sign in sign up
<<
Home , Benton MacKaye, Harvey Broome, Howard Zahniser, Robert Sterling Yard, Wilderness Act

Despite Zahniser’s unquestioned HARVEY importance and the power of his prose, the best of his writings have  never before been gathered in a single volume. This indispensable collection  makes available in one place essays and WILDERNESS WRITINGS other writings that played a vital role in persuading Congress and the American WILDERNESS people that wilderness in the deserved permanent protection. Mark Harvey, author of the standard WRITINGS biography of Zahniser, provides context for each document and explains why it  was written and gives a general introduc- tion to the man whose vision, decency, (1906–1964), head and quiet passion shine from the pages HOWARD of The Wilderness Society and editor of “While Howard Zahniser is a legend among those most dedicated to wilderness of this book. the Living Wilderness from 1945 to 1964, is preservation, he is not as well known more broadly. We are so lucky to have this arguably the person most responsible inspiring and eloquent collection of writings from the quiet visionary and principal MARK HARVEY is professor of history at ZAHNISER for drafting and promoting the Wilder- architect of the Wilderness Preservation System. His powerful words speak to the North Dakota State University and the ness Act in 1964. The act, which created enduring value of wilderness to our nation—as much today as they did then.” author of Wilderness Forever: Howard the National Wilderness Preservation —JAMIE WILLIAMS, president, The Wilderness Society System, was the culmination of Zahn-

Zahniser and the Path to the  and A Symbol of Wilderness: and iser’s years of tenacious lobbying and “This is a superb collection of the writings of one of the century’s foremost conserva- HOWARD ZAHNISER Edited by the American Conservation Movement. his work with conservationists across tion writers and leaders. Zahniser’s fascination with everyday nature does much MARK HARVEY the nation. In 1964, fty-four wilderness to explain his reverence for the community of life. A wonderful addition to the areas in thirteen states—just over nine literature of environmental history.” Foreword by million acres—were part of the system; —JAMES MORTON TURNER, author of The Promise of Wilderness: American Environmental Politics since 1964    today, the number has grown to 757 areas, protecting more than a hundred “Arranged more or less in chronological order, these essays enable us to trace the million acres in forty-four states and evolution of Zahniser’s thinking at the same time that we see how his lifelong . devotion to wild nature—sacred to him both for its own sake and for what it Zahniser’s passion for wild places and o ered humanity—enabled him to write so compellingly. It is time at last for his arguments for their preservation were those who have experienced the beautiful places protected by the Wilderness Act communicated through radio addresses, DESIGN: Thomas Eykemans to experience as well the eloquence and moral passion of the man who wrote it.” magazine articles, speeches, and congres- COVER: Howard Zahniser in the Adirondacks about 1950, with —From the foreword by WILLIAM CRONON Crane Mountain in the background. Courtesy of the Zahniser sional testimony. An eloquent and often family. poetic writer, Zahniser seized every ISBN 978-0-295-99391-1 BACK COVER: Howard Zahniser with his children, Edward, Mathias, WEYERHAEUSER ENVIRONMENTAL CLASSICS Esther, and Karen. On the day this photo was taken, Esther had opportunity to make the case for the become the youngest person ever to testify in Congress, before     value of wilderness to people, communi- a committee considering a bill to commemorate the life of John Seattle and London www.washington.edu/uwpress James Audubon. Courtesy of the Zahniser family. ties, and the nation. Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classics

William Cronon, Editor Press

Washington of

University Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classics are reprinted editions of key works that explore human relationships with natural environments in all their varietyPress and complexity. Drawn from many disciplines, they examine how natural systems affect human communities, how people affect the environments of which they are a part, and how different cultural conceptions of nature powerfully shape our sense of the world around us. These are books about the environment that continue to offer profound insights about the human place in nature.

The Great Columbia Plain: A Historical Geography, 1805–1910, by D. W. Meinig Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite, by Marjorie Hope Nicolson Tutira: The Story of a New Zealand Sheep Station, by Herbert Guthrie-Smith A Symbol of Wilderness: Echo Park and the American Conservation Movement, by Mark Harvey Washington Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, by George Perkins Marsh; edited by David Lowenthal

Conservation in the Progressiveof Era: Classic Texts, edited by David Stradling DDT, Silent Spring, and the Rise of : Classic Texts, edited by Thomas R. Dunlap

Reel Nature: America’s Romance with Wildlife on Film, by Gregg Mitman The Environmental Moment, 1968–1972, edited by David Stradling The Wilderness Writings of Howard Zahniser, edited by Mark Harvey

Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classics is a subseries within Weyerhaeuser Envi- ronmental Books, under the general editorship of William Cronon. A complete Universitylisting of the series appears at the end of this book. Teh WILDERNESS WRITINGS of Press HOWARD ZAHNISER

Edited by MARK HARVEY Washington

Foreword by William Crononof

University U niversity of Washington Press Seattle and London The Wilderness Writings of Howard Zahniser is published with the assistance of a grant from the Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books Endowment, established by the Weyerhaeuser Company Foundation, members of the Weyerhaeuser family, and Janet and Jack Creighton.

