Key People in Conservation

Outdoor Education

John James Audubon

Painted and described the birds of North America.

Published life-sized prints that are still considered the standard.

Audubon society named in his honor.

Mary Austin

Wrote a book dedicated to the deserts of the American southwest.

Used very descriptive language in her book The Land of little rain.

Florence Merriam Bailey

Ornithologist and nature writer.

Worked with congress to pass legislation preventing unnecessary bird slaughter.

Hugh Bennett

Father of American soil conservation.

Encouraged conservation in 1920’s & 1930’s.

Created the Federal Soil Conservation Service, now known as Natural Resource Conservation Service.

Rachel Carson

Wrote Silent Spring about pesticide abuse.

Spurred a nation into action and started the modern environmental movement.

Her worked resulted in nation wide ban of DDT.

Anna Botsford Comstock

First person to bring students and other teachers outside to study nature, implemented course on nature study in NY public schools.

Encouraged observation as the best way to study nature.

Jay “Ding” Darling

Attended UW where he began working as a cartoonist.

Published conservation cartoons, designed the first federal duck stamp.

Appointed as the head of the Bureau of Biological Survey.

Founded National Wildlife Federation.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Wrote Everglades: River of Grass and mobilized Florida against the draining and overdevelopment of the everglades.

Founded Friends of the Everlgades.

Rosalie Edge

One of the first female leaders of the conservation movement.

Became active because of outrage against the Audubon Society.

Founded Hawk Mountain Wildlife Refuge.

William Temple Hornaday

Chief taxidermist of U.S. National Museum.

Became president of the Permanent Wild Life Protective Association.

Credited with saving American Bison and Alaskan Fur Seal from extinction.

John F. Lacey

Wrote legislation that made it illegal to ship game across state lines-the first federal conservation law.

Lacey Bird Act of 1900, and several other land conservation acts passed because of him.

Aldo Leopold

Father of Wildlife management.

Served for 19 years in United States Forest Service before working at UW-Madison.

Founded the Wilderness Society while writing about ethical and conservation issues.

Robert Marshall

Founder of the Wilderness society.

Helped to preserve large tracts of Alaska.

Shaped US Forestry policy of wilderness management.

Stephen Mather

First director of National Park Service.

Evaluate possible sites for National Parks.

Felt scenery was an important factor for parks.

John Muir

Settled by Portage, WI and attended UW-Madison were he was influenced to explore nature.

Founded the Sierra Club and helped preserve Yosemite Valley

Image is on the CA quarter

Helen Nearing

Advocated self-sufficient living and back to the land movement.

Developed improvements for maple syrup production while advocating an organic food approach, wrote several books on those areas.

Gaylord Nelson

From Clear Lake, WI. Elected as state

senator, then governor, and eventually US senate and attended conservation tour with JFK.

Principal founder of “Earth Day.”

Frederic Law Olmsted

Brought Nature to the city.

Designed Central Park.

He was the first prominent Landscape Architect

Sigurd Olson

Grew up and was influenced by Northern Wisconsin’s nature.

Helped draft the Wilderness Act of 1964 while serving as president of Wilderness Society.

He also helped establish Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota.

George Perkins Marsh

America’s 1st environmentalist.

Published Man and Nature the first book to pose questions concerning man’s impact on the environment.

Roger Tory Peterson

Published Guide to Birds and co-wrote Wild America.

He served as editor of Peterson Field Guides and developed the Peterson identification system still used today.

Gifford Pinchot

First chief forester of US Forest Service.

Advocated conservation by planned use and renewal.

Coined the term “conservation ethic”.

John Wesley Powell

Lived a mountain man lifestyle by exploring the Rocky Mountains, walking across WI, taking passages on Mississippi river.

Became second director of US Geological Survey shaped Western Land use policies

Theodore Roosevelt

Founded the National Parks.

Created federal wildlife and bird refuges, set aside land for nature preserves.

Established the US Forest Service

Henry David Thoreau

Wrote On Walden Pond that helped start the environmental movement, a reflection on simple living in the natural environment.