentalism and economic freedom: the case for private property rights." Journal of Business Ethics (1998): pp.1887-1899. argues for laissez-faire policies
• Browning, Judkin and Timothy Silver. An Environmental History of the Civil War (2020) online review
• Brulle, Robert J. "Politics and the Environment." Handbook of politics: State and society in global perspective (2010): 385-406. online

• Burch, Jr., John R. Water Rights and the Environment in the United States (ABC-CLIO 2015), a comprehensive documentary and reference guide to historical water issues.
• Carmichael, Jason T., J. Craig Jenkins, and Robert J. Brulle. "Building environmentalism: The founding of environmental movement organizations in the United States, 1900–2000." Sociological Quarterly 53.3 (2012): 422-453 online.

• Dauvergne, Peter. The A to Z of Environmentalism (Scarecrow, 2009), worldwide coverage; online
• Davis, Devra (2002). When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-01521-2.
• Decker, Jefferson. The Other Rights Revolution: Conservative Lawyers and the Remaking of American Government (Oxford UP, 2016), legal opponents of environmentalism
• Drake, Brian Allen, ed. The Blue, the Gray, and the Green: Toward an Environmental History of the Civil War (U of Georgia Press, 2015) online
• Fiege, Mark. The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States (2022) online, scholar looks at environment's role in nine famous events, such as the transcontinental railroad and segregation.
• Golze, Alfred R. Reclamation in the United States (2nd ed. 1961) online
• Hay, Peter, ed. Main currents in western environmental thought (Indiana UP, 2002). online
• Hays, Samuel P. Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency: The Progressive Conservation Movement 1890–1920 (Harvard UP, 1959), influential pioneer study
• Hays, Samuel P. Beauty, Health, and Permanence: Environmental Politics in the United States, 1955–1985 (1987), a standard scholarly history
• Hays, Samuel P. A History of Environmental Politics since 1945 (2000), online a short survey
• Johnson, Erik W., and Scott Frickel. "Ecological Threat and the Founding of U.S. National Environmental Movement Organizations, 1962–1998," Social Problems 58 (2011), 305–29. online

• McGurty, Eileen Maura. "Warren County, NC, and the emergence of the environmental justice movement: Unlikely coalitions and shared meanings in local collective action." Society & Natural Resources 13.4 (2000): 373-387. DOI:10.1080/089419200279027
• Mauch, Christof, and Thomas Zeller, eds. Rivers in history: perspectives on waterways in Europe and North America (U of Pittsburgh Press, 2008).
• Melosi, Martin V. Coping with Abundance: Energy and Environment in Industrial America (Temple UP, 1985)
• Merchant, Carolyn. American environmental history: An introduction (Columbia UP, 2007), a slightly revised 2nd edition; the first edition was published as The Columbia guide to American environmental history (Columbia UP, 2002). online 2007 edition
• Miller, Char. The Atlas of U.S. and Canadian Environmental History (2012)

• Nash, Roderick. The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics (U of Wisconsin Press, 1989)
• Nash, Roderick. Wilderness and the American Mind, (4th ed. 2001), a standard intellectual history of the concept of wilderness
• Paehlke, Robert, ed. Conservation and environmentalism: an encyclopedia (Garland, 1995). online
• Pyne, Stephen. Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildland and Rural Fire (Princeton UP, 1982). online
• Rome, Adam. Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism (2001) online
• Rothman, Hal K. The Greening of a Nation? Environmentalism in the United States since 1945 (Harcourt Brace, 1998). ISBN 0155028553.
• Ryder, Andrew. "Liberal economics and the rise of laissez-faire ecology," Economic Affairs (January 2010) doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0270.2010.02008.x

• Sale, Kirkpatrick. The Green Revolution: The American Environmental Movement, 1962–1999 (Hill & Wang, 1993) online
• Scheffer, Victor B. The Shaping of Environmentalism in America (1991).
• Steinberg, Ted. Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American History (Oxford UP, 2002)
• Strong, Douglas H. Dreamers & Defenders: American Conservationists. (1988) biographical studies of the major leaders
• Taylor, Dorceta E. The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection (Duke UP, 2016) online
• Turner, James Morton, "The Specter of Environmentalism": Wilderness, Environmental Politics, and the Evolution of the New Right. The Journal of American History 96.1 (2009): 123–47 online at History Cooperative
• Unger, Nancy C., Beyond Nature's Housekeepers: American Women in Environmental History. (Oxford UP, 2012)
• Whitney, Gordon G. From Coastal Wilderness to Fruited Plain: A History of Environmental Change in Temperate North America from 1500 to the Present (1994)
• Wyss, Robert. The Man Who Built the Sierra Club: A Life of David Brower ( Columbia University Press, 2016). ISBN 978-0231164467

