I. Resource Conservation

A. Characterized by turn-of-the-century progressive conservation movement with its future-oriented developmental approach to efficient resource use, and management of ecosystems and their associated resource bases.

B. Factors influencing conservation

1. Population: Census of 1890 indicates end of frontier and implies continued increase in person-to-land ratios. Resource abundance, inexhaustible wealth, and free land end.

2. Market: Exhaustion of soils in East and Midwest pushes farmers to initiate agricultural improvements for increased efficiency and higher crop yields for agricultural markets. Erosion of Great Plains grassland and depletion of perennial grasses induce range improvement through summer and winter pasturing, reseeding, and adjusting of animal populations to improve cattle and sheep market production. Reclamation of western arid lands by irrigation and conservation of watersheds increases agricultural production for Eastern markets. Depletion of virgin timber lands provides impetus for forest management to sustain long-term lumber yields as opposed to quick profits.

3. Technology: Innovations combine with scientific studies to improve and manage resource yields. Agricultural chemists conduct scientific studies of organic and inorganic fertilizers and pest controls. Farm equipment is mechanized and mass produced. Hydrographers study stream flow, and engineers examine runoff and irrigation technologies. Scientifically trained foresters experiment with fire control, brush burning, reforestation, and selective cutting.

4. Social Relations: Government agencies and professional associations proliferate and direct their efforts toward maintaining long-term use and sustained yield.

a. Water conservation

(1) Government agencies: Bureau of Reclamation in Department of Interior (Established by Reclamation [Newlands] Act of 1902) mandates 160-acre (one-quarter section) limit for receipt of water from federal irrigation projects.

(2) Supporting citizens' organizations

(a) Water and power companies

(b) Municipal water departments

(c) California Water and Forest Association

(d) National Irrigation Association

b. Range conservation

(1) Government agencies: Division of Grazing in Bureau of Forestry (Department of Agriculture) established by Gifford Pinchot (1901).

(2) Supporting Associations: Western cattleranchers and sheepherders associations

c. Forest conservation

(1) Government agencies

(a) Bureau of Forestry (later Forest Service) in Department of Agriculture

(b) Forest Products Laboratory, Madison Wisconsin

(2) Supporting Organizations

(a) Lumber companies

(b) American Forestry Association

(c) Western Forestry and Conservation Association

d. Agricultural Improvement

(1) Government Agencies

(a) U.S. Bureau (later Department) of Agriculture (1862)

(b) Agriculture Experiment Stations (Hatch Act 1887)

(c) State agricultural colleges

(2) Supporting Organizations

(a) State and local Agricultural Societies

(b) Association of Economic Entomologists

5. Attitudes: The "Gospel of Efficiency": "The foresighted utilization, preservation and/or renewal of forests, waters, lands, and minerals for the greatest good of the greatest number for the longest time." (WJ McGee and Gifford Pinchot)

a. Development: the use of natural resources for the benefit of present populations.

b. Prevention of waste: attack on waste is an industrial necessity.

c. Development for the benefit of the many, not for the profit of the few.

Examples: Theodore Roosevelt (president, 1900-1908), Gifford Pinchot (head of Forest Service, 1900-1909), James Garfield (secretary of interior, 1900-08), Frederick Newell (U.S. Geological Survey), Francis Newlands (congressional representative from Nevada); WJ McGee (Lakes to Gulf Deep Water Way Association).

d. Quotations on democracy as individualism: Frederick Jackson Turner (1893), "Frontier individualism has from the beginning promoted democracy."; George L. Knapp (1910), "I am anxious to transmit to my children . . . the heritage of personal liberty, of free individual action. . . ."

e. Quotations on democracy as cooperation: John Wesley Powell (1878), "For poor men, cooperative pasturage is necessary, or communal regulations. . . ."; Bernard Fernow (1902), "Government [is] the representative, not only of present communal interests, as against individual interests, but also of future interests against those of the present."

1. In what ways might George Perkins Marsh be seen as an early ecologist? What are the implications of Marsh's characterization of nature as a female? To what extent and by what means, in Marsh's opinion, is human destruction of nature reversible?

2. How does John Wesley Powell characterize the lands of the arid west? According to Powell, how should these lands be developed? Would Powell's plan, if put into practice, have been ecologically sustainable?

3. What is Frederick Jackson Turner's argument about the relationship between the American environment and American character? Is Turner an environmental determinist? What differences do you find between the political assumptions of Powell and Turner?

4. Compare the conservation politics of individualism and democracy in the selections by Frederick Jackson Turner and George L. Knapp with the conservation politics of cooperation and democracy in the selections by John Wesley Powell and Bernhard Fernow. Which views are in accord with your own political philosophy? Why?

5. The administration under Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot associated conservation with the utilitarian idea of "the greatest good, for the greatest number, for the longest time." What inherent difficulties arise when attempting to implement a resource management policy based upon this concept? What might such a practice mean for minorities?

6. Why did middle-class women's clubs support conservation efforts during the first decade of the twentieth century? What gender conflicts and roles are apparent in women's support of conservation? Why did many women withdraw their support from Pinchot?