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American Government
LESSON 2 • Environmental Policy History
Objectives:
Students will:
• study and analyze the concepts of “preservation” and “conservation” related to Wilderness and other public lands.
•
demonstrate an understanding of the contributions of Gifford Pinchot and John Muir.
•
develop a historical time-line to portray significant people and events of the conservation
movement.
Background:
Environmental policies are the basis for clean air we breathe and pure water we drink. We
still have diversity in flora and fauna due to legislation like the Endangered Species Act and
the Clean Water Act. And we have areas protected and managed as Wilderness thanks to
the value the American public and conservation leaders at the turn of the century placed on
the rapid disappearance of wild places. This lesson enables students to study key players in
the conservation movement, the hard fought personal and professional battles, and the
resulting environmental policies we honor today.
Activity 1, the one-hour video, “The American Experience: Battle for Wilderness,” provides
excellent historical film footage and interpretation of the conservation movement. It portrays
the lives of two of the most influential people in the development of the National Wilderness
Preservation System (NWPS), Gifford Pinchot and John Muir. The video includes coverage
of the Hetch-Hetchy controversy and the conservation movement. Rod Nash and Wallace
Stegner give their views along with historians giving an account of the development of the
Forest Service, National Park Service, the NWPS, and the role of President Theodore
Roosevelt. This video paints a thorough picture of the individuals involved in the movement
to protect Wilderness and the ensuing battles they fought. It gives a solid basis for understanding where we are today, how far we have come and the importance of protecting
Wilderness. In Activity 2, “Muir and Pinchot Today,” students will project what viewpoint both
Muir and Pinchot would take today on important conservation issues and Wilderness management dilemmas. During this activity students will discover the differences and similarities
of the concepts of “preservation” and “conservation” in both a historical and contemporary
application. In Activity 3, “Wilderness Timeline,” students will select a date from the timeline,
conduct research on other historical events of the time, and translate how these events
affect Wilderness.
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Activity 1: The American Experience: Battle for Wilderness
Materials:
• Í video: The American Experience: Battle for Wilderness
•
teacher handout discussion questions: “The American Experience: Battle for Wilderness,” pages
225-228.
•
pen
•
paper or journal
Duration: 1 hour for the video showing, possible homework
Location: classroom
Procedure:
1. View Í the video “The American Experience: Battle for Wilderness” with your students. You
may want to break the video into several sessions.
2. Assign or discuss “Battle for Wilderness” discussion questions, pages 225-228.
Activity 2: Muir and Pinchot Today
Materials:
• pen and paper or journal
•
research materials and resources
Duration: 45 minutes - 1 hour
Location: Classroom
Procedure:
1. Have students divide into two groups, one that represents the views of John Muir and one that
represents the views of Gifford Pinchot. If smaller groups are desired, have more than one group
represent the viewpoints; this will be good for discussion purposes. Have groups select a note taker
and a group leader.
2. Ask the students to consider their person’s views in today’s world. Have them discuss, in general
terms, if one view or the other exists in today’s world. Think of public land agencies, of public land
designation—National Parks, National Forests. Have these two viewpoints come closer together or
farther apart. How and Why?
3. Pose the following scenario: A bill is in Congress that will require a fee for recreationists to visit
Wilderness areas across the country. What position might John Muir and Gifford Pinchot take on
this bill?
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Procedure continued:
4. Pose the following scenario: an endangered wildlife species, the wolverine, is being
reintroduced into some Wilderness areas across the country. In order to protect the species
human visitation will be limited for five years. What would Pinchot and Muir say to this?
5. Bring students together for a group discussion. Go through the above discussion questions and have the groups state their perspective of how Muir and Pinchot would respond in
today’s world and would their views be relevant today.
Discussion guidelines for teachers:
This activity is intended to bring out the changed political landscape. Consider that the times
and the life-styles of the American public have changed. During the discussion have students try to find commonality between the two viewpoints that are often considered opposite. This can and should lead to ideas of consensus, compromise and lead to win-win
situations instead of win-lose. Try to lead students towards the commonality of Muir and
Pinchot in today’s political environment.
Activity 3: Wilderness Timeline
Materials:
• “Wilderness—A Brief History” from “Wilderness: An Overview” section of the curriculum,
pages 9-11.