Presidential and federal government studies

• Black, Megan. The Global Interior: Mineral Frontiers and American Power(Harvard UP, 2018).
• Bryce, Emma. "America’s Greenest Presidents' New York Times Sept 20, 2012; a poll of scholars ranks Theodore Roosevelt as #1 followed by Nixon, Carter, Obama, Jefferson, Ford, FDR, and Clinton online
• Blumm, Michael C. "The Nation's First Forester-in-Chief: The Overlooked Role of FDR and the Environment." Journal of Land Use & Environmental Law 33 (2017): 25–60. A review of Brinkley (2016). online
• Bureau of Reclamation. "Bureau of Reclamation: A Very Brief History" (2024) online
• Cannon, Jonathan, and Jonathan Riehl. "Presidential greenspeak: How presidents talk about the environment and what it means." Stanford Environmental Law Journal 23 (2004): 195–272. online
• Clements, Kendrick A. "Herbert Hoover and conservation, 1921-33." American Historical Review 89.1 (1984): 67-88. online
• Coodley, Gregg, and David Sarasohn. The Green Years, 1964–1976: When Democrats and Republicans United to Repair the Earth (UP of Kansas, 2021) online
• Cutright, Paul Russell. Theodore Roosvelt the naturalist (1956) online
• Cutright, Paul Russell. Theodore Roosevelt: The Making of a Conservationist (U of Illinois Press, 1985) online
• Flippen, J. Brooks. "Conservative Conservationist: Russell E. Train and the Emergence of American Environmentalism" (LSU Press, 2006)
• Graham Jr., Otis L. Presidents and the American Environment (UP of Kansas, 2015) online
• King, Judson. The Conservation Fight, From Theodore Roosevelt to the Tennessee Valley Authority (2009)
• Klyza, Christopher McGrory. "Power, partisanship, and contingency: the president and US environmental policy." in Handbook of US Environmental Policy (Edward Elgar, 2020).
• Kotlowski, Dean J.; "Richard Nixon and the Origins of Affirmative Action" The Historian. Volume: 60. Issue: 3. 1998. pp. 523 ff.
• Kotlowski, Dean J. "Deeds Versus Words: Richard Nixon and Civil Rights Policy." New England Journal of History 1999–2000 56(2–3): 122–144.
• Kraft Michael E. "U.S. Environmental Policy and Politics: From the 1960s to the 1990s" Journal of Policy History (2000) 12#1 :17-42. doi:10.1353/jph.2000.0006
• Kraft Michael E. U.S. Environmental Policy and Politics (6th ed. Pearson, 2015 ) excerpt
• Landy, Marc K. et al. The Environmental Protection Agency: From Nixon to Clinton (2nd ed. Oxford UP, 1994)
• Lindstrom, Matthew J. ed. Encyclopedia of the U.S. Government and the Environment (2 vol ABC-CLIO, 2010), 950pp
• Macekura, Stephen. "The limits of the global community: the Nixon administration and global environmental politics." Cold War History 11.4 (2011): 489–518.
• Melosi, Martin V. "Environmental Policy" in A Companion to Lyndon B. Johnson, ed. by Mitchell B. Lerner. (Blackwell, 2012) pp. 187–209.
• Melosi, Martin V. "Lyndon Johnson and Environmental Policy,' in Robert Divine, ed., The Johnson Years, Volume Two: Vietnam, The Environment and Science (U of Kansas Press, 1987), pp.113–149
• Miller, Char. Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism (2001)
• Peterson, Tarla Rai, ed. Green Talk in the White House: The Rhetorical Presidency Encounters Ecology (Texas A&M UP, 2004) excerpt
• Pinkett, Harold T. Gifford Pinchot: Private and Public Forester (U of Illinois Press, 1970).
• Shallat, Todd. Structures in the stream: Water, science, and the rise of the US Army Corps of Engineers (University of Texas Press, 2010).
• Short, C. Brant. Ronald Reagan and the Public Lands: America's Conservation Debate (1989).
• Smith, Frank E. The Politics of Conservation (1966), focus on federal water issues and dams, especially TVA. see online review
• Soden, Dennis, ed. The Environmental Presidency (SUNY, 1999) online
• Steen, Harold K. The US forest service: A centennial history (U of Washington Press, 2013). online

• Stine, Jeffrey K. “Natural Resources and Environmental Policy.” in The Reagan Presidency: Pragmatic Conservatism and Its Legacies, ed. by W. Elliot Brownlee and Hugh David Graham (Kansas UP, 2003) pp.233–256.
• Sussman, Glen, and Byron W. Daynes. "Spanning the century: Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and the environment." White House Studies 4.3 (2004): 337-355. online
• Swain, Donald C. National Conservation Policy: Federal Conservation Policy, 1921-1933 (U of California Press, 1963) online
• Utley, Robert M. and Barry Mackintosh; The Department of Everything Else: Highlights of Interior History (Dept. of the Interior, 1989) online
• Woolner, David, and H. Henderson, eds. FDR and the Environment (Springer, 2015) online.