© 2014 by the University of Washington Press Printed and bound in the United States of America Designed by Thomas Eykemans Press Composed in OFL Sorts Mill Goudy, typeface designed by Barry Schwartz 18 17 16 15 14 5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

University of Washington Press PO Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145, USA www.washington.edu/uwpress

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Zahniser, Howard. The wilderness writings of Howard Zahniser / edited by Mark Harvey ; foreword by William Cronon. pages cm. — (Weyhaeuser environmentalWashington classics) ISBN 978-0-295-99391-1 (hardcover : alkaline paper) 1. Wilderness areas—United States. 2. Nature conservation—United States. 3. United States. Wilderness Act.of 4. Wilderness areas—Government policy—United States. 5. Nature conservation—Government policy—United States. 6. United States—Environmental conditions. 7. Zahniser, Howard. 8. Zahniser, Howard—Political and social views. 9. Conservationists—United States—Biography. I. Harvey, Mark W. T. (Mark William Thornton) II. Title. QH76.Z34 2014 333.78'20973—dc23 2013051125

The paper used in this publication is acid-free and meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed UniversityLibrary Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1984. ∞ In 1858, Henry David Thoreau wrote in “Chesuncook” (Atlantic Monthly) of an 1853 trip to the Maine woods, concluding with a plea for wildernessPress preservation:

The kings of England formerly had their forests “to hold the king’s game,” for sport or food, sometimes destroying villages to create or extend them; and I think that they were impelled by a true instinct. Why should not we, who have renounced the king’s authority, have our national preserves, where no villages need be destroyed, in which the bear and panther, and some even of the hunter race, may still exist, and not be “civilized off the face of the earth,”—our forest, not to hold the king’s game merely, but to hold and preserve the king himself also, the lord of creation,—not for idle sport or food, but for inspiration and our own true recreation? Washington of

University Press

Washington of

University CONTENTS Press Foreword, by William Cronon ix Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvi

Introduction: Evangelist for the Wilderness 3

PART 1 The Makings of a Nature Writer 13 In the Month of May 14 September 16 January 18 Just a Roadside Field 21 Protecting our Song andWashington Insectivorous Birds: A Radio Broadcast 24 Flood Time for Wildlife Too: A Radio Broadcast 27 The Bear Riverof Bird Refuge: A Radio Broadcast 29 Of the Mouse and Men 33 Nature in Print 39

PART 2 Transition to The Wilderness Society 43 On the : Testimony 44 To Hanging Spear Falls with Zahnie, by Paul Schaefer 47 Why We Cherish San Gorgonio Primitive: A Wilderness Society Statement 56 We Certainly Need a Sound Philosophy: UniversityAn Exchange of Letters with F. S. Baker 62 Cloud Peak’s Primitive Area and People: A Narrative of a Pack Trip to Lake Solitude 72 PART 3 Campaigning for Wilderness 87 A Statement on Wilderness Preservation 89 How Much Wilderness Can We Afford to Lose? 95 New York’s Forest Preserve and our American Program for Wilderness Preservation 102

PART 4 Threats to Wild Lands 111 Our Wilderness Threats 112 Protecting Our Wild Places at the End of the Road 118 Letter to A. T. Steele 122 Washington Monument in Echo Park 125 Press The Need for Wilderness Areas 127 The Three Sisters Primitive Area: Testimony 138

PART 5 The Campaign for the Wilderness Bill 145 The Wilderness Bill and Foresters 147 Letter to the Editor, Washington Post and Times-Herald 154 Lake Solitude Sermon 157 An Exchange of Letters with C. Edward Graves 159 Wilderness Forever 162

PART 6 The Last Hurdle 171 A Circle That Took Him In! 173Washington Wildlands: A Part of Man’s Environment 180 Guardians Not Gardeners 189 The People and Wilderness 192of

PART 7 Testimonies 197 Obituary, Washington Post 199 Compromising the Wilderness, New York Times 199 The Constant Advocate, by 200 Letter from 204

Excerpts from the Wilderness Act of 1964 209 Selected Bibliography 213 UniversityPermissions 217 Index 219 FOREWORD Press A Great and Humble Man William Cronon

It could hardly be more fitting that this long-planned anthology, The Wil- derness Writings of Howard C. Zahniser, should be published just in time to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of one of the greatest legisla- tive achievements in the history of American conservation. In 1964, after eight difficult years of tireless lobbying by those who had advocated on its behalf, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law “An Act to Establish a National Wilderness Preservation System for the Permanent Good of the Whole People.” This Wilderness Act, as it has come to be known, placed 9.1 million acres of the wildestWashington lands in the United States under permanent protection so that future generations could forever experience them free from the mechanical intrusions of humanity. In the half century since, the National Wildernessof Preservation System has grown to encompass more than 100 million acres, and is among the proudest expressions of the American love for nature and nation that has been a defining feature of the United States almost since its birth. More poignantly, this book also commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Howard Zahniser on May 5, 1964, just four months before the Wilderness Act became law. No one was more responsible for the pas- sage of the act than Zahniser. As executive secretary of The Wilderness Society for nearly twenty years, he persuaded nervous members of its Gov- erning Council that they could lobby for such a bill without endangering Universitythe organization’s tax-exempt status. He drafted the original language for the legislation in 1956, and no hand was more important than his in the

