From the redwood forest, to the Gulf Stream waters, the natural beauty and bounty of the United States has so much to offer. Since the first humans strode through its forests, deserts, valleys and mountains, we have marveled at the grandeur and majesty of its natural wonders. One of our great achievements as a country is our dedication to the conservation of nature through the National Park System, but it is not an untarnished record; it took many activists, movements and laws to keep these places pristine and open to the people of this country, and maintaining them requires constant vigilance and progress towards the ideals set by environmentalists before us. Read on to discover purple mountain majesties, amber waves of grain and what makes the United States naturally beautiful.
If we were to choose one single person to thank for our national parks, it is John Muir. Aghast at the careless razing of forests and loose livestock left rampant in the Yosemite Valley, Muir began a grassroots effort to preserve our wondrous spaces that led him straight to the White House and into the heart of every environmentalist. “Guardians of the Valley: John Muir and the Friendship That Saved Yosemite” by Dean King traces Muir’s journey and activism that created the modern culture of natural conservation.
Though Yosemite became the flagship of the nascent National Park System, it was predated by Yellowstone National Park. Founded in the 1870s, Yellowstone holds the distinction of being the first national park in the world. Though it became a pilot project for the many parks to come, its history is not a spotless one: George Black’s “Empire of Shadows: The Epic Story of Yellowstone” goes into the exhaustive and fascinating history of the area, examining (and not shying away from) every person, event and conflict that led to the creation of the park.
One of the foremost individuals to capture and share the natural beauty of the parks was Ansel Adams. Receiving his first camera during a trip to Yosemite, Adams worked as a photographer for Muir’s Sierra Club and eventually for the Department of the Interior. His choices of subject and his sense of imagery are inherently tied to the parks we know and love. Explore a fraction of his immense body of photography in “Ansel Adams: The Spirit of Wild Places.”
For a modern exploration of the national parks, check out Conor Knighton’s “Leave Only Footprints.” As an offshoot of his now popular CBS Sunday Morning segment, “On the Trail,” Knighton sets out to explore each and every one of the United States’ national parks, from Acadia to Zion. While occasionally waxing poetic about his own life and backstory, this travel memoir details fascinating tidbits from every corner of the country.
Of course, the United States is more than just national parks; our country has a wealth of natural resources that deserve protection. No article on American environmentalism and conservation would be complete without Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring & Other Writings.” Highlighting the dangers of synthetic pesticides like DDT, Carson painted a dire warning of an ecosystem so thoroughly polluted as to be rendered devoid of animal life. First published in 1962, this book catapulted environmentalism to the forefront of politics, and is the direct cause for the foundation of the Environmental Protection Agency.
To understand the impact of Carson’s work, read “Silent Spring Revolution” by Douglas Brinkley. The book explores the political and cultural shifts both caused and highlighted by “Silent Spring” across the presidential terms of Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, and examines the modern environmentalist movement. It’s the final book in a trilogy by Brinkley about political environmentalism. If people at the levers of power had not been moved by Carson’s writing and activism, “Silent Spring” may have become a grim reality rather than a dread forecast.
Our attempts to preserve and harness the natural resources of this land face other challenges, too. In fact, our efforts may be just barely preventing major changes in ecosystem and landscape. In “Holding Back the River,” Tyler J. Kelley investigates the crumbling infrastructure that is barely holding back the unstoppable waters of the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri and myriad other rivers. From a critical dam 20 years behind schedule, to a historically black town on the verge of perpetual floodwaters, to the mouth of the Mississippi, which wishes to move and wash over the ports and towns of southern Louisiana, Kelley shines an uncomfortable light on the tenuous grasp the country has on some of its most precious resources.
