Bob Marshall (wilderness activist)
Bob Marshall | |
---|---|
Born | New York City, US | January 2, 1901
Died | November 11, 1939 New York City, US | (aged 38)
Burial place | Salem Fields Cemetery, Brooklyn |
Occupation | Forester |
Employer(s) | Bureau of Indian Affairs; United States Forest Service |
Known for | Founder, The Wilderness Society |
Notable work | Arctic Village (1933) |
Parent(s) | Louis Marshall Florence Lowenstein Marshall |
Relatives | George Marshall, James Marshall, Ruth (Putey) Marshall |
Robert Marshall (January 2, 1901 – November 11, 1939) was an American
A scientist with a PhD in plant physiology, Marshall became independently wealthy after the death of his father in 1929. He had started his outdoor career in 1925 as forester with the U.S. Forest Service. He used his financial independence for expeditions to Alaska and other wilderness areas. Later he held two significant public appointed posts: chief of forestry in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, from 1933 to 1937, and head of recreation management in the Forest Service, from 1937 to 1939, both during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During this period, he directed the promulgation of regulations to preserve large areas of roadless land that were under federal management. Many years after his death, some of those areas were permanently protected from development, exploitation, and mechanization with the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964.
Defining wilderness as a social as well as an environmental ideal, Marshall promoted organization of a national group dedicated to the preservation of primeval land.[1] In 1935, he was one of the principal founders of The Wilderness Society and personally provided most of the Society's funding in its first years. He also supported socialism and civil liberties throughout his life.[2]
Marshall died of heart failure at the age of 38 in 1939. Twenty-five years later, partly as a result of his efforts, The Wilderness Society helped gain passage of the Wilderness Act. The Act was passed by Congress in 1964 and legally defined wilderness areas of the United States and protected some nine million acres (36,000 km2) of federal land from development, road building and motorized transportation. Today, Marshall is considered largely responsible for the wilderness preservation movement. Several areas and landmarks, including The Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana and Mount Marshall in the Adirondacks, have been named in his honor.
Early life and education
Born in New York City, Bob Marshall was the third of four children of Louis Marshall (1856–1929) and Florence (née Lowenstein) Marshall (1873–1916).[3]
His father, the son of Jewish immigrants from
Bob Marshall attended
Schooling and early exploring
Marshall was drawn to the outdoors. He discovered his passion for exploring, charting, and a love of climbing mountains, in part through the writings of Verplanck Colvin, who during the post-Civil War decade surveyed the woods of northern New York.[11] Throughout his life, Marshall kept a series of hiking notebooks, which he illustrated with photographs and filled with statistics. In 1915, Marshall climbed his first Adirondack peak, the 3,352-foot (1,022 m) Ampersand Mountain, alongside his brother George and family friend Herb Clark, a Saranac Lake guide.[12] The two brothers learned the arts of woodcraft and boating through Clark, who accompanied them on most of their longer trips during adolescence and early adulthood.[10] By 1921, they became the first climbers to scale all 42 Adirondack Mountains believed to exceed 4,000 feet (1,200 m), some of which had never been climbed.[13] In 1924, the three became the first Adirondack Forty-Sixers, hikers who have climbed to the summits of all 46 High Peaks of the Adirondacks.[14]
After graduating from the Ethical Culture School, Marshall spent a year at
During the early 1920s, Marshall grew interested in promoting Adirondack recreation. In 1922, he became one of the charter members of the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK), an organization devoted to the building and maintenance of trails and the teaching of hiking in the park.[19] In 1922, he prepared a 38-page guidebook, entitled The High Peaks of the Adirondacks. Based on his pioneering experiences on the peaks,[20] the guide recommends that "it's a great thing these days to leave civilization for a while and return to nature."[21] Marshall provided a brief description of each peak and arranged them in order of "niceness of view and all around pleasure in view and climb."[22]
In the early morning when the first faint light
Cuts the murky blackness of the cool calm night,
While the gloomy forest, dismal, dark, and wild,
Seems to slowly soften and become more mild,
When the mists hang heavy, where the streams flow by
And reflects the rose-tints in the eastern sky,
When the brook trout leaps and the deer drinks slow,
While the distant mountains blend in one soft glow,
'Tis the precious moment, given once a day,
When the present fades to the far-away,
When the busy this-time for a moment's gone,
And the Earth turns backward into Nature's dawn.
