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Time Line - Battle for the Environment
The disagreement between 'Conservationism' and 'Preservationism'
Conservationism - Save it until we have a use for it.
Preservationism - Forever.
Hetch Hetchy - An early victim of Conservationism
1865
August 11, 1865 – Gifford Pinchot is born to Episcopalian parents in Simsbury, Connecticut. His parents are James W. Pinchot, a successful New York City wallpaper merchant and Mary Eno, daughter of one of New York City's wealthiest real estate developers, Amos Eno.
1880s
San Francisco's water board and politicians are discussing the possibility of constructing a dam at the narrow end of Hetch Hetchy Valley to be used as a reservoir. 1885
Gifford Pinchot graduates from Phillips Exeter Academy. Pinchot's father suggests he become a forester. The Pinchot family made a great fortune from lumbering and land speculation. 1889
Pinchot begin studies at the French National School of Forestry, in Nancy, remaining for a year. Several years later he became involved with the National Forest Commission created by the National Academy of Sciences. He and several other members traveled through the West during the summer of 1896 investigating forest areas for possible forest reserves. Two years later, he was named chief of the Division of Forestry. His friend Theodore Roosevelt was elevated into the Presidency by the assassination of President McKinley. 1890
October 1, 1890 area outside the valley and sequoia grove became a national park
under the unopposed Yosemite Act.
The State of California retained control of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees. Muir and 181 others founded the Sierra Club in 1892, in part to lobby for the transfer of the valley and the grove into the National Park.Gifford Pinchot, returning from France, plunges into the nascent forestry movement. He is determined to shape policy based on conservationist principles. He begins work as resident forester for Vanderbilt's Biltmore Forest Estate for three years.1892
Saturday, May 28 - The Sierra Club is founded at a meeting in the law offices offices of Warren Olney. First National Bank Building at 101 Sansome Street. Among those attending were Joseph LeConte, J. h. Senger, William Dallam Armes, Cornelius Beach Bradley and John C. Branner, all faculty members at Stanford or Berkeley.On Saturday, May 28, 1892, a formal meeting was held in Olney's office to organize a "Sierra Club." A week later there was another meeting at the same site. Twenty-seven charter members signed the articles of incorporation that Olney had drawn up. Muir was elected president, Olney vice-president.1895
June - Charles Sprague Sargent, head of the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard, Wolcott Gibbs, president of the National Academy of Science (NAS), Pinchot, and William Stiles, editor of Garden and Forest, met in Brookline, Massachusetts, to lay out a plan to study the western timber lands under the aegis of NAS. Once formulated, they carried their plan to the Secretary of the Interior, Hoke Smith. Pinchot is the only non-academy member. 1896
February 15 – Secretary of the Interior, Hoke Smith asks Gibbs, in his capacity as president of NAS, to convene a group of forestry experts to study the forest reserve issues. Origin: National Forest Commission 1896 – 1897Giford Pinchot and several other members of the National Forest Commission traveled through the West during the summer investigating forest areas for possible forest reserves. Galen Clark retired as the state grant's guardian in 1896, leaving Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees under ineffective stewardship 1898
Sierra Club established an information center for visitors to Yosemite Valley in 1898. The center included a library, and a young man named William Colby was hired as its attendant. Gifford Pinchot is named chief of the Division of Forestry, succeeding Bernhard Fernow. The agency is later renamed the United States Forest Service1900
Sierra Club membership is 384. Muir's flawed thinking - Muir became a booster of tourism. He reasoned that "if people in general could be got into the woods, even for once, to hear the trees speak for themselves, all difficulties in the way of forest preservation would vanish." The more who would kick Emerson's "house habit," the better for the cause of conservation. Colby became Secretary of the Sierra Club in 1900, retaining that position for 46 years, with the exception of the two years he served as President. 1901
September 14 - William McKinley, 25th President of the United States, is assassinated. Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt, succeeded him. At 43, Roosevelt became the youngest President in the nation's history. Theodore Roosevelt was born to a wealthy family in 1858. Roosevelt will be known as the Father of Conservation, the term used in the same sense as with Pinchot. Sierra Club's Board of Directors had determined that an annual summer outing would be a valuable addition to Club activities. High Trip - 96 people went to Tuolumne Meadows.
