Key People in Conservation
Outdoor Education
John James Audubon
 Painted and
described the
birds of North
America.
 Published life-sized
prints that are still
considered the
standard.
 Audubon society
named in his honor.
Mary Austin
 Wrote a book
dedicated to the
deserts of the
American
southwest.
 Used very
descriptive
language in her
book The Land of
little rain.
Florence Merriam Bailey
 Ornithologist and
nature writer.
 Worked with
congress to pass
legislation
preventing
unnecessary bird
slaughter.
Hugh Bennett
 Father of American
soil conservation.
 Encouraged
conservation in 1920’s
& 1930’s.
 Created the Federal
Soil Conservation
Service, now known as
Natural Resource
Conservation Service.
Rachel Carson
 Wrote Silent Spring
about pesticide abuse.
 Spurred a nation into
action and started the
modern environmental
movement.
 Her worked resulted
in nation wide ban of
DDT.
Anna Botsford Comstock
 First person to bring
students and other
teachers outside to
study nature,
implemented course on
nature study in NY
public schools.
 Encouraged
observation as the
best way to study
nature.
Jay “Ding” Darling
 Attended UW where
he began working as a
cartoonist.
 Published conservation
cartoons, designed the
first federal duck
stamp.
 Appointed as the head
of the Bureau of
Biological Survey.
 Founded National
Wildlife Federation.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas
 Wrote Everglades:
River of Grass and
mobilized Florida
against the
draining and
overdevelopment of
the everglades.
 Founded Friends of
the Everlgades.
Rosalie Edge
 One of the first
female leaders of the
conservation
movement.
 Became active because
of outrage against the
Audubon Society.
 Founded Hawk
Mountain Wildlife
Refuge.
William Temple Hornaday
 Chief taxidermist of
U.S. National Museum.
 Became president of
the Permanent Wild
Life Protective
Association.
 Credited with saving
American Bison and
Alaskan Fur Seal from
extinction.
John F. Lacey
 Wrote legislation that
made it illegal to ship
game across state
lines-the first federal
conservation law.
 Lacey Bird Act of
1900, and several
other land
conservation acts
passed because of him.
Aldo Leopold
 Father of Wildlife
management.
 Served for 19 years in
United States Forest
Service before
working at UWMadison.
 Founded the
Wilderness Society
while writing about
ethical and
conservation issues.
Robert Marshall
 Founder of the
Wilderness society.
 Helped to
preserve large
tracts of Alaska.
 Shaped US
Forestry policy of
wilderness
management.
Stephen Mather
 First director of
National Park
Service.
 Evaluate possible
sites for National
Parks.
 Felt scenery was an
important factor
for parks.
John Muir
 Settled by Portage,
WI and attended UWMadison were he was
influenced to explore
nature.
 Founded the Sierra
Club and helped
preserve Yosemite
Valley
 Image is on the CA
quarter
Helen Nearing
 Advocated self-
sufficient living and
back to the land
movement.
 Developed
improvements for
maple syrup production
while advocating an
organic food approach,
wrote several books on
those areas.
Gaylord Nelson
 From Clear Lake, WI.
 Elected as state
senator, then
governor, and
eventually US senate
and attended
conservation tour with
JFK.
 Principal founder of
“Earth Day.”
Frederic Law Olmsted
 Brought Nature to
the city.
 Designed Central
Park.
 He was the first
prominent
Landscape
Architect
Sigurd Olson
 Grew up and was
influenced by
Northern Wisconsin’s
nature.
 Helped draft the
Wilderness Act of
1964 while serving as
president of
Wilderness Society.
 He also helped
establish Voyageurs
National Park in
northern Minnesota.
George Perkins Marsh
 America’s 1st
environmentalist.
 Published Man and
Nature the first
book to pose
questions
concerning man’s
impact on the
environment.
Roger Tory Peterson
 Published Guide to
Birds and co-wrote
Wild America.
 He served as editor of
Peterson Field Guides
and developed the
Peterson identification
system still used
today.
Gifford Pinchot
 First chief
forester of US
Forest Service.
 Advocated
conservation by
planned use and
renewal.
 Coined the term
“conservation
ethic”.
John Wesley Powell
 Lived a mountain man
lifestyle by exploring
the Rocky Mountains,
walking across WI,
taking passages on
Mississippi river.
 Became second
director of US
Geological Survey
shaped Western Land
use policies
Theodore Roosevelt
 Founded the
National Parks.
 Created federal
wildlife and bird
refuges, set aside
land for nature
preserves.
 Established the US
Forest Service
Henry David Thoreau
 Wrote On Walden
Pond that helped
start the
environmental
movement, a
reflection on simple
living in the natural
environment.