—Bob Marshall, Empire Forester (1923), yearbook of the New York State College of Forestry, p. 82[23]
In 1924, Marshall graduated
Forest Service and Alaska
Marshall started work in 1925 with the Forest Service, where he worked until 1928.[27] Although he had hoped to go to Alaska, he was assigned that year to the Northern Rocky Mountain Experiment Station at Missoula, Montana.[28][29] Marshall's research at the experimental station focused on the dynamics of forest regeneration after fires. He had to fight a widespread fire after a July storm started more than 150 fires in Idaho's Kaniksu National Forest.[30] He was put in charge of supporting and provisioning one of the crews led by the Forest Service.[31] As he later recalled, Marshall worked "18 to 20 hours a day as time-keeper, Chief of Commissary, Camp Boss, and Inspector of the fire line".[30] Spending time with loggers and fire fighters, and seeing the conditions under which they worked, Marshall learned vital lessons about labor issues and natural resource use.[32] At the experimental station, Marshall became interested in the unsafe conditions for many working Americans. He began to develop liberal and socialist philosophies.[33]
After leaving the Forest Service in 1928, Marshall worked to complete his studies for a PhD in plant physiology at
Bob Marshall's mother died of cancer in 1916. In 1929, his father Louis died in Zürich, Switzerland at the age of 72. The four children inherited most of their father's estate, which was worth several million dollars. Although Marshall became financially independent, he continued to work throughout his life.[39] He used his wealth to pursue his interests, such as The Wilderness Society, which he essentially supported in its early years.[40]
In 1930, Marshall received his PhD under the supervision of Dr. Burton E. Livingston at the Johns Hopkins Laboratory of Plant Physiology.[41][42] Marshall's doctoral dissertation was titled An Experimental Study of the Water Relations of Seedling Conifers with Special Reference to Wilting.[43]
In February 1930, Marshall published an essay, "The Problem of the Wilderness," after it was rejected by four magazines. This is now celebrated as a defense of wilderness preservation, and the essay expanded themes developed in his earlier article, "The Wilderness as a Minority Right."[44] Published in The Scientific Monthly, the essay is considered one of Marshall's most important works. He argued that wilderness was worth saving not only because of its unique aesthetic qualities, but because it could provide visitors with a chance for adventure.[45] Marshall stated: "There is just one hope of repulsing the tyrannical ambition of civilization to conquer every niche on the whole earth. That hope is the organization of spirited people who will fight for the freedom of the wilderness."[46] The article became a much-quoted call to action and by the late 20th century was considered seminal by wilderness historians.[47]
In July 1930, Marshall and his brother George climbed nine Adirondack High Peaks in one day, setting a new record.[48]
In August of that year, Marshall returned to Alaska. He planned to explore the Brooks Range to pursue more tree research, and he also wanted to study the Arctic frontier society of Wiseman.