49 Club members hiked 20 miles and ascended 4,000 feet to the summit of Mt. Dana in one day.
Twenty climbed Mt. Lyell, the highest peak in Yosemite National Park.
1902
Sierra Club Bulletin carried two reports of the summer outing, one by Ella Sexton, subtitled "a woman's view of the outing," and the other the "man's view" -- written by Edward Parsons. Parsons noted of the women who ascended Mt. Dana, most of them "Berkeley or Stanford girls," that "their vigor and endurance were a revelation to all of us." 1903
May 15 – President Teddy Roosevelt makes a trip to Yosemite. From: Yosemite.ca.us, from a book by Hank Johnston. See Article, with dates and times bolded. Sierra Club completed the LeConte Memorial Lodge in Yosemite to serve as the organization's summer headquarters. 1904
Marion Randall. A close friend of Muir's daughter Wanda Randall joins the 1904 outing as her first venture into the wilderness. 1905
56 members of the annual outing, including 15 women, made the ascent of Mt. Rainier, on the first High Trip outside California. Stephen Mather was among the party. Pinchot structures the Forest Service on a model for Federal control with the full support of his friend, President Teddy Roosevelt. Forest reserves are transferred from the Department of the Interior to Agriculture and the new Forest Service.1907
December 16 – The Great White Fleet leaves Hampton Roads, Va. The Fleet consisted of sixteen new battleships of the Atlantic Fleet. These were painted white except for gilded scrollwork on their bows. The Atlantic Fleet battleships only later came to be known as the "Great White Fleet." The fourteen-month long voyage was a demonstration of American sea power. The squadrons were manned by 14,000 sailors. They covered some 43,000 miles and made twenty port calls on six continents. Roosevelt appoints Pinchot a member of the Inland Waterways Commission in a Progressive Era investigation and study of water resources usage. Congress forbides the creation of more forest reserves in the Western states. Roosevelt designates 16 million acres (65,000 km²) of new National Forests just minutes before his power to do so was stripped by a congressionally mandated amendment to the Agriculture Bill. These were called the Midnight Forests.1908
May 6 - The Great White Fleet arrived in San Francisco.
Congress begins consideration of the plan to dam Hetch Hetchy for the benefit of San Francisco interests. Archival RecordsJohn Muir begins Battle to save the Hetch Hetchy. Sierra Club membership reaches 1,ooo individuals.
1909
William Howard Taft, President of the United States, visits Yosemite. Taft, a Conservative or Classical Liberal, opposes the right of way for the Hetch Hetchy.
Conservative or Classical Liberal, opposes the right of way for the Hetch Hetchy. February 22 – The Great White Fleet returns to Hampton Roads, Va., on a rainy Feb., ending its 14-month odyssey 1910
Pinchot is fired by President Taft in a controversy over coal claims in Alaska. He was replaced by Henry "Harry" S. Graves. Pinchot's successes became a model for other bureaucrats on how to influence public opinion.1911
John Muir finishes his last book. The Yosemite, chooses Pillsbury photos for his book.
1912
October 14, 15, 16 - Pillsbury – Shows the first lapse-time movie to the National Park Superintendents at a conference in Yosemite. Individuals attending the conference.
Superintendents at a conference in Yosemite. Individuals attending the conference.1913
John Muir loses his battle for the Hetch Hetchy Woodrow Wilson, a Progressive, supports the damming of Hetch Hetchy. 1914
December 24 – John Muir dies in Los Angeles, broken hearted over the loss of the Hetch Hetchy. Cars enter Yosemite
1915
March 11 - 13 - National Parks Conference held at the University of California at Berkeley. Proceedings of the National Park Conference held at Berkeley, March 11, 12 and 13, 1915, were published by the Government Printing Office in Washington D. C., published 1915.
