NATS 1840 - Lecture 14 – The Automobile as a Conservationists’ Tool: Preserving the
Forest for Highway Viewing
Conservation and Preservation of Natural Resources
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Conservation and the modern environmental movement, against interests of business and
industry
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Environmentalists and inherent value of nature over value due to uses
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19th century conservation efforts directed at saving natural resources to preserve revenue
stream for state
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“Preservationist” movement in early 20th century America, creation of highway that went
through forest, promoting “ tourism” and preservation
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After WWII preservationists viewed roadways and forests as mutually incompatible
Roads and Redwoods
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Co-evolution of highway networks and conservationist movement
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Train and long distance travel, speed
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Cars at turn of century, 40 mph top speed
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Forest as a “wish image”, utopian vision of the future (a forest accessible by highway and
car) ideal past (a large, unspoiled forest)
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By WWII cars went faster (100 mph top speed), experience of forest difficult
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1920’s forest not designated protected area, roadside logging discouraged forest tourism
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Preservationist movement shifted focus,
“The new activists made saving visible and accessible forest their top priority; in
practice, they protected roadside forest first.”
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No concern over vulnerable forest, forest for tourists
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Pragmatic view of environmental conservation, accessible areas versus remote areas
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logging continues hidden from view
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19th century: harvesting of forest and preserving forest compatible
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Forest preservation part of “package”: preserving scenery, improving the highways and
developing tourism
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Nature tourism promoted and profitable since middle of 19th century, automobile tourism
movement, access to nature
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Logging companies, vertical integration, moving further inland
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Local residents and improved roads, travelers used, “… plank wagon roads, gravel roads,
local railroad connections, stage coach routes, and ferry crossings…” and “…encountered
hub-deep dust, axle-deep mud, tire-destroying rocks, hairpin turns, impossible grades,
and flooding rivers.”
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Basic roads allowed loggers access to forests, tourism and advanced roads, complex, long
development time railways
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Logging companies developed areas around new roads, unappealing to tourists
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Unintended consequence of extensive roadside logging: inspiration of preservation
movement
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Local preservationist organizations, advocating for forest protection until 1950’s, Sierra
Club
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Save the Redwood League allied with nature tourism groups
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Automobile a tool to get citizens in touch with nature, promoted forest preservation and
“unspoiled” nature
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Alliance between environmental groups and commercial forces in context:
o Cars cheap, US very large, automobiles and access to forests
o Experience of nature first hand through the car
o Technology plays an enabling role
o Automobiles and pollution impacts
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Positive association with respect to the environment in early 20th century
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Parks and aesthetics of automobile viewing, "roadside park strips", controlling
"foregrounds of more notable and valuable landscapes enjoyable from the road", “a wide
right-of-way, frequent turnouts, spurs, and loops”
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Strip of trees to either side of the road and right of way
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Technology and the experience of nature, trains: side windows, blurred foreground, flat
landscape, spaces between objects, objects blurred together, technologies (tracks, poles,
wires) in front
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Train travel, “sublime” experiences of nature (sublime: great beyond all possibility of
calculation or measurement)
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Automobile, lower speeds, greater field of vision, potential for sublime experience of
nature
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Travel accounts, areas around the forest a blur of color and shape, no distinguishable
objects, forest distinguished
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Automobile, premodern vision (the forest), advanced technology (the car), fusion of
premodern and utopian, “wish image”
o “Cars returned a human scale to the machine, a sense of independence and
intimacy to the traveler, and a sense of natural flow to travel time.”
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Viewing from cars opposed to trains
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Aesthetic appeal, roadside forest protection, watershed protection, long term survival
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Trains and fast viewing, undifferentiated landscape, covered more ground, horses and
coaches, leisurely pace, impractical over distances
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Car compromise, fast enough for long distances, slow enough for more appreciation
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Roads, cars and tourist organizations, experience of trees as awesome and manageable
Changes in the Aesthetics of Forest Experience
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After WWII experience of nature changed
o Cars faster, visual experience similar to the train
o Traffic volume increased, industrial commercial use of road
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“Premodern” vision of the forest lost, environmentalists reject highways through forest
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Postwar construction boom, increased demand for wood, increased logging
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Accidents and road congestion common, ruining sublime experience
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New car designs lower to road, poorer visibility, much faster, increased accidents, limited
viewing of trees
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Fast cars and enjoyment of forest, new highways with fast cars, new view of the forest
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Preservationists: winding forest roads, slowed down vehicles, trees on all sides,
“majestic” and “mysterious” view, highway advocates: older roads dangerous as
visibility hindered
o “Preservationists experienced high-speed driving as loss and fought the
technology that enabled it. "The experience of driving through the Redwoods as
we know it today would be a thing of the past," Drury an- ticipated. In contrast,
freeway advocates assimilated both high-speed driving and freeways, welcoming
the visual changes they brought as novel and exciting.”
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Freeways “linear, wide and elevated”, view of the trees from above and from distance,
trees look smaller
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A thin strip of trees bordering freeway insufficient, elevation of freeway gave view of
logging areas
Conclusions
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Enlistment of nature tourism movement by preservationists: commercialization of nature,
pragmatic use of commercial forces to carve out a space for nature
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Value due to use rather than inherent value, other uses conflict, doesn’t preclude other
uses (e.g. logging)
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Technology mediates our experience of nature