earlypreservation

Preserve Wilderness?

It seems like a radical idea in a country that was still trying to conquer the wilderness, but by the 1830s some members of the east coast elite were talking about somehow preserving wilderness and other special natural areas

steps involved in preserving wilderness:

seeing value in wilderness
regret wilderness is vanishing
idea of preserving a wilderness area as a park
arguments to persuade people to do this--usually focused how people can enjoy it rather than on wilderness
wanting to preserve wilderness needs to move from a few elite people to broader public opinion
once you have set aside land how do you manage it?

John James Audubon, naturalist and artist (1785-1851)

he grew up in France and studied art there but was sent to America at age 18, to avoid being drafted
his family owned an estate near Philadelphia
he married and worked in business for a while, then went bankrupt during an economic downturn
he then set out with his gun, art materials, and an assistant to document the birds of America
In 1826 he took his work to England, where he was well received
much more realistic paintings of birds (compared for example to Alexander Wilson) because he wired recently dead birds into poses instead of stuffing them
also painted dramatic/romantic scenes and wrote exciting descriptions of his travels
expressed concern that the forests were being cut down
but he had trouble arguing with progress: "Whether these changes are for the better or worse, I shall not pretend to say" (p. 97)

is it good to be conquering wilderness or is it a loss?

Francis Parkman, Jr., historian

as a young man he took camping trips to "see the wilderness where it was yet univaded by the hand of man." (p. 98)
give this new country an identity by writing its history
wrote a book about the Oregon trail in the 1840s
by the time he wrote a new preface for an 1873 edition the wilderness was vanishing
the pioneers might celebrate that, but he regretted it

Artist George Catlin in 1832 not only regretted the loss of wilderness but envisioned a national park to preserve a bit of the wild west, including both buffalo and indians

Thoreau wanted each town to have its own undeveloped area of woods as a park

Samuel Hammond had similar ideas on a larger scale--called for preserving some forest areas uncut

His Wild Northern Scenes is available online

Before national parks can be established people need to

become convinced that preserving wilderness is a good thing
figure out how it might be done
develop a set of arguments for why it should be done

just saying wilderness is good is not enough to get a law passed setting aside a park
you also need practical arguments--this is why we will benefit if we do it

George Perkins Marsh focused on reasons to preserve forests:

he is arguing from scientific ideas of the time about climate and weather
we need forests prevent flooding
prevent drought, both by holding moisture like a sponge and recharging the water table
also it was believed that trees cause rain (rain follows the plow)--if people started farms in the dry great plains it would start raining more, if they planted trees
he argued that cutting down forests would lead to deserts

Marsh's Address delivered before the Agricultural society of Rutland County, Sept. 30, 1847

he starts with the idea that agriculture is a "means and instrument of civilization and social progress" and asks how it can be improved
he starts with how dramatically civilization has transformed America
he talks about how agriculture has begun to be scientific (this goes back to 1700s and Jethro Tull, but by the 1830s science has more useful to say about agriculture)
this is easier to see for soils, less so for climate, but he argues it is also true of climate
"The draining of swamps and the clearing of forests perceptibly effect the evaporation from the earth, and of course the mean quantity of moisture suspended in the air." (p. 11)
"There are certain other improvements connected with agriculture, to which I desire to draw your special attention. One of these is the introduction of a better economy in the management of our forest lands.... The functions of the forest, besides supplying timber and fuel, are very various. The conducting powers of trees render them highly useful in restoring the disturbed equilibrium of the electric fluid; they are of great value in sheltering and protecting more tender vegetables against the destructive effects of bleak or parching winds, and the annual deposit of the foliage of deciduous trees, and the decomposition of their decaying trunks, form an accumulation of vegetable mould, which gives the greatest fertility to the often originally barren soils on which they grow, and enriches lower grounds by the wash from rains and the melting snows.... Forests serve as reservoirs and equalizers of humidity. In wet seasons, the decayed leaves and spongy soil of woodlands retain a large proportion of the falling rains, and give back the moisture in time of drought, by evaporation or through the medium of springs. They thus both check the sudden flow of water from the surface into the streams and low grounds, and prevent the droughts of summer from parching our pastures and drying up the rivulets which water them. " (p. 18-19)
"It has long been a practice in many parts of Europe, as well as in our older settlements, to cut the forests reserved for timber and fuel at stated intervals. It is quite time that this practice should be introduced among us. " (p. 20)
concludes with a call for farmers to study science and technology
1864 book: Man and Nature was a history of human destruction of nature, starting with the ancient world
called for humans to work with nature to repair the damage

"rain follows the plow"--farming will change the climate, making it less dry

Marsh says forests add moisture to the air
if we cut down too much forest we will cause summer drought
Marsh believes we will reduce the amount of rain
if we plant trees will that increase the amount of rainfall?
if we plow the land more water will evaporate from the soil
some people argued this would cause more rain
there were a number of years of good rainfall which encouraged this wishful thinking, then drought hit

by the 1850s people are figuring out how to make an argument, both practical and philosophical, for preserving wilderness
but figuring out how to do so is slow

Arkansas Hot Springs

set aside as a natural reservation by the federal government in 1832
just as we have reservations for indians how about one for nature?
no laws were passed on how it was to be administered so people settled there anyway
when the federal government tried to take control in 1849 the local residents sued to prevent their land being taken away--the federal government won but it took until 1877 to settle the lawsuits

1864 preservation of Yosemite: the federal government gave the land to the state of California to make a park because no one knew how the federal government could manage it

This page written and copyright Pamela E. Mack
last updated 10/5/09
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