Duration: 1 class period
Location: Classroom
Procedure:
1. Have students view the timeline from “Wilderness—A Brief History.”
2. Cut one copy of the timeline into separate pieces so everyone has at least one date.
3. From the timeline have students take home or spend some time during class conducting
research for the following activity.
4. Have students report on at least one other event that took place that year or in the years
proceeding that year in American history. Is there any connection to the event in Wilderness
history? Was there a war going on? Was it a prosperous time? What other environmental
legislation took place at the same time? Sometimes a connection or the context of the event
provides insight into America’s culture or values at that time.
Evaluation / Follow-up / Extension
• Evaluate individual or group assignments.
•
Have students write a one page paper on an event in the timeline and its connection to
other events in American history.
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Procedure continued:
•
Encourage students to conduct further reading and study of people and organizations
involved in the conservation movement.
Career Options: historian, policy maker, environmental advocate, Wilderness manager
References:
• Mountains Without Handrails, Reflections on the National Parks, Joseph L. Sax
•
The American Conservation Movement, Stephen Fox
•
Our Common Lands, Defending National Parks, Edited by David J. Simon
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Wilderness and the American Mind, Roderick Nash
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Activity 1: The American Experience: Battle for Wilderness
TEACHER HANDOUT • Discussion Questions
1. Name the first organized groups who used wilderness in the early 1900’s.
Response: Audubon, Sierra Club, Boy Scouts, Campfire Girls
2. Describe the key points of the Progressive Era.
Response:
•
child labor reform
•
giving women the right to vote
•
the breakup of monopolies
•
guarantee of pure food on the table
3. What significant events changed John Muir’s life?
Response:
An industrial accident temporarily blinded him. He was on the edge of becoming a rich man but
gave it up for a life of wandering in the wilderness. He took a 1,000-mile journey to the Gulf of
Mexico at age 29. A crucial revelation he has as a result is that the natural world is not made for
him but is none the less beautiful, self-consistent, and useful unto itself. As time passed, Muir
spent more and more time in the mountains, becoming totally absorbed by his experience in
that place, at that time. People thought he was “strange” since he thought trees and bears were
more important than humans. He taught the American society we can go into the wilderness and
not fear it. He became a self-taught scientist and wrote numerous articles and essays for
newspapers and magazines about the natural world. He helped create Yosemite National Park
and was the founder of the Sierra Club.
4. In contrast to John Muir’s upbringing, describe how Gifford Pinchot was raised? How did his
childhood experiences help form his passion for the land?
Response:
Pinchot was raised in an elite, wealthy family. He traveled through Europe as a child, went to the
best schools, and was raised to be a powerful man. His father chose forestry as a career for
Gifford Pinchot. While attending forestry school in Europe, he was alarmed with the deforestation of France and believed that America could run out of trees. He realized the industrial era
had given the public the idea that our resources were limitless and the result of this movement
produced vanishing forests that were over logged and overgrazed, and ruined by mining
wastes. He became the first American forester. His central belief was that scientific forestry, the
controlled planting and cutting of trees would protect our dwindling forests and prove profitable
to the American people.
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Activity 1: The American Experience: Battle for Wilderness
TEACHER HANDOUT • Discussion Questions
continued:
5. Explain why the controversy over damming Hetch Hetchy valley was described as “a spiritual
watershed in American history”.
Possible response: Answers may vary.
6. What was the common thread held between John Muir and Gifford Pinchot?
Response: They both strongly believed that it was imperative to save American forests from
wholesale destruction. They are known as the “Fathers of the American Conservation Movement.” How the American forests should be saved was their major point of difference and
dissension. Muir believed that “It (wilderness) was as God made it…perfect.” Pinchot, in contrast, believed that “The Earth belongs to all…the public good must come first.” The landscape
could be improved if humans could manage it.
7. Describe the first major disagreement between Muir and Pinchot regarding land management.
Response:
Sheep, or “hoofed locusts,” as Muir called them, were the subject of disagreement. In the press,
Pinchot recommended grazing on public land. Pinchot had a multiple use land management
mission. He thought you could have forestry, grazing, watershed protection, hunting, and fishing
all in the same place. Muir disagreed. He felt you couldn’t have both multiple use and Wilderness.
8. Describe other cultural effects of Wilderness on people in America.
Possible response:
With the frontier coming to an end in 1890, people were searching for an identity. What was the
character of our culture becoming? Wilderness became an invention of the “post-Indian world.”
