The World of the Roosevelts Published in cooperation with the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute Hyde Park, New York General Editors: William E. Leuchtenburg, William vanden Heuvel, and Douglas Brinkley FDR AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Foreign Perceptions of an American President Edited by Cornelis A. van Minnen and John F. Sears NATO: THE FOUNDING OF THE ATLANTIC ALLIANCE AND THE INTEGRATION OF EUROPE Edited by Francis H. Heller and John R. Gillingham AMERICA UNBOUND World War II and the Making of a Superpower Edited by Warren F. Kimball THE ORIGINS OF U.S. NUCLEAR STRATEGY, 1945 1953 Samuel R. Williamson, Jr. and Steven L. Rearden AMERICAN DIPLOMATS IN THE NETHERLANDS, 1815 50 Cornelis A. van Minnen EISENHOWER, KENNEDY, AND THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE Pascaline Winand ALLIES AT WAR The Soviet, American, and British Experience, 1939 1945 Edited by David Reynolds, Warren F. Kimball, and A. O. Chubarian THE ATLANTIC CHARTER Edited by Douglas Brinkley and David R. Facey-Crowther PEARL HARBOR REVISITED Edited by Robert W. Love, Jr. FDR AND THE HOLOCAUST Edited by Verne W. Newton THE UNITED STATES AND THE INTEGRATION OF EUROPE Legacies of the Postwar Era Edited by Francis H. Heller and John R. Gillingham ADENAUER AND KENNEDY A Study in German-American Relations Frank A. Mayer THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND THE BRITISH EMPIRE A Study in Presidential Statecraft William N. Tilchin TARIFFS, TRADE AND EUROPEAN INTEGRATION, 1947 1957 From Study Group to Common Market Wendy Asbeek Brusse SUMNER WELLES FDR s Global Strategist A Biography by Benjamin Welles THE NEW DEAL AND PUBLIC POLICY Edited by Byron W. Daynes, William D. Pederson, and Michael P. Riccards WORLD WAR II IN EUROPE Edited by Charles F. Brower FDR AND THE U.S. NAVY Edward J. Marolda THE SECOND QUEBEC CONFERENCE REVISITED Edited by David B. Woolner THEODORE ROOSEVELT, THE U.S. NAVY, AND THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR Edited by Edward J. Marolda
FDR, THE VATICAN, AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN AMERICA, 1933 1945 Edited by David B. Woolner and Richard G. Kurial FDR AND THE ENVIRONMENT Edited by Henry L. Henderson and David B. Woolner VAN LOON: POPULAR HISTORIAN, JOURNALIST, AND FDR CONFIDANT Cornelis A. van Minnen FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT S FOREIGN POLICY AND THE WELLES MISSION J. Simon Rofe FDR S WORLD War, Peace, and Legacies Edited by David B. Woolner, Warren F. Kimball, and David Reynolds ROOSEVELT AND FRANCO DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR From the Spanish Civil War to Pearl Harbor Joan Maria Thomàs HARRY HOPKINS Sudden Hero, Brash Reformer June Hopkins
FDR and the Environment EDITED BY HENRY L. HENDERSON AND DAVID B. WOOLNER
FDR AND THE ENVIRONMENT Copyright Henry L. Henderson and David B. Woolner, 2005. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-6861-6 All rights reserved. First published in hardcover in 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-0-230-61968-5 ISBN 978-0-230-10067-1 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230100671 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data FDR and the environment / edited by Henry L. Henderson and David B. Woolner. p. cm. (The world of the Roosevelts) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882 1945 Views on conservation. 2. Environmental protection United States History 20th century. 3. Conservation of natural resources United States History 20th century. 4. United States Politics and government 1933 1945. 5. New Deal, 1933 1939. I. Henderson, Henry L. II. Woolner, David B., 1955 III. Series. E807.F335 2005 973.917_092 dc22 2004054139 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First PALGRAVE MACMILLAN paperback edition: September 2009 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents Acknowledgments Foreword vii ix Introduction 1 Henry L. Henderson and David B. Woolner Part 1 FDR as Environmentalist 5 1. Grassroots Democracy: FDR and the Land 7 John F. Sears 2. The Complex Environmentalist: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Ethos of New Deal Conservation 19 Brian Black 3. A Conflux of Desire and Need : Trees, Boy Scouts, and the Roots of Franklin Roosevelt s Civilian Conservation Corps 49 Neil M. Maher Part 2 Conservation: Wilderness, Agriculture, and the Human Community 85 4. New Deal Conservation: A View from the Wilderness 87 Paul Sutter 5. FDR, Hoover, and the New Rural Conservation, 1920 1932 107 Sarah Phillips Part 3 Law, Policy, and Planning 153 6. Rediscovering the New Deal s Environmental Legacy 155 A. Dan Tarlock
Contents 7. FDR s Expansion of Our National Patrimony: A Model for Leadership 177 John Leshy 8. Referendum on Planning: Imaging River Conservation in the 1938 TVA Hearings 181 Brian Black 9. FDR and Environmental Leadership 195 James R. Lyons Part 4 A Usable Past 219 10. Recovering FDR s Environmental Legacy 221 Richard N.L. Andrews 11. A New Deal for Nature And Nature s People 245 Roger G. Kennedy Notes on Contributors 261 Index 265
Acknowledgments In the fall of 2002 the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, and Marist College hosted a remarkable conference entitled Recovering the Environmental Legacy of FDR. As the title suggests, the conference sought to reexamine the Progressive era conservation policies of the New Deal based on the principle that many of the programs and policies of this remarkable era stand at the root of modern environmentalism. A conference of this intellectual scope and vigor could not have happened without the assistance of many individuals and the support of a number of key institutions. The inspiration for the conference came from Roosevelt Institute Cochairs Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, granddaughter of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and William J. vanden Heuvel. Without their vision and dedication to the legacy of FDR such a conference would not have been possible. We are also grateful to Dr. Cynthia Koch, the director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum and to the staffs of the FDR Library and Roosevelt Institute for their kind assistance. Special