I've been watching The National Parks: America's Best Idea, the latest documentary from Ken Burns on PBS. Anyone who watches is going to be enthralled by the photography; that's a given. But what's been fascinating to me is the number of heroes whose names I've never heard. Guys like Senator John Conness, R-Ca, who:
. . .acting at the urging of some of his constituents, introduced a bill to Congress that proposed something totally unprecedented in human history: setting aside a large tract of natural scenery for the future enjoyment of everyone. On June 30, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed an act of Congress ceding the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias to the state of California.
And guys whose names I've known but whose stature has been a little diminished in my mind, like Gifford Pinchot. He was the first steward of the National Forests, and it seems he was the father of the "wise use" movement which has surfaced as a euphemistic term for "exploit the hell out of Federal lands" in the past thirty or forty years.
Pinchot was a conservationist. He believed the best way to protect the forests was to manage their use, not leave them alone. His favorite saying was "the greatest good for the greatest number."
I've been a member of various environmental and conservation advocacy groups for a long time off and on. Some of these names are entirely unknown to me, so I'm finding this series highly educational.
And then there are the pictures.
Posted by Linkmeister at September 29, 2009 10:37 AM | TrackBackA good friend of TR's, Pinchot comes off very well in the book I'm reading, The Big Burn, and his notion of "wise use" was a way of combating the exploitation of the national forests. By the greatest number he meant the people as opposed the few ruthless business types who wanted to clear cut everything for their own profit.
Posted by: Lance Mannion at September 30, 2009 08:56 AMI don't know If I said it already but ...Cool site, love the info. I do a lot of research online on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I'm glad I found your blog. Thanks, :)
A definite great read..Jim Bean
Posted by: JimmyBean at October 1, 2009 08:03 AM