Preservation of Natural Conditions 9x6", 32pp, illustrations. Original wrappers.
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Preserves of Natural Conditions, both published by the Ecological Society of America (Committee on the Preservation of Natural Conditions), reprinted 1921 with assistance of NRC. 9x6", 31pp. Originl wrappers. This copy also accompanied by a 2pp guideline (dated November 1921) for readers who cared to participate in recommending areas in their vicinity for preservation.
These two pamphlets seem to be one in the same work, though there are a number of significant differences among the many similarities. Both copies in Very Good condition, with Library of Congress surplus/duplicate rubber stamps on the back cover. $125/the pair
The pamphlets make the case for scientific selection of preserves to take place in the U.S. before it was too late to save those areas from abuse and exploitation. Of the many cases made for this activity:
- “The automobile is fast opening up the most inaccessible sections of the country to the hunter and the industrial exploiter as well as to every week end excursionist who chances to own a tin Lizzie. All are combining to destroy our native fauna and flora and to upset the general balance which was maintained for ages before the entrance of man. Nearly every day's papers throughout the summer and fall chronicle a considerable list of forest fires most of which according to wardens are due to carelessness on the part of campers or hunters. But this list does not include the hundreds of square miles of brush and chaparral which are burned over every season.” Francis Bertody Sumner, 1874-1945 (Scripps Institution for Scientific Research, La Jolla), one of the first biologists at Scripps.
- “Any statesman like view of the situation will convince one that the people who live in this country fifty years hence will be extremely grateful to this generation for every area it may succeed in having reserved however the present need of preservation may appear.” G. Biggs
All of these guys were pretty much right on pretty much everything.
Two notes on the ESA:
- “Between 1917 and 1945, the Ecological Society of America (ESA) housed a Committee for the Preservation of Natural Conditions specifically charged with identifying and taking political action toward the preservation of wilderness sites for scientific study.” Journal of the History of Biology, Nov 2012, Volume 45, Issue 4, pp 613–650|
“In 1917 the Ecological Society of America established a committee for the Preservation of Natural Conditions for Ecological Study, under the chairmanship of Victor E. Shelford, “to initiate and carry out action concerned with preservation of natural conditions” (Bulletin ESA 1 [4]: 1). Dr. Shelford was one of the founders of the Society in 1914 and had served as its first president. Also, in 1926 The Naturalists’ Guide to the Americas was published under his editorship. This volume made a preliminary inventory of natural areas in the new world, and it served as a guide for pointing out areas in need of preservation.”. ESA and the Ecologists’ Union, June 25, 2014 SL White The Ecological Society of America's History and Records by the ESA Historical Records Committee
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