ix sixty drafts that followed as the bill worked its way through Congress. As editor of the Society’s quarterly magazine, the Living Wilderness, Zahn- iser recruited some of the best writers of the day to articulate the reasons why wilderness deserved legal protection, and penned not a few essays of his own toward that same end. When members of Congress wanted to deliver speeches on behalf of wilderness protection, he provided them with compelling facts and eloquent words in equal measure. Famously stalk- ing Capitol Hill in a special suit coat whose many added pockets carried the briefing documents he wanted near at hand to persuade recalcitrant politicians, he was a consummate lobbyist, a Washington insider who brought quiet and tireless passion to the mission that became his lifework.Press Although Zahniser did not live to see his great bill signed into law, the end was clearly in sight at the time of his death. We published Mark Harvey’s biography of this remarkable man in the Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books series in 2005. Wilderness Forever: Howard Zahniser and the Path to the Wilderness Act did a superb job of trac- ing the journey its subject made from his boyhood in Pennsylvania, to his early career as a federal bureaucrat, to his growing skills as an editor, to his executive position at The Wilderness Society starting in 1945. What most struck me after reading the book is that although Zahniser played such a pivotal role in one of the great environmental success stories of the twenti- eth century, he remains virtually unknown among those who celebrate and enjoy the wild landscapes he did Washingtonso much to protect. This is partly because he worked so much behind the scenes, as Washington insiders are often wont to do, but also because he had no particular need to place himself in the spotlight unless doingof so helped the cause of wilderness. Everyone who knew him remarked on his self-effacing willingness to let others take credit for achievements that were at least as much his as theirs. Although he was a superb editor and writer, the essays he produced were more often than not created to meet the needs of a particular moment and published in relatively ephemeral venues—magazines, newsletters, conference vol- umes, and the like—where they soon became hard to find, even for those who knew and admired his special qualities as a writer and human being. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of Zahniser’s untimely death at age fifty- eight was that he never got to write the book that might have introduced Universityhis literary gifts and his ideas about wilderness to a wider and more perma- nent circle of readers. One gets the sense from Mark Harvey’s telling that

x | F rorewo d as the campaign for the Wilderness Act neared its climax in the spring of 1964, Zahniser (who long suffered from heart problems) realized he might not live to see the end. In late April, he testified at the nineteenth set of congressional hearings about the legislation and reported to a friend after- ward that he was gasping for breath and soaked with sweat by the time he finished. “The prospect for a post-wilderness bill controversy period of book writing doesn’t seem too good,” he lamented. “My best boast now is that I am better than I ever will be.” A week later, he was dead from a massive heart attack. Mark Harvey completed Wilderness Forever possessing an unsurpassed familiarity with the myriad pieces of prose that Zahniser scattered soPress far and wide. After the biography had been shipped off to the stores, he and his editors at the University of Washington Press realized that we had the perfect opportunity to follow it up with the book that Zahniser himself had never been able to complete. It could include what Mark judged to be the best and most important of Zahniser’s essays so that his excellence as a writer might finally receive the recognition it deserves, along with an intro- duction and headnotes to help readers understand the contexts for which these pieces were written. The result is the volume you now hold in your hands—the book that finally enables us to read an author that few of us really know despite everything we heard about his historical significance. Before this book, even those who recognized the name of Howard Zahniser probably couldn’t thinkWashington of anything he ever wrote, save perhaps for the single most famous sentence in the 1964 Act: “A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognizedof as an area where the earth and its com- munity of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” It has been noted before that this is probably the only instance in the legal history of the United States where the word “untram- meled”—which means unshackled or unrestrained—occurs in a federal statute. Its appearance in this crucial sentence testifies to the literary grace of the writer who chose it, just as Zahniser’s invocation of the “community of life” suggests the moral vision of the devoutly religious man who saw wilderness as a repository for sacred values he held dear. Harvey Broome, one of the founders of The Wilderness Society, made Universityan entry in his journal in 1956 commenting on a piece of Zahniser’s writing and connecting it to the leadership that his friend was bringing to bear on

F rorewo d | xi the wilderness campaign that was then in its earliest months. Broome’s words are worth quoting at length because they capture the man so beautifully:

Last night I looked at a fifty page manuscript of Zahnie’s—in the form of a speech he had written for [Pennsylvania Representative] John Saylor in support of the wilderness bill. There was page after page of it—without a crossed-out word, without an interlineation. There was a sureness to it—a writing out of a richly stocked mind. . . . I think, the more I see of him, that Zahnie has very great talent. He is a genius at resolving differ- ences and at getting along with people. He can do a prodigious amount Press of work. He has a self-confidence which is not overbearing. He has great vision, great conviction, and a great breadth of interest. Others lean on him—sense his strength. He can differ without getting personal. He can recognize unworthy motivations or shallowness in others without becoming disdainful. He has an imperturbable momentum which car- ries him through conflict without a mark. He is a great and essentially a humble man.

“A great and essentially a humble man”—that is the author you will encounter in these pages. Mark Harvey has done an elegant job of assem- bling pieces that show all the facets of this remarkable human being. The genres range from nature writingWashington to political advocacy, from newspaper op-eds to speeches, from meditations to polemics. Arranged more or less in chronological order, these essays enable us to trace the evolution of Zahn- iser’s thinking at the sameof time that we see how his life-long devotion to wild nature—sacred to him both for its own sake and for what it offered humanity—enabled him to write so compellingly. It is time at last for those who have experienced the beautiful places protected by the Wilderness Act to experience as well the eloquence and moral passion of the man who wrote it.

