I'm handing you the keys to understanding our public lands crisis

It's all nonsense and horror, right? Here's how to understand it.

I’m gonna make two assumptions about the type of person who is reading this:

1. You love national parks and public lands.

2. You’re trying to make sense of it all.

We’re just a few months into this administration. Already, there are about a dozen actions that have been taken that directly threaten our protected landscapes. I wish I could say otherwise, but I don’t think the pace is going to let up.

Like you, I’m trying to make sense of this all. Luckily, I’ve got some tools in my belt to help — I’m here to share them with you.

I’m a history teacher. I believe that the past is more than just an timeline of events. Rather, it’s a guidebook to the present, a series of lessons to be learned to help us navigate the current crisis.

That’s why I’m writing for you here — and presumably why you’re following along.

Today, I’m gonna pull back the curtain on National Park History a little. You’re gonna get the inside scoop on some of the resources I’m using to interpret current events in our national parks and public lands. I call it the Making it Make Sense Reading List.

I’m hoping to bring you a new edition of the Making it Make Sense Reading List every month or so. The goal is for it to be manageable for you — each edition will have just 2-3 adds to the list, with an explanation for how they’ve help me understand what’s going on in our national parks and public lands.

Now here’s the deal — I’m bringing this one to you for free. In this first edition, I’ve got a handful of the texts that have brought me the most clarity on current events. Future editions will be reserved for individuals who choose to support the work I’m doing with a paid subscription.

It’s a way for us to become partners. You support my work, I bring you the resources and perspective that’ll empower you to fight for our national parks. If you have the resources, please consider pledging your support for National Park History.

The Making it Make Sense Reading List - Vol. 1.

But enough sales pitch. In this first edition, you’ll find two of the texts I’ve found most enlightening and applicable to current events.

Silent Spring Revolution by Douglas Brinkley

It’s hard to overstate how much I love Douglas Brinkley. In my view, he is the preeminent historian of the American environmental movement, publishing a trilogy of works that trace its development from Theodore Roosevelt through Richard Nixon. Quite on accident, I read them in reverse order, starting with Silent Spring Revolution.

As the name implies, a major focus of the book is Rachel Carson and her magnum opus, Silent Spring. It’s apocalyptic analysis of the effects of chemical pesticides up the food chain is credited with the great American environmental awakening. More than just her, Brinkley traces a cast of historic characters that range from JFK to Interior Secretary Stewart Udall to Justice William O. Douglas. Each individual deserves their own Brinkley-tome (Silent Spring Revolution is a whopping 673 pages), but the author manages to weave their distinct stories together into a cohesive narrative.

In its first two months, the Trump Administration has made clear its plans to hollow out America’s bedrock environmental legislation, particularly the National Environmental Protection Act and Endangered Species Act. Silent Spring Revolution traces the deep historical roots of those laws, in addition to other landmark environmental victories like the Wilderness Act and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

I feel like an event or character from Silent Spring Revolution comes to mind everyday when I read the news. Its like a Rosetta Stone for interpreting the origination of and attacks on modern environmental policy.

Wonders of Stand and Stone - Frederick Swanson

Utah has been described as the epicenter of attacks on public lands. State officials have made multiple desperate bids to wrest away control of federal lands, including their Mighty Five national parks. With a state that benefits so greatly from public lands, why are their officials actively trying to erode them?

Wonders of Sand and Stone: A History of Utah’s National Parks and Monuments gives you much of the context needed to understand this issue. Central to the development of Utah parks was the promise of corresponding development. Give a park, get a highway. Proclaim a monument, receive a railroad. In Utah, it seems as though conservation as always been the servant, and development the master — it was never preservation for preservation’s sake, but rather a means to an end.

This reality is most clearly spelled out in one of the major arcs of the book, a decade-long attempt to create a national park unit bigger than Yellowstone in southeast Utah. It’s working name was Escalante National Monument. The conception and demise of the idea is fascinating, and well worth a read in-and-of itself.

Unlike many historical treatments, Wonders of Sand and Stone does not leave history in the past — it draws the narrative of preservation right to the present day, concluding with the establishment of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments. Trump attacked these designations back in his first term, and plans for the same are almost certainly in the works. Understanding the long-range campaigns for the protection of these scientific and cultural landscapes is more relevant than ever.

The gut feeling

As I mentioned above, recent event have had me thinking about Silent Spring Revolution on a daily basis. Knowing the history produces a range of gut reactions when the latest tear-down of an environmental protection is announced. Of course, it churns up the acid and leaves me feeling sick — but it also lights a fire in my belly.

The generations before fought bravely to protect our land — the mountains, rivers, canyons, and creatures. Knowing those stories gives us the double-edged sword we need to fight back. We can be inspired the legacy of earlier preservationists and learn from the model of their advocacy.

Thanks for joining the fight for our public lands — and happy reading