Regions

Further information: Bibliography of the Western United States § Environment

• Brosnan, Kathleen A. et al. eds. City of Lake and Prairie: Chicago's Environmental History (U of Pittsburgh Press, 2020) online
• Castaneda, Christopher J., and Lee M. A. Simpson, eds. River city and valley life: an environmental history of the Sacramento region (U of Pittsburgh Press, 2013) in California; online
• Cawley, R. McGreggor. Federal Land, Western Anger: The Sagebrush Rebellion and Environmental Politics (1993), on conservatives
• Cowdrey, Albert E. This Land, This South: An Environmental History (UP of Kentucky, 1995). online
• Cronon, William, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England (Hill and Wang, 1983)
• Cronon, William, Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (W.W. Norton, 1991); influential classic discussion
• Cumbler, John T. Reasonable use: The people, the environment, and the state. New England 1790-1930. (Oxford U), 2001).
• Cumbler, John T. Northeast and Midwest United States: An Environmental History (ABC-CLIO, 2005) online
• Cunfer, Geoff, and Bill Waiser, eds. Bison and people on the North American Great Plains: A deep environmental history (Texas A&M University Press, 2016) online.
• Dant, Sara. Losing Eden: An Environmental History of the American West. (U of Nebraska Press, 2023). online, also see online book review
• Davis, D. E., ed. Southern United States: An Environmental History (ABC-CLIO, 2006) online

• Deslatte, Aaron. "Florida’s growth management experience: From top-down direction to Laissez-Faire land use." in The Palgrave Handbook of Sustainability (2018): 739-755 online.

• Flores, Dan. The natural west: Environmental history in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains (U of Oklahoma Press, 2003) online.
• Fradkin, Philip. A River No More: The Colorado River and the West (1981)
• Frehner, Brian, and Kathleen A. Brosnan, eds. The Greater Plains: Rethinking a Region's Environmental Histories (U of Nebraska Press, 2021) online.
• Harrison, Blake, et al. A Landscape History of New England (2011)
• Harvey, Mark W. T. "Echo Park, Glen Canyon, and the postwar wilderness movement." Pacific Historical Review (1991): 43-67. online Colorado River region
• Jacobs, Elizabeth T., Jefferey L. Burgess, and Mark B. Abbott. "The Donora smog revisited: 70 years after the event that inspired the clean air act." American journal of public health 108.S2 (2018): S85-S88. online the fatal 1948 Donora smog in Pennsylvania in 1948.

• Judd, Richard W. Common Lands and Common People, The Origins of Conservation in Northern New England (1997)
• Melosi, Martin V., and Charles Reagan Wilson, eds. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 8: Environment (2007); 320pp with 98 short essays by experts. blurb
• Reisner, Marc. Cadillac desert: The American West and its disappearing water (Penguin, 1993) says the villain was the federal Bureau of Reclamation see [1]; also see online copy.
• Rice, James D. Nature and History in the Potomac Country: From Hunter-Gatherers to the Age of Jefferson (2009), near Washington DC
• Sayen, Jamie. Children of the Northern Forest: Wild New England's History from Glaciers to Global Warming (Yale UP, 2023). the story of northern New England’s undeveloped forests
• Turk, Eleanor L. "Selling the Heartland: Agents, Agencies, Press, and Policies Promoting German Emigration to Kansas in the Nineteenth Century." Kansas History 12 (1989): 150-59.

• Vogel, David. California greenin': How the Golden State became an environmental leader (Princeton UP, 2019).
• Wild, Peter. Pioneer Conservationists of Western America (1979) online
• Worster, Donald. Under Western Skies: Nature and History in the American West (Oxford UP, 1992) online
• Zimring, Carl A., and Steven H. Corey, eds. Coastal Metropolis: Environmental Histories of Modern New York City (U of Pittsburgh Press, 2021) [2].

