Yellowstone and the Great West: Journals, Letters, and Images from the 1871 Hayden Expedition

Although Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden submitted the voluminous Fifth Report detailing the exploration of Yellowstone\u27s high country in 1871, important parts of this expedition\u27s story were omitted. Later accounts of the expedition by Hayden and by the photographer William Henry Jackson, though prepared from their field notes, contained mistakes caused by faulty memories. Unfortunately, the original field notes of both men have been lost. In Yellowstone and the Great West, Marlene Merrill presents the edited and annotated diaries of other expedition members, the geologist George Nelson Allen and the mineralogist Albert C. Peale

An Historical Analysis of Mussel Propagation and Culture: Research Performed at the Fairport Biological Station

The U.S. Bureau of Fisheries was an important institution for Progressive era conservation. At the same time that Gifford Pinchot sought to use scientific principles to rationalize forest resource use, so a conservation-oriented government sought to rationalize and improve fisheries. The ideas of eliminating waste, putting resources on planned schedules of harvest and renewal, and the use of resources for the public good proved compelling rationales during Teddy Roosevelt’s presidential administration. Finally, scientists working for the Bureau (more so than academic ecologists often emphasized in the histories we read) also provided a primary motivating force in conceptualizing and building the biological station at Fairport. The development of practical applications involved scientific questions that required scientific expertise

Yellowstone: The Creation and Selling of an American Landscape, 1870-1903

Chris Magoc\u27s Yellowstone: The Creation and Selling of an American Landscape offers a compelling examination of the ironies involved in the creation of our first national park. Focusing on the inherent contradictions of nature preservation in an industrializing society, Magoc argues that Yellowstone\u27s popular embrace was less a progressive step toward modem environmentalism than a profound expression of dominant trends in middle-class American life (p. 4). Yellowstone National Park and the Northern Pacific Railroad became monuments on the landscape of American capitalism during an era when the myth of inexhaustibility enabled Americans to meld nature and the technological sublime (p. 74). Americans\u27 attraction to scenicindustrial landscapes, exemplified by glowing descriptions of geysers as a busy city, demonstrate the paradox of nature appreciation within the booming life of a transformative, mechanistic civilization (p. 93)

Book review: Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism

This book review is from Oregon Historical Quarterly 103 (2002): 387. Posted with permission.</p

Making meaningful comparisons between road and rail – substituting average energy consumption data for rail with empirical analysis

Within the transport sector, modal shift towards more efficient and less polluting modes could be a key policy goal to help meet targets to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. However, making comparisons between modes is not necessarily straightforward. Average energy and emissions data are often relied upon, particularly for, rail, which may not be applicable to a given context. Some UK train operating companies have recently fitted electricity metres to their trains, from which energy consumption data have been obtained. This has enabled an understanding to be gained of how energy consumption and related emissions are affected by a number of factors, including train and service type. Comparisons are made with existing data for road and rail. It is noted that although more specific data can be useful in informing policy and making some decisions, average data continue to play an important role when considering the overall picture

French Strategy and the American Revolution: A Reappraisal

The question of French involvement in the American War of Independence frequently becomes entangled in much larger issues that often obscure the reasons France became involved in the first place and what the consequences were for subsequent French history

Threatened by Industry, Saved by Science: Mussel Propagation at the Fairport Biological Laboratory

During the 1890s, people on the Mississippi River exploited mussel populations to support a thriving button industry. Within a brief time, they noticed significant declines in mussel populations, and called on the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries to save the resource. This paper discusses mussel propagation studies, techniques, and activities carried on in association with the Fairport Biological Laboratory (Iowa) from about 1908 to 1932. While scientists developed sophisticated techniques and had success in mussel propagation, changing habitat conditions in the river (caused mainly by pollution and dam construction) meant limited success in rescuing mussel stocks, while the introduction of plastic and the growth of foreign sources of mussel shells influenced the decline of the button industry on the Mississippi River

The Most Defiant Devil: William Temple Hornaday and His Controversial Crusade to Save American Wildlife

Review of: The Most Defiant Devil: William Temple Hornaday and His Controversial Crusade to Save American Wildlife, by Gregory J. Dehle

All the Wild that Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West

Review of: "All the Wild that Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West", by David Gessner