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The Living River

Andrew Needham

in Power Lines: Phoenix and the Making of the Modern Southwest

This chapter addresses how The New York Times challenged the long-held claims of Arizona officials that their state was entitled to a portion of the Colorado River by rights, a claim recently upheld ... More

This chapter addresses how The New York Times challenged the long-held claims of Arizona officials that their state was entitled to a portion of the Colorado River by rights, a claim recently upheld by the Supreme Court. The paper also argued that Arizona's attempt to realize those claims endangered the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon itself. Transforming the flowing energy of water into flowing electricity, the Times suggested, was not in the national interest. Such critiques of Arizona's growth emerged in the wake of the Interior Department's development of the Pacific Southwest Water Plan, a plan designed in 1963 to realize Arizona's Colorado River claims. The critiques emerged from several different conservationist groups, but most powerfully from the Sierra Club, which was gradually changing the description of its politics from “conservation” to “environmentalism” and assuming a far more public voice in disputes over the proper use of public lands.Less

Grand Canyon

Robert Wyss

in The Man Who Built the Sierra Club: A Life of David Brower

Udall and Dominy want to build two dams within the Grand Canyon and Brower frantically marshals opposition to the plan. Initially, the campaign fares poorly.

The Legacies of Hetch Hetchy

Robert W. Righter

in The Battle Over Hetch Hetchy: America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism

The legacies of Hetch Hetchy are numerous. Without the fight, American national parks might be administered by the US Forest Service. The fight was instrumental in the passage of the National Parks ... More

The legacies of Hetch Hetchy are numerous. Without the fight, American national parks might be administered by the US Forest Service. The fight was instrumental in the passage of the National Parks Act of 1916, establishing the National Park Service and defining the mission of American national parks. Also without the Hetch Hetchy fight, dams may have been built in Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, Dinosaur National Monument, and on either end of Grand Canyon National Park. Over the years, the Hetch Hetchy fight has raised the consciousness of a nation. For the first time the nation questioned the meaning of progress, and in a sense, Hetch Hetchy was a national awakening. Since 1913, the fight has often been used by conservationists as an example of what should not happen to a spectacular mountain valley located in a national park.Less

Thinking Beyond the Rim

Thomas A. Heberlein

in Navigating Environmental Attitudes

This chapter completes our journey. As the sun goes off the river and the big rapids are behind us, we catch our breath, relax, and reflect, reviewing again four principles that help us understand ... More

This chapter completes our journey. As the sun goes off the river and the big rapids are behind us, we catch our breath, relax, and reflect, reviewing again four principles that help us understand attitudes: (a) direct experience, (b) identity, (c) consistency, and (d) specificity. Analysis of efforts to reduce energy consumption in Hood River Oregon, reduce water pollution in two Wisconsin lakes, and reduce crowding in the Grand Canyon show how social and natural sciences partner to solve environmental problems. Based on our understanding of attitudes and the lessons from these projects we can, perhaps, make progress toward realizing what Leopold called “the inevitable fusion” of knowledge about the human, plant, and animal communities.Less

Losing While Winning

Robert Wyss

in The Man Who Built the Sierra Club: A Life of David Brower

Brower publishes a newspaper advertisement against the Grand Canyon dam, prompting an IRS investigation which eventually will lead to the club losing its non-profit status. But the public is outraged ... More

Brower publishes a newspaper advertisement against the Grand Canyon dam, prompting an IRS investigation which eventually will lead to the club losing its non-profit status. But the public is outraged by what it sees as government censorship and opposition to the dams builds.Less

The River Commons

Daniel McCool

in River Republic: The Fall and Rise of America's Rivers

This chapter takes a look at the future and the evolution of a wholly different concept of the way we interact with rivers. In particular, it considers the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon and the ... More

This chapter takes a look at the future and the evolution of a wholly different concept of the way we interact with rivers. In particular, it considers the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon and the most famous river run—and the dams that almost drowned it. The Marble Canyon section of the Colorado River offers some of the best white-water rafting in the world, including the “Roaring Twenties.” The Colorado River in the Grand Canyon reels under the onslaught of industrial tourism. One of the basic premises of this book is that rivers should be managed as a commons—a resource that belongs to society as a whole and not to a narrow group of well-heeled special interests. But in some cases that goal can be met by providing greater opportunities for water marketing and by valuing water according to market prices. The key is to manage water in ways that mimic market efficiencies while preserving public interests. And in order to remake America's rivers via restoration, an army of instigators is required.Less

