The 1920s and
the New Deal
Earth,
Wind, and Fire
Fashion Kills Off
Birds
Bird conservation
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George Bird Grinnell, editor, Field and
Stream
Audubon Society, 1880s; national organization by 1905
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Hunters & gun companies act
American Game Protective Association, 1911
States establish hunting seasons & licenses
US Biological Survey regulates bird hunting, 1913
Wildlife
conservation
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1920s rise in sport hunting and fishing
Democratization of hunting
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Army surplus rifles
Fishing spots polluted, filled, paved
Wetlands filled; waterfowl gone
Fish conservation
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Izaak Walton League, 1922
Founded by Chicago businessmen
100,000 members, mostly in the Midwest
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1923 threat to 300 miles of
Mississippi bottomlands
Congress: 300-mile, $1.5 million refuge
Decline of
Progressive Conservation
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Retreat after 1914: conservation extremists
Western opposition
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No more withdrawing land from development
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No more regulations from Washington
■
Conservationists out of influence
1912 Republican-Progressive split
Conservation in the
New Deal
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1932: Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Idolizes cousin Theodore
Progressives bolt to Democratic Party
■
Former Republicans: Secretaries of Interior and
Agriculture
■
Conservation: priority of prosperity
Civilian
Conservation Corps
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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
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Soil Conservation Service (1933)
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Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
Poverty and environmental ruin
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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
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Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes
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10 new parks and monuments
New, undeveloped National Parks
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Kings Canyon
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Olympic
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Everglades
■
Ordered desegregation of National Parks
Building dams
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Example of Hoover (Boulder) Dam
■
Dams: something for everyone
Jobs
Public power
Boost for the economy
Renewed concern for
wildlife
■
Drastic drop in waterfowl: 100 to 20 million
Product of drought and development
■
Ding Darling, Biological Survey 193335
Migratory Waterfowl Division
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1934: Duck Stamp Act
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By 1940: 159 new refuges of 7.5 million acres
1940: Fish & Wildlife Svc. in Interior Dept.
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Unified game policy
With gun companies, founds National Wildlife Federation, 1938
Wilderness
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Problem of the automobile
Wilderness
■
Wilderness in National Forests
Aldo Leopold
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2-week trip; Gila Wilderness, 1924
Bob Marshall
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Protection of Appalachian Trail from CCC
Benton McKaye & Harvey Broome
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Wilderness Society, 1935