University

xii | F rorewo d PREFACE Press My interest in Howard Zahniser originated in the early 1980s when I was a graduate student in history at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. While working on research involving the controversy over the proposed Echo Park dam, I often found myself in the wonderfully rich science library at the University of Wyoming, which held the back issues of the Living Wilderness magazine that Zahniser edited for nearly two decades. I quickly found myself drawn to the magazine for its arresting black-and- white images, lyrical prose, and the occasional piece by Zahniser himself. In perusing the Living Wilderness, and in reading a number of Zahniser’s letters that I unearthed in manuscript collections at the American Heritage Center, I was struck by the high quality of his prose and intrigued by the man himself. His essays and lettersWashington were carefully crafted, always thought - ful, respectful of different points of view, yet still insistent that Americans should treasure wild lands, recognize their beauty and ecological values, and commit to preservingof them. Zahniser struck me as confident without being cocksure, bold without being overbearing, and certain of his views, yet still humble. More than two decades after leaving Laramie I published his biogra- phy, Wilderness Forever: Howard Zahniser and the Path to the Wilderness Act. Researching and writing that book gave me a deep and (to employ one of his own favorite words) “rich” understanding of his upbringing, background, and career, as well as of his character and personality. Naturally I learned much too about his crucial role in drafting, testifying, and shepherding through the legislative process the bill that became the Wilderness Act Universityof 1964. The most crucial phrase in that legislation, I learned, came from Zahniser’s own hand, that “a wilderness, in contrast with those areas where

xiii man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” Along with the Wilderness Act, which is readily available in any num- ber of published works and websites, at least some of Zahniser’s other work can be found in books or in the publications of various conservation organizations, including the Living Wilderness. Yet because Zahniser wrote many essays and speeches for a variety of audiences and in specialized pub- lications, tracking most of them down would be a challenge. During the eight-year campaign on behalf of the wilderness bill beginning in 1956, Zahniser testified before nineteen congressional hearings and presentedPress statements to federal officials from the U.S. Forest Service and Army Corps of Engineers. Virtually all of these writings, however, are deeply buried in the printed copies of public hearings and reside in the govern- ment documents section of the library. Because much of his written and spoken work is not easily found, it was clear to me after writing his biography that the next step was to bring together in a single volume Zahniser’s best writings and speeches along with a few select letters. My goal with this anthology has been to reassem- ble the great body of Zahniser’s important written and spoken work and bring it to the attention of the present generation of wilderness enthusiasts, agency officials, nature writers, environmental historians, and students of wilderness history in the UnitedWashington States. I am certain that each of the documents in this anthology speak as much to us today as they did when Zahniser first wrote them, and that we have just as great a need ofto read and think about the case he advanced for wilderness now as did people in the middle twentieth century. Taken as a whole, they make clear his own view that wilderness has much to offer to humans, including physically challenging adventure, spiritual inspiration, and gaining perspective on life. He insisted, too, that wilderness preserva- tion demonstrated stewardship of humans toward the natural world and would remind people of the community of life on the planet. I have organized the anthology chronologically and in seven sections. Part I provides samples of his earliest published writings, mainly from Nature Magazine, in which he began a monthly column in 1935. His first year Universityof that column focused on seasonal changes in the natural world, mainly in terms of animal behavior, and reflected his association with scientists at

xiv | Preface the Bureau of Biological Survey as well as his own delight with the natural world. This section also includes three of his radio broadcasts from the late 1930s, when he touted the federal government’s programs in wildlife man- agement and wildlife refuges. Part II showcases his initial work editing and writing in the Living Wilderness, for which he took major editorial responsi- bility in 1945. This section reveals his fondness for certain wilderness areas, including Cloud Peak and the New York Forest Preserve, and also contains his earliest essays articulating the value of wild lands. One essay in this sec- tion was written by Zahniser’s close friend, Paul Schaefer, who introduced him to the Adirondacks in the 1940s, and who many years later recalled their hike to Hanging Spear Falls in 1946. Part III includes several piecesPress in which Zahniser expanded the case for wilderness and warned that unless strong steps were taken, much of the American wilderness would soon be lost. The documents in Part IV outline various threats to wilderness from roads, commodity industries, and dams. Parts V and VI include essays, speeches, and a few letters revealing Zahniser’s crucial role in crafting the wilderness bill and in pressing federal agencies and members of Congress to support it. The effort to gain congressional passage of the wilderness bill preoccupied him during the last eight years of his life. There seems little doubt that the stress and strain of lobbying for the legislation contributed to his early death from heart failure in May 1964, just four months before President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Wilderness Act into law. Finally, part VII includes obituaries andWashington personal testimonies of Zahniser’s life and work. An excerpt from the Wilderness Act concludes the volume. Preparing the essays, speeches, and letters for publication entailed only a few minor editorialof changes. Because Zahniser wrote and spoke for so many different audiences, he often employed the same phrase or pas- sage in several different pieces. I have eliminated this repetition with the occasional use of ellipses. I also imposed uniformity in capitalization and punctuation throughout. My introduction to each essay, speech, and letter furnishes the setting in which it was crafted.

Mark Harvey Moorhead, Minnesota University April 2014

Preface | xv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Press Thanking colleagues, friends, and family is one of the most pleasurable tasks in the process of publishing a book. A number of individuals have contributed to the making of this volume and offered me invaluable assis- tance and the benefit of their expertise, for which I am most grateful. Doug Scott read the manuscript and offered corrections and helpful suggestions. No one knows as much about American wilderness politics and history as Doug, and I am lucky to have had his insights and enthusi- asm for this project. Fellow wilderness historian Jay Turner also enthusi- astically backed the project. Jay drew on his extensive knowledge of recent wilderness history to encourage me to revisit the introduction and probe more deeply into Zahniser’s personality and religious convictions about wilderness. I am glad that he didWashington and I know that the introduction is the better because of his suggestions. The task of assembling photographs for this project has been a size- able one. David Haasserof in the Agriculture Communications division of North Dakota State University provided valuable help scanning and siz- ing a particular photograph. So did Kirk Johnson of Friends of Allegheny Wilderness in Pennsylvania. Tim Zimmerman of the University of Wash- ington Press scanned many of the photos, assembled them for publication, and was efficient and helpful. The Zahniser family furnished many of the photographs in the book and to them I offer deep thanks. Several archives have been helpful in locating photographs, including the Western History and Genealogy Division of the Denver Public Library, which holds How- ard Zahniser’s papers, the Photo Archives, and the UniversityMurie Center in Moose, Wyoming. Finally, I was delighted to be able to include several lovely photographs from wilderness.net.

