Parallel Timelines

Lesson Introduction

The North American continent surprised the Europeans with a set of resources with an entirely different character than that to which they were accustomed in the Old World. The technological revolution, including the Industrial Revolution juxtaposed against an untamed continent rich in resources and stunning in beauty, was followed by a spate of writings, works of art, laws, declarations, and calls to action regarding the need to preserve the natural state of the New World.

Parallel progressions can be seen between the legislation being enacted throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the early days of what has come to be known as the Conservation Movement. Beginning in the 1850s, writers detailed the aesthetic value of "wilderness," as did artists. Excursions to the West by individual photographers and government surveyors awakened the East to the vastness of the West, and the government followed up on this awareness by setting aside lands as parks and establishing agencies dedicated to the preservation of nature's resources.

In the decades to follow, scientists, writers, travelers, politicians, and traders all contributed to raising awareness of the importance of preserving lands for their beauty; recreational value; sustained yield of timber, water, and other resources. Specific issues regarding the impacts of industrialization on different natural resources continued to confront the populace, and governments at all levels acted in parallel with the feelings expressed in the literature and art of the time.

Look on the World Wide Web for a detailed timeline of the History of the Conservation. This site is affiliated with the Library of Congress and provides links to additional information on conservation history.

Illinois State Goal	Standard	Learning Benchmarks
16	E	5b Analyze the relationship between an issue in United States environmental history and the related aspects of political, economic, and social history.

Lesson Objectives

• learn how public awareness of an issue has been created.
• learn how that awareness has been reflected in legislation by the various government bodies throughout the development of the Conservation Movement.

Advance Preparation

If the students will not be given time out of class to do research, then it may be beneficial to provide copies of the timeline given at the web site mentioned above along with a collection of resource books.

Time Allotment

Two one-hour class sessions

Materials

• a good library
• poster board and markers

PROCEDURE

Tap Prior Knowledge

1. Ask the students, What types of events or public voices might cause governments to enact legislation? Have the students brainstorm and produce a list of the expressions of public sentiment, items such as publications, addresses, formation of societies devoted to a certain issue, and public reaction to events of persons who have made bold statements about an issue.

Share with Neighbor

2. Ask the students, What types of concerns might be associated with the growing concern for America's landscapes and wildlife? Allow them to think of examples from the present day, but encourage them eventually to imagine the world in which the Conservation Movement was born - a world in that was very new and unprecedented to the United States - and to think of the issues that were pressing to the people living in that time and place.

Hands-on Activity

3. Have each student or group decide upon a particular environmental issue that they will trace through the Conservation Movement. Encourage them to think of an issue that has relevance today and that would have been an issue to be considered a hundred years ago. Their issues should be general enough that they can count on finding a long history of the issue in the United States. For this reason, students should avoid topics like endocrine disruptors in the environment - an issue which has only recently been taken seriously, but that issue can be generalized to concerns about toxic chemicals in the environment.

4. The students will research their issue's development through time, seeking to include evidence of the issue as far back in the history of the North American continent as they can find. They should create two timelines next to one another, one showing the influential persons, creative works, and events, and the other showing important legislation at the Federal, state, or local level regarding the issue at hand.

5. The students will display their timelines to the class and explain the progression of public sentiment and the important legislation on the issue.

Introduce Scientific Principle/Environmental Issue

Have students discuss these dynamics, using their own timelines as examples. Since the students have not done much in-depth research regarding certain events, encourage them to take guesses based on what they know about human nature and the workings of society. How did the public become convinced that the issue was an important one? Did the public really understand the issue? Did the people understand just a part of the issue? If so, how did this affect public opinion and reaction? Did the government's action come before or after the public dialogue around it?

Relate Activity and Concept

7. The students have just explored a very important aspect of environmental history - the history of thought about the importance of our natural heritage and our relationships to the land. By lining up the history of published ideas and related events next to the associated enacted laws, the students should be able to see how the development of public opinion and the formation of laws happen around each other.

The development of public opinion and government action around a natural resource can be extremely complicated. The same resource that stands for aesthetic beauty to one group may stand for recreation to another and a threat to safety in the eyes of another, and these groups could each have a different idea of the best measure for dealing with the resource. This has been demonstrated in relation to wildlife, native plant communities, commerce and industrialization, water rights, and countless other issues.

Learning Outcomes

• describe the history of public sentiment and government action towards the natural resources of the United States.
• cite the important spokespersons, events, and legislation on the issue.
• learn to monitor and interpret these events as they take place.