History of Conservation

1
History of Conservation

• Modified by Georgia Agricultural Education
  Curriculum Office
• June, 2002

2
A History of Conservation in the United States
3
Exploitation - Wasting

• A. When people were few there was little need for
  conservation
• 1. Wise management is beginning to replace short
  sighted exploitation.

4
Exploitation - wasting

• 2. World population is doubling every decade.
• 3. Accelerate progress is natural resource
  management.

5
History of conservation movement

• A. Wildlife Management
• 1. When the settlers came the colonies were
  covered largely by mature forests broken only by
  streams, marshes, and natural meadows.

6
History of conservation movement

• 2. Forests could support vast flocks of passenger
  pigeons
• 3. Streams supported beaver populations

7
History of conservation movement

• 4. Marshes support large flocks of waterfowl
• 5. Deer, turkey, quail, and many other important
  game animals require clearings.

8
History of conservation movement

• 6. Hunters could depopulate deer herds along the
  coast
• a. further inland they found fewer deer and
  hunting was less successful.

9
Regulations

• 1. 1639 regulations on deer hunting were imposed
  by Newport, RI.
• 2. 1698 Connecticut and Massachusetts imposed
  limits on deer hunting, by then deer herds were
  almost gone in those areas.

10
Regulations

• 3. 1844 New York Sporting Club formed.
• A. became the New York State Game Protective
  Society.
• B. promoted restrictions against market hunters

11
Regulations

• 4. 1865 first fish and game commission formed in
  Massachusetts.

12
Market hunters

• 1. Hunting and trapping for fur and meat animals
  became big business overnight.
• 2. Market hunters found that their quarry could
  be taken all year long.

13
Market hunters

• 3. Passenger pigeons could be killed most easily
  during the nesting season.
• A. led to extinction

14
Market hunters

• Buffalo herds came close to extinction for the
  same reasons

15
The road back

• 1. The Lacey Act 1900, first federal act dealing
  with wildlife was passed.
• A. made interstate transport of game taken
  against the law a federal crime.

16
The road back

• b. killed market hunting and saved many species
  from destruction
• 2. 1916 US and Great Britain signed the Migratory
  Bird Treaty

17
The road back

• 3.1918 Federal Migratory Bird Act was passed
• protection of migratory waterfowl that breed in
  Canada and fly across the US each year.

18
The road back

• 4. 1933 Aldo Leopold published Game Management
• 5. 1934 Duck Stamp Act was passed

19
The road back

• a. first year raised revenues of 600,000
• b. now raise up to 6 million a year
• c. finance numerous projects to protect and
  expand North American waterfowl population.

20
The road back

• 6. 1940 US Fish and Wildlife Service of the
  Department of the Interior formed.

21
The road back

• 7. Most conservationist efforts have been led and
  funded by hunters and fisherman and have made
  possible much of our wildlife abundance.

22
Forest Management

• 1. Timber Management
• a. 5,000 years ago in China
• b. 4,000 years ago in Egypt

23
Forest Management

• c. Romans imported wood from their conquered
  lands before the birth of Christ
• d. 1,000 A.D. Europeans were running our of wood

24
Forest Management

• 2. 1626 First ordinance controlling sale of
  timber passed in Plymouth Colony
• 3. 1650 several colonies passed laws against
  burning forests.

25
Forest Management

• 4. Late 1700s and early 1800s preservation
  centered around saving live oaks for building war
  ships
• a. this practice ended during the Civil War

26
Forest Management

• 5. US forests produced about a billion board feet
  of lumber in 1840
• 6. 1869 35 billion board feet.
• 7. 1906 46 billion board feet.

27
Forest Management

• 8. Forests were harvested to pay for other
  enterprises or were cleared and burned for
  farming.

28
Forest Management

• 9. 1875 the American Forestry Association
  organized to promote timber culture and forestry

29
Forest Management

• 10. Forestry agent appointed to the USDA
• 11. Forestry office became Division of Forestry
  of USDA in 1881.

30
Forest Management

• 12. 1891 Congress created forest reserves from
  public lands
• a. 1900 33 million acres of forest reserves
• b. controlled under the Department of the Interior

31
Forest Management

• 13. Gifford Pinchot head of USDA Forestry
  Department in 1898
• 14. 1905 became US Forest Service

32
Forest Management

• 15. Pinchot and T. Roosevelt expanded the
  national forest service, covered 182 million
  acres in 1983.

33
Forest Management

• 16. The Weeks Law 1911 gave the President
  authority to purchase forest lands for river
  water shed protection

34
Forest Management

• a. linked forestry with soil and water
  conservation, waterway transportation and flood
  control.

35
Forest Management

• 17. WWI expanded federal role in the forestry
  business.
• A. Timber was needed for the war and thousands of
  soldiers were used to harvest it.

36
Forest Management

• 18. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was
  involved in forestry work during the Great
  Depression

37
Forest Management

• 19. WWII and post war house building created
  another expansion in the need for timber.

38
Soil Conservation

• 1. Early mentality was to farm today leave
  tomorrow to take care of itself.

39
Soil Conservation

• 2. Wherever land was tillable it was cleared for
  agricultural production without regard for its
  potential
• a. hillsides in Georgia were row cropped

40
Soil Conservation

• b. grasslands in the southwest were overgrazed.
• 3. Early soil conservation meant preventing gully
  and sheet erosion.

41
Soil Conservation

• 4. 1928 first USDA soil conservation bulletin
  published Soil Erosion - A National Menace
• 5. 1933 Soil Erosion Service established (Dept of
  Int)

42
Soil Conservation

• 6. 1935 SES moved to the Dept of Ag and changed
  name to Soil Conservation Service (SCS)

43
Soil Conservation

• 7. 1936 developed a system for giving grants to
  farmers active in conservation to pay for
  terraces, tilling, and drainage systems.

44
Soil Conservation

• a. regulated by USDAs Agricultural Stabilization
  and Conservation Service (ASCS)

45
Soil Conservation

• 8. 1937 President F D Roosevelt established soil
  conservation districts within each state

46
Water Management

• 1. 1879 Mississippi River Commission set up to
  help states improve the river as a waterway.

47
Water Management

• 2. Rivers and Harbors Acts of 1917 and 1927
  maintain navigable waterways.
• 3. 1825 Erie Canal completed to connect the Great
  Lakes with the Hudson River.

48
Water Management

• 4. Early emphasis was not on conservation but on
  transportation
• 5. Late 1920s federal govt began to assume some
  responsibility for flood control.

49
Water Management

• 6. 1936 Flood Control Act authorized SCS to
  develop plans for upstream soil and water
  conservation to reduce sedimentation and flooding.

50
Water Management

• 7. 1954 Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention
  Act made state and local responsible for decision
  making.

51
Water Management

• 8. Federal legislation in the 1960s and 1970s
  emphasized health concerns of waste water
  treatment

52
Water Management

• 9. Low water tables in the western states have
  resulted from deep-well drilling.