xvi Warm thanks go to Charles Harris, editor of Natural History Magazine, for permission to reprint several of Zahniser’s columns and an article from Nature Magazine. The Wilderness Society granted permission to reprint numerous essays and photographs originally published in the Living Wil- derness, the quarterly that Zahniser edited. Thanks also to American Forests for permission to reprint a piece first published in 1957. Bill Cronon has been an enthusiastic supporter of this project for a long time. I am particularly grateful to Bill for keeping the faith that this anthology would one day appear during some very challenging years in the publishing industry. Marianne Keddington Lang has contributed to this book in more ways than I can say. She took a rather unruly digitalPress file of material scanned from the originals and smoothly converted it into a readable Word document with which I could easily work. Marianne then kept me on task collecting photographs, tracking down permissions, and meeting deadlines. I did not meet every one of them, but I am grateful for her firm hand on the tiller throughout the process. It was a pleasure to work with Lita Tarver, whose vibrant enthusiasm for the book I deeply appreciate and whose skill greatly enhanced the text. As they did when I undertook the writing of Howard Zahniser’s biogra- phy a decade ago, members of the Zahniser family have strongly supported me in preparing this book. To Mathias, Karen, Esther, Edward, and their wonderful mother, Alice, my heartfelt thanks. Ed cheerfully answered every one of my questions andWashington served as spokesperson for the family, grant- ing me permission to republish several of the articles and photographs. Putting the final touches on this project reminds me of the important role of my parents, Williamof and Dorothy Harvey, in my own wilderness upbringing. Each of them cherished their times hiking, canoeing, and camping in Glacier Bay, Grand Teton, and Glacier National Parks, near the arms of Yellowstone Lake, and in the Area in northeast Utah and the Jedediah Smith Wilderness Area on the west side of the Teton Range. They took me with them on some of those treks and helped me discover at a young age what a treasure the American wilderness is. Although they are no longer with us, I like to think that they would be pleased with this book and with the lands and values that it celebrates. My own immediate family has been of tremendous help as well. It is Universityimpossible to thank Gretchen for all that she does for me every day and for sharing the fruits of her own scholarship and teaching. Together with our

Ac e knowl dgments | xvii grown sons, William and James, we have built our own wilderness tradi- tions and prize our wilderness outings. Those outings serve as a reminder to me that wilderness is not merely a place of natural beauty and wonder but also a landscape of shared memories of families and friends. Howard Zahniser, of course, knew that too, as many of the essays and speeches that follow reveal.

Press

Washington of

University

xviii | Ac e knowl dgments The Wil derness Press Writings of Howard Zahniser

Washington of

University Press

Washington of

Howard Zahniser in the Adirondacks about 1960. Courtesy of the Zahniser family.

University INTRODUCTION Press Evangelist for the Wilderness

Howard Zahniser was an office man who spent the bulk of his working hours at the headquarters of The Wilderness Society in Washington, DC. For almost twenty years, from 1945 until 1964, he sat at a desk and poured over an immense body of printed material involving wilderness in the national forests, parks, and other public lands. He read Forest Service wilderness maps and reams of correspondence from fellow conservation- ists, scrutinized the essays of authors who contributed to the Living Wilder- ness, the Society’s quarterly journal, and scanned memoranda from federal officials, members of Congress, and their staff. His life and work centered on words, on writing and editingWashington and publishing, all of it directed toward protecting the nation’s wild lands. To be sure, his desk work fit him well. He loved language, puns, wordplay, books and libraries, and the company of almost anyone whoof appeared at his desk. A gentle, bespectacled man, Zahniser was the consummate working professional. Most days he enjoyed his work immensely, especially when it gave him the opportunity to col- laborate with writers, artists, poets, and others who contributed to the Living Wilderness, which he edited for almost two decades. But Zahniser also worked under tremendous strain, especially during the last eight years of his life when he led a national movement to secure passage of a bill to establish a national wilderness system. That effort embroiled him in political and economic complexities and pressures, entailed numerous appearances at public hearings, and compelled him Universityto hold countless meetings with agency officials, members of Congress and their staff, and fellow conservationists. He often became weary of the

3 whole business and yearned to be in the wilderness. In addition to spend- ing time in his family’s getaway cabin in the Adirondacks, he took himself into a wilderness area at least once every year to the annual meetings of the governing council of The Wilderness Society. There, he rediscovered how being in the wild brought restoration, healing, and refreshment of body and soul. His friend and fellow wilderness lobbyist Sigurd Olson had articulated those effects eloquently in an essay in 1938. Recalling his experiences guiding people by canoe into the boundary waters area of Minnesota and Ontario, Olson concluded:

They have long days with nothing to clutter their minds but the simple Press problems of wilderness living, and at last they have time to think. Then comes the transformation and, of a sudden, they are back to earth. Things move slowly, majestically in the wilds and the coming of the full moon in itself becomes of major importance. Countless natural phenom- ena begin to show themselves [and] with this, some of the old primitive philosophy works itself into their thinking, and in their new calm they forget to worry. Their own affairs seem trivial. . . . Whenever it comes, men are conscious of a unity with the primal forces of creation and all life that swiftly annihilates the feeling of futil- ity, frustration, and unreality.

