The 1920s and the New Deal

Earth, Wind, and Fire

Decline of Progressive Conservation

■ Retreat after 1914: “conservation extremists”

– Western opposition

■ No more withdrawing land from development

■ No more regulations from Washington

■ Conservationists out of influence, 1920s

– Legacy of 1912 Republican-Progressive split

– Teapot Dome Scandal, 1922

Fashion Kills Off the Birds

Wildlife conservation

■ George Bird Grinnell, editor, Field and Stream

– Audubon Society, 1880s; national org. by 1905

■ Hunters & gun companies act

– American Game Protective Association, 1911

– States establish hunting seasons & licenses

– US Biological Survey regulates bird hunting, 1913

■ Conflict: how to best protect birds

– Animal lovers: limit hunting

– Hunters: protect habitat

Wildlife conservation

■ 1920s rise in sport hunting and fishing

– Democratization of hunting

■ Army surplus Krag rifles 1903, then Springfield .30-06

– Fishing spots polluted, filled, paved

– Wetlands filled; waterfowl gone

Protecting fish

■ Izaak Walton League, 1922

– Founded by Chicago businessmen

– 100,000 members, mostly in the Midwest

■ 1923 threat to 300 miles of
Mississippi bottomlands

– Congress: 300-mile, $1.5 million refuge

Conservation in the New Deal

■ 1932: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

– Idolizes 5th cousin Theodore Roosevelt

– Progressives bolt to Democratic Party

■ Former Republicans: Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture

– 1912: no Democrats to advise Woodrow Wilson on conservation

– 1940: no Republicans to advise Wendell Wilkie on conservation

■ Conservation: priority of prosperity

Civilian Conservation Corps

■ Military-style camps for unemployed men

– Forestry

– Soil erosion

– Flood control

– Roads and trails

– Visitors’ centers for parks

■ Spread appreciation for conservation

CCC camp in Berkshires

CCC highway beautification

CCC: watering pinetrees

CCC builds Texas parks

New Deal Conservation Agencies

■ Soil Conservation Service (1933)

■ Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

– Poverty and environmental ruin

■ Harness unruly river for human benefit

■ Fertilizer & public power for poor farmers

– Centrally-controlled refashioning of landscape

– Great success — never repeated

– No consideration of ecological effects

TVA map

TVA flood control

TVA tree nursery

TVA
Dams

TVA rural electrification

Parks Expansion

■ Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes

■ 10 new parks and monuments

– New, undeveloped National Parks

■ Kings Canyon

■ Olympic

■ Everglades

■ Ordered desegregation of National Parks

Building dams

■ Example of Hoover (Boulder) Dam

■ Dams: something for everyone

– Jobs

– Public power

– Boost for the economy

Renewed concern for wildlife

■ Drastic drop in waterfowl: 100 to 20 million

– Product of drought and development

■ “Ding” Darling, Biological Survey 1933–35

– Migratory Waterfowl Division

■ 1934: Duck Stamp Act

■ By 1940: 159 new refuges of 7.5 million acres

– 1940: Fish & Wildlife Svc. in Interior Dept.

■ Unified game policy

– With gun companies, founds National Wildlife Federation, 1938

Wilderness

■ Problem of the automobile

■ Wilderness in National Forests

– Aldo Leopold

■ 2-week trip; Gila Wilderness, 1924

– Bob Marshall

■ Protection of Appalachian Trail from CCC

– Benton McKaye & Harvey Broome

■ Wilderness Society, 1935