Historiography

• Coates, Peter. "Emerging from the Wilderness (or, from Redwoods to Bananas): Recent Environmental History in the United States and the Rest of the Americas," Environment and History 10 (2004), pp. 407–38 online
• Coulter, Kimberly, and Christof Mauch, eds. The Future of Environmental History: Needs and Opportunities ( Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, 2011).
• Fleming, Donald. "Roots of the New Conservation Movement," Perspectives in American History 6 (1972): 7-91.
• Hays, Samuel P. Explorations In Environmental History (U of Pittsburgh Press, 1998) essays by Hays ISBN 9780822956433 online
• Hendricks, Rickey L. “The Conservation Movement: A Critique of Historical Sources.” History Teacher 16#1 (1982), pp. 77–104. online
• Hersey, Mark D., and Ted Steinberg, eds. A Field on Fire: The Future of Environmental History (2019).
• Lee, Lawrence B. "100 years of reclamation historiography." Pacific Historical Review 47.4 (1978): 507-564.online; Covers 1) irrigation , 1878-1902, 2) reclamation service, 3) agricultural settlement, 1902–28, 4) engineering 1887-1953, 5) Department of Agriculture, 1898-1938, 6) historians, 1898-1978, and 7) challenges to Bureau
• Lynch, Tom, et al. eds. The Bioregional Imagination: Literature, Ecology, and Place (U of Georgia Press, 2011), focus on literature; online
• Nash, Roderick (1972). "American Environmental History: A New Teaching Frontier". Pacific Historical Review. 41 (3): 362–372. doi:10.2307/3637864. JSTOR 3637864.
• Sackman, Douglas Cazaux, ed. A Companion to American Environmental History (2010), 696pp; 33 essays by scholars that emphasize the historiography; online
• White, Richard (1985). "Environmental History: The Development of a New Historical Field". Pacific Historical Review. 54 (3): 297–335. doi:10.2307/3639634. JSTOR 3639634.

Primary sources

• Burch, Jr., John R. Water Rights and the Environment in the United States (ABC-CLIO 2015), a comprehensive documentary and reference guide to historical water issues.
• Carson, Rachel, Silent Spring (Riverside Press, 1962), highly influential in shaping public opinion
• Foss, Philip O. ed. Conservation in the United States A Documentary History : Recreation (1971) online 808pp covering parks, hunting, fishing, forests, lakes, highway beautification
• McHenry, Robert and Charles Van Doren, eds. A documentary history of conservation in America (Praeger, 1972) online
• McKibben, Bill, ed. American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau, (Library of America, 2008); 1080 pages of excerpts from 96 authors, plus 82 illustrations.
• Nash, Roderick, ed. The American Environment : Readings in the History of Conservation (1968);
  • Nash, American environmentalism : readings in conservation history (2nd expanded edition, 1980)
• Nicoll, Don. "Train, Russell oral history interview." (1999). online
• Smith, Frank E. ed. Conservation in the United States: A Documentary History: Land and Water 1900-1970 (1971), 785pp
• Stoll, Steven, ed. U.S. Environmentalism since 1945: A Brief History with Documents (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)
• Stradling, David, ed. Conservation in the Progressive Era: Classic Texts (U of Washington Press, 2004), primary sources

External links

• H-Environment web resource for students of environmental history
• American Society for Environmental History
• Environmental History Now
• Environmental History Resources
• Environmental History Timeline
• Environmental History on the Internet
• "The Evolution of the Conservation Movement" historical documents and illustrations, 1850 to 1920, from the Library of Congress (these are no longer copyright)
• Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society and its Environment & Society Portal
• Forest History Society
• HistoricalClimatology.com Explores climate history, a form of environmental history.
• Climate History Network Network of climate historians.
• Top 23 Global Nonprofits Protecting the Environment

Journals

• Environmental History, Co-published quarterly by the American Society for Environmental History and the (US) Forest History Society
  • JSTOR: All Volumes and Issues - Browse - Environmental History [1996–2007 (Volumes 1–12)]
  • JSTOR: All Volumes and Issues - Browse - Forest & Conservation History [1990–1995 (Volumes 34–39)]
  • JSTOR: All Volumes and Issues - Browse - Environmental Review: ER [1976–1989 (Volumes 1–13)]
  • JSTOR: All Volumes and Issues - Browse - Environmental History Review [1990–1995 (Volumes 14–19)]
  • JSTOR: All Volumes and Issues - Browse - Journal of Forest History [1974–1989 (Volumes 18–33)]
  • JSTOR: All Volumes and Issues - Browse - Forest History [1957–1974 (Volumes 1–17)]
• Nixon on environment, an exhibit by the Nixon Foundation