Zahniser appreciated Olson’s descriptionWashington every time he got away from Washington and into the wilderness. In the summer of 1956, with his wife Alice and their children in the Cloud Peak Primitive Area in Wyoming’s Big Horn Range, he awokeof early. “As I looked through the open flaps of my tepee tent that morning, alone,” he wrote:

I wakened to a world of wilderness so bright, so lovely, so peaceful that its exquisite quiet was itself so exciting that I could hardly keep from disturbing it myself. The air was still. The lake was smooth. The roar of waterfalls from the surrounding high and immense cliffs of mountain rock was a background of sound so constant that at first it must have seemed itself an aspect of the quietness. As I lay there, inspired to wor- ship, the words from some Psalm came to my mind: “Great peace have Universitythey which love thy law.”

4 | Introduction Howard Zahniser’s wilderness writings may be less known than those of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, , and , but his articles, essays, and speeches left a significant mark on American wilderness thought. As executive secretary of The Wilderness Society, editor of the Living Wilderness, and book columnist for Nature Magazine, Zahniser contributed a distinctive voice to the growing public interest in wildlands in the United States. In his role as editor and chief administrator of The Wilderness Society, he defended the nation’s fragile wilderness areas before officials of the US Forest Service and National Park Service, agencies skeptical of and often opposed to wilderness protection. He defended wilderness against lawmakers intent on authorizing dams,Press highways, and other developments that could intrude into wild places. From his front row seat in the arena of wilderness protection after World War II, he saw that the case had to be made to the broadest audience possi- ble through riveting prose, photographs, poetry, films, and art. He directed his writing and speaking to that end. Zahniser’s written and spoken work reveals his love of the English language. A scholar of Thoreau and president of the Thoreau Society, he read widely among poets and in works of literature, history, and nature writing. His love of reading and writing had been nurtured by his parents at an early age. Born in Franklin, Pennsylvania, on February 25, 1906, Zahniser grew up in small towns in the northwesternWashington part of the state. He spent his formative years in Tionesta in a home three blocks from the great Allegheny River, where he found rich opportunities for exploration and play. He fished and played baseball on anof island at the confluence of Tionesta Creek and the Allegheny, and the woods and hills surrounding Tionesta offered hide- aways and trails for exploration and adventure. The Allegheny River had long been used to transport logs and oil, yet it remained a waterway of striking natural beauty and a haven for birds and many wildlife species. The river and its valley became Zahniser’s primary nature school, instill- ing in him a lifelong love of rivers and their natural and human histories. From teacher Evelyn Spencer, who conducted a Junior Audubon Society program for Howard and his fellow fifth graders, he learned to recognize local bird species by sight and sound. UniversityHoward’s father, Archibald, was a Free Methodist minister and, later, district elder. His mother, Bertha, was a devoted Christian who helped

E vangelist for the Wilderness | 5 instill in young Howard and his brother and sisters a love of books and stories. He much enjoyed family reading sessions at home, and he especially relished books about travel, exploration, and the work of Christian mis- sionaries among native peoples overseas. His upbringing in a home infused with the precepts of Free Methodism (four of his uncles were ministers of the church) made him ever mindful of obligations and responsibilities to work for social justice, to build communities, and to take care of nature. He attended Greenville College in rural Illinois, a small private school affiliated with the Free Methodist church, graduating in 1928 with majors in history and English. In 1930, Zahniser took a civil service position as an editorial clerk inPress Washington, DC, and began to make his way into the federal bureaucracy by the strength of his pen. In the division of publications in the Depart- ment of Commerce, he learned how to write press releases, speeches, radio broadcasts, and other promotional material and how to edit and proof- read. He also kept alert for opportunities that were more attuned to his interests in literature and nature studies. His friend and former Greenville classmate Paul Oehser, an editor at the Smithsonian National Museum, helped him find such a position in 1931 at the Bureau of Biological Survey, a division of the Department of Agriculture that undertook wildlife studies to serve farmers and ranchers, state fish and game departments, hunters, and scientists. In 1939, the Survey was folded into the newly created Fish and Wildlife Service, where ZahniserWashington remained until 1942. Throughout those years, he issued a steady stream of news releases, reporting on the government’s activities in wildlife research and especially its role in man- aging wildlife refuges. Heof wrote speeches for the Survey’s directors, and composed radio broadcasts, which he delivered on the nationally broadcast Farm and Home Hour. In 1942, Zahniser left the Fish and Wildlife Service to take a position in the Bureau of Plant Industry. The new position gave him a substantial upgrade within the federal pay scale, enabling him to support his elderly widowed mother who had remained in the family home in Tionesta. In his public relations work at the bureau, in the midst of World War II, Zahn- iser publicized the Victory Gardens campaign to encourage Americans to grow their own food and contribute to the war effort, seeking to reach a Universitylarge public audience and a range of people interested in agriculture and gardening.