Conclusion: On the Trail

Beth E. Levy

in Frontier Figures: American Music and the Mythology of the American West

This chapter discusses the most famous orchestral evocation of the West, “On the Trail.” This central movement of Ferde Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite, premiered by Paul Whiteman in 1931, has for ... More

This chapter discusses the most famous orchestral evocation of the West, “On the Trail.” This central movement of Ferde Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite, premiered by Paul Whiteman in 1931, has for generations represented the quintessential western soundtrack. In typical occidental fashion, its popularity springs from at least three sources: the colorful and pictorial surface of the score, the “real-life” connotations of its ersatz cowboy song; and the influence of new media and clever marketing. Over the course of two decades, “On the Trail.” reached millions of radio listeners courtesy of the Philip Morris Company's tobacco advertisements. More than any other portion of Grofé's suite, “On the Trail” celebrates the human presence in the West.Less

Ice over Fire: Glaciers Carve the Landscape

Robert B. Smith and Lee J. Siegel

in Windows into the Earth: The Geologic Story of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks

Yellowstone, the Tetons, and Jackson Hole were shaped by multiple catastrophes. Huge volcanic eruptions and powerful earthquakes played major roles. Finishing touches were added by another kind of ... More

Yellowstone, the Tetons, and Jackson Hole were shaped by multiple catastrophes. Huge volcanic eruptions and powerful earthquakes played major roles. Finishing touches were added by another kind of calamity: A rare global Ice Age produced gigantic glaciers that buried the landscape with ice two-thirds of a mile thick in places. The glaciers carved mountains, canyons, and lake basins. They dumped large piles of debris and redirected the flow of rivers. The Yellowstone—Teton region is a world-class example of how land was reshaped by glaciers during what is known as the Pleistocene Ice Age. The Ice Age was not a single glacial period, but many intermittent cold spells interspersed with warmer periods during which the ice melted. The timing of major glacial periods is notoriously uncertain. Although continental ice sheets did not quite reach as far south as Yellowstone, a regional icecap and large glaciers covered the Yellowstone—Teton country during three major episodes of at least the past 300,000 years—and perhaps the past 2 million years. The last of these big glaciers retreated about 14,000 years ago, although some argue they did not recede until 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Today, small glaciers in the Teton Range are found only above 10,000 feet. During each major episode, most of Yellowstone National Park was buried beneath an icecap as much as 3,500 feet thick, among the largest in the ancient Rocky Mountains. Gigantic masses of ice flowed down from the high Yellowstone Plateau, carving and scouring the Earth’s surface, diverting and damming rivers into their present forms, steepening mountain fronts, and deepening lakes. The ice helped sculpt the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. More than anything, the thick ice scraped Yellowstone’s volcanic topography, further smoothing the plateau and helping to excavate the basin occupied by Yellowstone Lake. Jackson Hole became a rendezvous of glaciers converging from the north, north-east, and west. Ice up to 2,000 feet thick scooped out the valley floor. The glaciers left tall ridges of rocky debris now covered by lush conifer forests. Such ridges, called moraines, helped shape Jackson Lake. Less

Introduction

Robert Wyss

in The Man Who Built the Sierra Club: A Life of David Brower

Life Magazine calls David Brower the nation’s leading conservation leader. Brower in his lifetime changed how Americans viewed the environment.

Introduction

William E. Ellis

in Irvin S. Cobb: The Rise and Fall of an American Humorist

In this brief introduction, Ellis poses the question: who was Cobb, and why is his story worth telling so many years after his death? To answer this question, he quotes substantially from Cobb’s ... More

In this brief introduction, Ellis poses the question: who was Cobb, and why is his story worth telling so many years after his death? To answer this question, he quotes substantially from Cobb’s work, highlighting Cobb’s skill and wit as a wordsmith and showing that he was an important writer of the twentieth century, even though his work is mostly unread today. Ellis encourages readers of this biography to become engaged in and give recognition to Cobb’s works once again. Less

