Environmental History
10/13/14 – Greenbelt and Bike Path History
This October, Boise, Idaho celebrates the 45th anniversary of the creation of the Greenbelt, the 25 miles of biking and walking trails that line both sides of the Boise River. The history of the Greenbelt (see SHRA blog from the summer of 2012) is interesting on its own merit, for it is the story of… Read the Rest »
10/8/14 – Gila Wilderness
On October 2, 1922, Aldo Leopold penned a plea for the preservation of a wilderness area in New Mexico. As a U.S. Forest Service employee stationed in the Land of Enchantment, Leopold lamented the loss of areas fit for wilderness designation that recently had been lost to the rise of automobiles. In his plea, he… Read the Rest »
10/6/14 – Current Troubles with Wilderness
As we honor the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Wilderness Act, it is easy to celebrate the habitats, wild places, and recreational opportunities that it has protected. But it is also important to consider all sides of wilderness and wilderness conservation. In his well-known 1995 essay “The Trouble with Wilderness,” William Cronon tackles the idea… Read the Rest »
9/26/14 – Wilderness Cartoon, 1962-1963
This cartoon,[i] originally printed in the Washington Daily News, was reprinted in the winter of 1962-63 in Living Wilderness, the publication of the Wilderness Society. As conservationists fought to pass the Wilderness Act, the issue of wilderness and wilderness conservation became part of mainstream conversations and media coverage. When Congress passed the law in… Read the Rest »
9/26/14 – Wilderness Areas, 1964-2014
When Congress first created the National Wilderness Preservation System in September 1964, (1) they protected nine million acres of National Forest. On this 1964 map, which was published in the Wilderness Society’s magazine The Living Wilderness, stars represent those first federally designated wilderness areas. The other icons denote potential wilderness areas, foreshadowing the tremendous growth… Read the Rest »
8/21/14 – A Review of Nature Next Door: Cities and Trees in the American Northeast by Ellen Stroud
In the August 2014 edition of The Public Historian (University of California Press), SHRA’s Jennifer Stevens reviews Nature Next Door: Cities and Trees in the American Northeast by Ellen Stroud. You can read the review by clicking the link below and scrolling to pages 7 and 8. Book Reviews from The Public Historian, August 2014
6/6/14 – Timber Harvesting and Wildfire in the National Forests: The Emergence of Multiple-Use Management
Editor’s Note: This is the third installment in a series of blogs by SHRA Environmental Analyst/Researcher Naomi Heindel on the history of the United States Forest Service. You can read the first two installments here and here. In my previous blog, the second in this series on the history of the Forest Service, I discussed the… Read the Rest »
5/23/14 – Breaking Trails at the Dawn of the National Parks System
Editor’s note: Today’s blog post is from Jennifer Stevens. My 12-year old son recently asked me why I read the obituaries in the paper. I didn’t have to think very long before I answered: I love people’s stories. Environmental history is – like all history – cut from the cloth of people’s stories. Human interaction… Read the Rest »
4/7/14 – The Mission Mountain Tribal Wilderness Area
Editor’s Note: Today’s blog post is courtesy of SHRA’s graduate student intern HannaLore Hein. Last fall, as a board member of the Center of the American West, I was lucky enough to attend their annual Board Member Retreat. Every year the Center’s staff plans a four day excursion to a western location so board members… Read the Rest »
2/26/14 – Meet Mark Steel
Editor’s Note: Today’s blog post is from SHRA’s Stephanie Milne-Lane. Growing up, my parents’ kitchen table was the landing spot for a variety of disparate objects like backpacks, bills, and water bottles. But no matter how much was thrown on top, a small archive of Newsweek magazines could always be found beneath the daily rubble…. Read the Rest »