6 | Introduction By the mid-1940s, Zahniser had worked for fifteen years as an editor, writer, and publicist of conservation and agricultural programs and poli- cies. Secure in his civil service position and with a respectable salary, he was satisfied and comfortable. He and his wife Alice had a son, Mathias, and two daughters, Esther and Karen (a second son, Edward, was born in 1945), and a home in a Washington, DC, suburb. Then, in 1944, Zahniser heard about a position with a small nonprofit known as The Wilderness Society, an organization established to promote the preservation of the nation’s wildlands. He had joined the organization as a charter member in 1935. The Wilderness Society was led by , whose editorship of its flagship magazine, the Living Wilderness, had been vitalPress to the organization. By 1944, Yard’s health was in serious decline, leaving the Society’s governing council anxious and in search of a successor, someone who was an experienced editor, writer, and publicist and who preferably lived close to Washington, DC. Following a luncheon with several mem- bers of the Society’s executive committee at the Cosmos Club in Wash- ington, DC, Zahniser was offered the job. While he was intrigued by the position, which combined nature writing, editing, and publishing, he nev- ertheless felt some trepidation, for it would mean a substantial reduction in salary and it did not include a retirement plan. Leaving the civil service system to join a small nonprofit organization seemed a daunting prospect. Still, after much reflection and consultation with friends and fam- ily, Zahniser decided that he Washingtonhad been preparing for the position at The Wilderness Society all of his life. His editing experience fitted him for the position, and he sensed that he could draw from his upbringing in a minister’s family in theof Allegheny River Valley to lead an organization dedicated to protecting America’s wild places. Now, he would have an opportunity to preach and proselytize for wilderness. In the spring of 1945, with full support from Alice, Zahniser accepted the position of execu- tive secretary of The Wilderness Society and editor of the Living Wilder- ness. Editing the magazine could itself have constituted a full-time job. In addition, Zahniser conducted Society business, built its membership, arranged the annual meetings of its governing council, communicated and met with members of Congress, federal agencies, and conservation- ists in Washington and elsewhere, and generally served as spokesperson Universityfor wilderness preservation. Zahniser’s partner at The Wilderness Society was Olaus J. Murie, a

E vangelist for the Wilderness | 7 well-respected wildlife biologist and, like Zahniser, a longtime employee of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Biological Survey. Murie’s work included research on caribou in Alaska and elk in Jackson Hole. Hired at the same time as Zahniser in 1945, Murie was the Society’s executive direc- tor, responsible for overseeing the organization’s major initiatives and plan- ning its strategy. He lived at a small ranch in Moose, Wyoming, with his wife Mardy and half brother Adolph, who had worked closely with Olaus in studying coyotes, wolves, and predator prey relationships. Zahniser soon became highly respected within The Wilderness Society for his attention to detail, his efficiency, and his competence. Even as he felt the pressing demands of his administrative tasks, he was eager to writePress and speak for the wilderness cause. Along with his own contributions to the Living Wilderness, he published essays in National Parks Magazine and American Forests, and he wrote a monthly column for Nature Magazine. He also testified at public hearings and spoke at the ’s biennial wil- derness conferences and at other forums. His prose was powerful, evoking a sense of community between human beings and the natural world and eloquently identifying the values of wildlands. Language became Zahn- iser’s most powerful tool, as he used words such as “eternity,” “perpetuity,” and “untrammeled” to define the essence of wilderness. The generosity of his prose enabled him to flatter his opponents with a genuine and heartfelt recognition of their interests while inviting them to accept his. His ability to listen to and consider others’ pointsWashington of view proved crucial to his success as a lobbyist and advocate. Zahniser had a special talent for listening to others, no doubt owing to his upbringing by a ministerof who had made pastoral calls and had tended to people’s emotional and spiritual needs. He knew how to listen and to address the concerns of skeptics, such as loggers, miners, and ranchers. Though he often disagreed with their perspective, he did not hold personal grudges and constantly sought to find the middle ground. He rejected the notion that wilderness preservation and commodity production on pub- lic lands were incompatible. He accepted the expansionist energies of the American economy during the post-World War II years and acknowledged that timber, minerals, and hydroelectric power were vital to serve people’s needs. Yet he insisted that wilderness served more basic needs as well. In a Universitywealthy society like the United States, commodity production and wilder- ness could coexist.

8 | Introduction Inclusive in asserting the case for wilderness protection, Zahniser pushed back at the charge that wilderness areas would primarily serve the wealthy and the elite. Wilderness areas, he told members of Congress, were comparable to the National Gallery of Art. They “are maintained,” he tes- tified, “so every American, now and in the future, can have the privilege of choosing to visit a wilderness area, if he wishes to do so. If he does not wish to visit the area, nevertheless, as the privilege of an American citizen, he has it there, and the very fact that it is there means a great deal to many people who do not visit it.” For him, the preservation of wilderness served the public interest. Zahniser’s sense about the value of wilderness also rested on his Pressrec- ognition that wild nature was present in everyone’s lives—the birds and small mammals in backyards, by the roadways, and in nearby meadows and forests. Wildness is found in many places, he argued, and one need not travel to remote and distant locales to find it. For him, the wildness of the everyday world should be embraced and celebrated, something he did in his columns in Nature Magazine. Although he cherished the wildness near at hand, Zahniser’s efforts at The Wilderness Society focused on the daunting challenge of safeguard- ing the fragile and weakly protected primitive areas in the national forests and the roadless areas in the vast backcountry of the national parks. In setting forth the case for preserving these areas, he drew on the domi- nant ideas of wilderness thoughtWashington articulated by Thoreau, John Muir, Bob Marshall, Aldo Leopold, Sigurd Olson, and Benton MacKaye. Wilderness holds scientific, educational, and historical values, he said, and an excur- sion into it offers peopleof a fresh perspective on the world. He eloquently distilled and articulated these values in his writings and speeches, appeal- ing to Americans in the postwar years who were increasingly mobile and were visiting parks, forests, and wildlife refuges. Because he was not an ecologist like Aldo Leopold, an amateur geologist or botanist like John Muir, or a mammalogist like Olaus Murie, he did not try to replicate their scientifically based support for wilderness. Instead, he based his case on cultural and ethical grounds, mindful of postwar Americans’ growing appetite for scenery and solitude. Outdoor recreation exploded in the post-World War II years, sparked Universityby the end of gasoline and rubber rationing and by the pent-up desires of the millions of Americans who had put off vacations during the war. Now,