thanks must also go to Marist College president, Dr. Dennis Murray, for his strong support, as well as to Marist s dean of Liberal Arts and director of the Hudson River Valley Institute (HRVI) Dr. Thomas Wermuth, whose steadfast commitment to our efforts proved invaluable. Chris Pavlovski, the program director of HRVI, and Marist s Director Special Events, Valerie Hall also deserve recognition for their help in organizing the event. Our appreciation goes out to Sarah Olson, the superintendent of the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Site, and our friends at the National Park Service, who added a great deal to the proceedings. For providing us with a Hudson River Valley perspective of FDR s environmental legacy we would like to thank Deborah Meyer Dewan, Scenic Hudson s director of Riverfront Communities and a longtime environmental and community advocate; Cara Lee, the program director for the Nature Conservancy s Shawangunk Ridge Program; and Martin Shaffer, assistant professor of Political Science at Marist College, and a specialist in the politics of American Environmentalism. We are also grateful to Dr. Thomas Lynch and Dr. Richard Feldman of Marist s
Acknowledgments Department of Environmental Sciences for their assistance, and to Dr. Ray Teichman, senior archivist at the FDR Library for his enlightening and humorous comments on the environmental holdings of the FDR Library. For his wise counsel on the intellectual dimensions of the conference and this book, our thanks go out as well to our dear friend and mentor, Roosevelt Historian, William Leuchtenburg. As has been the case with a number of Roosevelt Institute conferences, we are extremely grateful to the late Jack Gartland and the Charlotte Cunneen Hackett Charitable Trust for their financial support of our efforts. Without this support, this conference would not have been possible. The conference organizers also wish to acknowledge the financial assistance of Marist College, the Hudson River Valley Institute, and the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. Finally, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to participants of the conference who so graciously accepted our invitation to share their knowledge of this fascinating aspect of the Roosevelt era; and our appreciation to series editors Douglas Brinkley and Brendan O Malley for their assistance in the final preparation of this book. Henry L. Henderson and David B. Woolner Chicago and Hyde Park
Foreword William E. Leuchtenburg For those of us who lived through the era of the New Deal, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was the hero of the conservation movement, and multipurpose river valley development was our creed. We were thrilled by the dams in the Tennessee Valley and the Pacific Northwest, and proud that leaders all over the globe thought of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as the model for how to harness the energy of rivers to provide clean electric power and how to nourish grassroots democracy. We acknowledged the pioneering efforts of FDR s distant cousin, Teddy, but we doubted that anyone ever had, or ever would, equal the initiatives of the New Deal: the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Soil Conservation Service, the shelterbelt, the Great Plains Committee, the wildlife refuges, and the national preserves from the Everglades and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore in the east to the Olympic National Park rain forest in the west. Hence, it came as a shock when a later generation alleged that, with respect to the environment, FDR was not a hero but a villain. Yes, it is said, the New Deal did close the public domain lands to further entry, but it did so by permitting stockmen to exploit them. The TVA, which a British historian once marveled at as the dazzling TVA, is now excoriated for fostering strip mining of coal, attempting to consign the snail darter to extinction, and fouling the air with sulphur dioxide. Grassroots democracy, critics charge, means succumbing to the most powerful local interests. Instead of celebrating the dams we so much admired, environmentalists are destroying them to provide swift-moving streams for salmon and trout, just as well-intentioned New Deal public housing projects have been imploded. These conflicting perceptions raise a series of questions. Some of the questions invite scrutiny of the record. Did Roosevelt knowingly jeopardize the environment in pursuit of other goals such as combating unemployment? Was FDR, with his utilitarian bent, insensitive to the need to keep the wilderness pristine? Other questions are exculpatory. Is it fair to blame FDR for policies adopted by TVA officials appointed by his Republican successors?
Foreword Is it reasonable to criticize the New Dealers for not grasping the nuances of environmentalist theories that did not emerge until a generation later? Still other questions encourage reflection. Has the criticism of the New Deal by modern-day environmentalists been too harsh? Have they failed to perceive continuity between Roosevelt s actions and the priorities of today? Richard N.L. Andrews, while noting the deficiencies of FDR s performance, has concluded, The New Deal era left an unprecedented legacy of conservation achievements to American environmental policy. No other era in American history produced such an extraordinary record both of restoring and enhancing the environment, and of creating an improved sense of harmony between human communities and their environmental surroundings. The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute is to be congratulated for calling a conference to explore these questions and for making possible this important book. Both are unique. Never before has the performance of an administration with respect to the environment been appraised so diligently. Never before has such an examination been undertaken in the spotlight of contemporary issues and at a time when the current administration is under fire for lacking FDR s vision. This book not only gives us a fresh view of one of the most significant features of the age of Roosevelt, but also informs our understanding of the directions we should pursue in the twenty-first century.