. Spoils of Other Empires

John G. T. Anderson

in Deep Things out of Darkness: A History of Natural History

In which we move to North America to discuss early Spanish explorations of the Gulf Coast, the role of the Hudson’s Bay Company in natural history studies, and the journeys of Lewis and Clark and ... More

In which we move to North America to discuss early Spanish explorations of the Gulf Coast, the role of the Hudson’s Bay Company in natural history studies, and the journeys of Lewis and Clark and later American explorers in mapping and cataloging the heart of the continent.Less

A Connoisseur of Nature

David Ehrenfeld

in Swimming Lessons: Keeping Afloat in the Age of Technology

My old college housemate Claude had dropped by for one of his stimulating visits, an infrequent happening even though his apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side was only an hour away by car. In ... More

My old college housemate Claude had dropped by for one of his stimulating visits, an infrequent happening even though his apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side was only an hour away by car. In college, we had been utter opposites in interests and temperaments—Claude’s direction was art criticism, which he celebrated with an élan that gained him a wide circle of friends. Mine was biology, and shyness was my distinguishing social feature. A shared liking for history and the attraction of very different personalities formed a narrow bridge between us, enough to have kept us in occasional contact over the years. We had been discussing European politics and the question of decentralism over a light lunch on the patio, and then, in one of those curious shifts that conversations take, we had abruptly changed the subject. He was holding forth in his usual compelling fashion. “The trouble with nature writing,” Claude said, “is that it’s so artistically accepting, so uncritical. Lopez, Abbey, and their ilk—why civilization seems to have passed them by without leaving a mark. Culture implies the ability to discriminate, to judge—not sometimes, all of the time. Why should nature be exempt from criticism?” He readjusted his long, elegantly trousered legs carefully on the lounge chair, glared briefly across the patio at a song sparrow sitting on a dead branch of my Cortland apple tree, and continued. “I fail to comprehend why you nature-lovers don’t hold nature to the same kind of exacting standard that a cultured person applies to a bottle of Margaux or a performance of Rosenkavalier. Undiscriminating adulation is barbaric.”Just then a starling arrived at the bird feeder, displacing a blue jay. “Do you see that?” cried Claude. “That is exactly what I mean.” “Too aggressive?” “No, no, that’s not it at all. Look at the preposterous thing. Surely you can see what I’m referring to?” “All I see is a starling. It seems healthy.” “It seems healthy!” Claude stared at me in disbelief. “You’re not understanding me. Try to look at it as if it were a painting, a painting you did in beginner’s art class. Less

Perspective

Jan Zalasiewicz

in The Earth After Us: What legacy will humans leave in the rocks?

The purest of science fiction. The Earth, in a post-human future, many millions of years hence, being re-explored. By . . . whom? Perhaps extraterrestrial explorers or ... More

The purest of science fiction. The Earth, in a post-human future, many millions of years hence, being re-explored. By . . . whom? Perhaps extraterrestrial explorers or colonists, just as we now peer at images of rock strata sent back by the Mars landers. Or perhaps a new, home-grown intelligence: say, a newly evolved species of hyper-intelligent rodent. No matter. What would such explorers, of whatever ancestry, find of our own, long-vanished, human empire? A frivolous question, perhaps. But perhaps not. It is hard, as humans, to get a proper perspective on the human race. We know that the Earth has a history that is long beyond human imagination, and that our own history is tiny by comparison. We know that we are animals, and yet we have transcended our natural environment to live in surroundings that, mostly, we have manufactured for ourselves. We know that this created environment is evolving at a speed that is vastly more rapid than the normal evolution of biological organisms or communities. We do not understand, quite, how our created environment and our activities interact with the natural environment, and we do not know what the long-term consequences will be. Let us take one view. We are simply one species out of perhaps 30 million currently inhabiting the planet (reputable estimates range from some 5 million to over 100 million). We are briefly in the golden age of our power, our dominance. But we are destined to extinction also, just as the dinosaurs became extinct. The world will then go on as before. Once a geological age or two has passed, there will be nothing but the odd bone or gold ring to show that we were ever here. In this scenario, comparison with the dinosaurs is apt. They were the top predators of their day, as our single species is now. But consider, also, the differences between us and the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs existed on this Earth for about a hundred million years, and included many species adapted to different environments. Homo sapiens is but one species, and has been around for less than a quarter of a million years, less than a tenth of an average species’ longevity. Less