E vangelist for the Wilderness | 9 Americans were driving in their cars to state and federal parks, forests, and beaches to swim, hike, fish, and wonder at the scenic vistas. For some, a view of Old Faithful or the Grand Canyon provided a taste of wilderness without requiring substantial effort. For others who were willing to leave their vehicles behind, wilderness in Forest Service primitive areas and in the backcountry of national parks beckoned, and they made their way into these areas on foot or by horseback. The postwar surge in recreation made plain to Zahniser that wilderness areas must be a part of the nation’s out- door opportunities. Along with contemporaries such as Murie, Olson, and Leopold, he sensed that growing numbers of Americans suffered from stresses andPress tensions in their places of work and urban settings and that many lived apart from the natural world. An outing into the wilderness, he asserted, provides inspiration, relaxation, refreshment, and a new perspective. The values of wilderness, he said, “are human values. Its preservation is a pur- pose that arises out of man’s own sense of his fundamental needs.” Moreover, he argued, there is an ethical dimension of wilderness pres- ervation that transcends personal and societal needs. Being in the wilder- ness, he believed, awakens a sense of other forms of life and encourages an understanding of how all life derives its existence from the sun. Wilder- ness thereby reminds humans of their obligations to the earth and other living things. “We now know,” he wrote in a 1953 essay, “that our conser- vation to be truly successful mustWashington arise, not from a too selfish concern for our own day, but rather from a sense of ourselves as a responsible part of a continuing community of life.” He insisted: “We live only as members of a great community.” Theseof statements reflect his innermost convictions about the social bonds in society as well as the moral obligations of humans to be stewards of nature. For Zahniser, wilderness preservation was the ultimate act of stew- ardship, of environmental responsibility. That point deserves attention, particularly in light of the Great Wilderness Debate. Sparked by William Cronon’s provocative essay, “The Trouble with Wilderness” in 1995, and by the writings of other nature writers and philosophers, scholars have vigorously debated the meaning of wilderness in American society and culture and around the globe. One of Cronon’s major points was that Universitythe laserlike focus of environmentalists on saving wilderness distracted them from taking care of landscapes closer to home. In a sense, he argued,

10 | Introduction wilderness had become synonymous with nature and thereby diminished people’s appreciation of the full range of natural and human landscapes. Ramachandra Guha and a number of other scholars have pointed out the problems that wilderness preservation has caused for indigenous people, whose subsistence strategies rely on harvesting animals and plants from lands targeted for preservation by wilderness advocates. In the United States, Native peoples, accustomed to hunting and fishing in areas of the Rocky Mountains, were displaced when Congress created Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. These critiques have sparked tremendous soul searching about the merits of wilderness preservation and advocacy. By implication, they have also tended to diminish the efforts of earlier generaPress- tions of wilderness advocates like Zahniser’s. It may be instructive to speculate on what Howard Zahniser might have thought about the Great Wilderness Debate. Above all, he and his con- temporaries in The Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club, and other orga- nizations understood that wild lands would inevitably disappear from the American landscape, the victims of an economy built on consumerism and growth, so they directed their energies toward setting aside and preserving wilderness by law. The wilderness ideology of Zahniser and his generation can be critiqued, but it bears remembering that they believed wilderness would vanish completely unless measures were taken to protect it. It is difficult to escape the notion that Zahniser’s crusade on behalf of American wilderness was deeplyWashington rooted in his religious convictions. He shared with many other American environmental leaders a grounding in evangelical Protestant thought. This deep strain in America’s religious tradition drew on Johnof Calvin, as historian Mark Stoll has pointed out, and emphasized restraint, responsibility, and stewardship. Calvin’s ideas, as they descended through the generations, also contributed to the ideol- ogy of free-market capitalism, which sought to exploit nature. Although Zahniser did not wear his religious beliefs on his sleeve or assert that his faith compelled him to press for wilderness preservation, there is no doubt that his insistence on the responsibilities of humans to other forms of life and to future generations was grounded in his Protes- tant upbringing. He regularly said that humans were called upon to rec- ognize and care for the life around them. For Zahniser, it was especially Universityimportant to nurture the lives in wild places, not by “management” but through observation, study, and celebration of nature’s own processes.

E vangelist for the Wilderness | 11 His sense of obligation, restraint, and humility toward the natural world were all rooted in his religious convictions. In a major speech, “Wilder- ness Forever,” delivered at the Sierra Club’s seventh biennial wilderness conference in San Francisco in 1961, he said:

It is a bold thing for a human being who lives on the earth but a few score years at the most to presume upon the eternal and covet perpetuity for any of his undertakings. Yet we who concern ourselves with wilderness preservation are compelled to assume this boldness . . . to project into the eternity of the future some of that precious unspoiled ecological inheri- tance that has come to us out of the eternity of the past. Press

He concluded his address by saying: “We are not fighting progress. We are making it. We are not dealing with a vanishing wilderness. We are working for a wilderness forever.”

Washington of

University

12 | Introduction