This concept of wilderness erased the role of Native Americans from the landscape. Wilderness
was thought of as an area devoid of human occupation. Both Muir and Pinchot left out the poor
who had little access to wilderness. Wilderness was enjoyed and revered by the wealthy, privileged classes. During this time, Theodore Roosevelt created the Boone and Crockett Club who
catered to white, wealthy men from back east who would travel to the western wilderness to
hunt and camp. During this era President Roosevelt also crated numerous national parks,
monuments and reserves. He named Gifford Pinchot as his Director of the Bureau of Forestry
who later became the first chief of the Forest Service and championed the idea of a national
forest system.
9. What was the motivation behind the origins of the “Conservation Movement”?
Possible response: When Europeans settled in North America they thought resources like trees
were without limit and theirs for the taking. By 1890 the frontier had come to an end, and the
industrial movement had an ever increasing appetite for our natural resources.
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Activity 1: The American Experience: Battle for Wilderness
TEACHER HANDOUT • Discussion Questions
continued:
John Muir led a movement to “save what was still unspoiled, before it was too late; not just for
the sake of wilderness, but for the good of our souls. By 1900, people began to believe that
Wilderness was worth protecting and this idea started a national movement. People were
nostalgic for a simpler, more primitive experience.
10. Describe the hardships of John Muir’s upbringing. Explain how you think these childhood
experiences helped form his passion for Wilderness.
Possible response: Muir was born to a family who immigrated from Scotland to Wisconsin in
1849 to homestead on the frontier. He worked from 4 a.m. to 9 p.m., 17 hours of hard labor
daily. There was little joy in his household due to his father’s strict practices of Calvinism. He
would have to make his own way. As a young man he developed inventions and later worked in
factories located in large cities. He was not happy with his civilized life. Answers may vary on
how students think Muir’s childhood experiences led to his crusade for Wilderness.
11. Why is the story of Hetch Hetchy significant to the conservation vs. preservation controversy?
Possible response:
After a major earthquake struck San Francisco, threatening its public water supply, there was a
move to dam and flood the Hetch Hetch valley. The Hetch Hetchy valley was located within the
boundaries of Yosemite National Park. The controversy between Muir and Pinchot was: What
is the role of National Park Service lands? This became a national controversy. Muir and his
followers believed if this National Park was opened to development, other parks were also in
danger. Pinchot became an advocate of the dam because it was a good example of multiple
use management. It would break up a powerful, private water monopoly in San Francisco and
return water issues to public control.
Muir used the media for an impassioned plea to the American public to save Hetch Hetchy
valley. He wrote editorials, essays, and produced photographs showing the potential damage to
the valley. He used Pinchot as an example of someone to blame for the ruination of magnificent
country. He roused the American public to lobby Congress, and gained support for preservation
from all the major newspapers in the country. Pinchot used Muir as an example of a Wilderness
fanatic. To industry, he seemed reasonable in his conservation crusade. He used his political
power to lobby Congress and effectively convinced Roosevelt to support the dam project.
Pinchot spoke of the “greatest good for the greatest number of people.”
After 8 congressional hearings which lasted over a decade, the Senate approved the project in
1913.
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Activity 1: The American Experience: Battle for wilderness
TEACHER HANDOUT • Discussion Questions
continued:
12. Explain the statement, “Muir lost the battle to save Hetch Hetchy valley, but he alsowon”.
Possible response:
Since the damming of Hetch Hetchy valley, no comparable intrusion in the national parks has
occurred. Recently, a move to develop potential gas and oil reserves at Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge in Alaska has taken main stage as a comparable conservation battle. In 1916 Congress
passed the National Park Service Act. John Muir left a legacy of resources untouched, the
national park system. Muir is recognized as the founder of the idea of Wilderness, but Pinchot
was largely responsible for preserving Wilderness since Pinchot set aside much of the land that
has became the basis of the National Wilderness Preservation System.
13. Explain how Wilderness has become part of our American culture.
Possible response: Answers may vary. Main points to cover: Wilderness has always been a
part of our culture since the arrival of the Mayflower. By 1900, 90 percent of forests were cut
down or burned. Like many early pioneer families, the Stegner family felt people were greedy
because we were motivated by the idea that our natural resources were unlimited, we’d never
run out.
14. The video portrays an either/or question between Muir and Pinchot in the Conservation
Movement. What values and ideas from both Muir and Pinchot should guide the Conservation
Movement for future generations?
Possible response: Answers may vary.
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