Writing, conservation, and Federal government
Marshall returned to the
Shortly after his return, Marshall was asked by Earle Clapp, head of the Forest Service's Branch of Research, to help initiate badly needed reforms in the forest-products industry and to create a broader vision of national forest management.[53] Marshall moved to Washington, D.C. in September 1932 to assume the appointed position, which entailed writing initiatives for forest recreation. He immediately began compiling a list of the remaining roadless areas in the United States.[54] He sent this data to regional foresters, urging them to set aside areas for wilderness; all of them responded negatively. Marshall's contributions to what became known as the Copeland Report amounted to three extensive chapters of a two-volume, 1,677-page work. He considered it "the best piece of forestry work I have yet done."[55]
During the depths of the
Marshall did not forget his conservation causes, and soon was pondering the question of wilderness and national parks. In the early 1930s, he joined the National Parks Association, eventually becoming a member of its board.[58]
In 1933, Marshall published The People's Forests [On Forestry in America], in which he "made a forceful case for socializing the nation's industrial timberlands."[59] He believed that public ownership was the "best way to ensure both the sustainability of the forest industry and the preservation of wilderness."[60]
In August 1933, Marshall was appointed as director of the Forestry Division of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), a position he held for four years.[61] The BIA managed the resources of many Indian reservation lands, deciding on logging and other leases for resource extraction. This was before many tribes asserted their sovereignty and took over their own management of their lands. Marshall besieged government personnel with letters, telephone calls, and personal visits in the cause of wilderness, rapidly gaining recognition in Washington as a champion of preservation.[62] One of his last initiatives as chief forester of the BIA was to recommend designation of 4,800,000 acres (19,425 km2) of Indian reservation lands for federal management as either "roadless" or "wild" areas. The administrative order, which created 16 wilderness areas, received approval shortly after Marshall left the BIA to join the Forest Service again. He was appointed to a political position there as well.[61]
Marshall became increasingly concerned with civilization's encroachment upon the wild lands, writing:
The sounds of the forest are entirely obliterated by the roar of the motor. The smell of pine needles and flowers and herbs and freshly turned dirt and all the other delicate odors of the forest are drowned in the stench of gasoline. The feeling of wind blowing in the face and of soft ground under foot are all lost.[63]
The Wilderness Society
In 1934, Marshall visited Knoxville, Tennessee and met with Benton MacKaye, a regional planner who gained support to designate and lay out the Appalachian Trail. Together with Harvey Broome, a Knoxville lawyer, they discussed Marshall's 1930 proposal for an organization dedicated to wilderness preservation.[64] Bernard Frank, a fellow forester, joined them later in the year; the men mailed an "Invitation to Help Organize a Group to Preserve the American Wilderness" to like-minded individuals. The invitation expressed their desire "to integrate the growing sentiment which we believe exists in this country for holding wild areas sound-proof as well as sight-proof from our increasingly mechanized life," and their conviction that such wildernesses were "a serious human need rather than a luxury and plaything".[40]
On January 21, 1935, the organizing committee published a folder stating that "for the purpose of fighting off invasion of the wilderness and of stimulating ... an appreciation of its multiform emotional, intellectual, and scientific values, we are forming an organization to be known as the WILDERNESS SOCIETY".[40] They invited Aldo Leopold to act as the society's first president, but the position ultimately went to Robert Sterling Yard. Marshall provided the bulk of the society's funding in its early years, beginning with an anonymous donation of $1,000.[40]
T. H. Watkins, who later edited the society's magazine, Wilderness, contended that before Marshall and the Society there was "no true movement" for the preservation of the nation's roadless and primitive areas. "One could comfortably argue," Watkins wrote in 1985 on the occasion of the society's 50th anniversary, "that Robert Marshall was personally responsible for the preservation of more wilderness than any individual in history".[45]
Later efforts and sudden death
Marshall's last years were productive. By May 1937, he was appointed as director of the Forest Service's Division of Recreation and Lands. Over the next two years, Marshall worked on two major initiatives: an effort to extend national forest recreational opportunities to people with lower incomes (as well as dismantling discriminatory barriers against ethnic minorities), and a program to preserve more wilderness within the
In August 1938, Marshall began his last trip to Alaska, which included further exploration of the Brooks Range. He became a subject of interest of the
While Marshall was in Washington State that September, two regulations (U-1 and U2) developed by his Forest Service committee were signed by Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace; these "U-Regulations"[72] protected wilderness and wild areas from road building, logging, hotels, and similarly destructive activities. It made their protected status more secure.[73]
While on a midnight train from Washington, D.C. to New York City on November 11, 1939, Marshall died of apparent heart failure at the age of 38.[3] His sudden death came as a shock because of his relatively young age and high level of physical activity. He was greatly mourned by friends and relatives. His brother George (who lived to be 96) said: "Bob's death shattered me and was the most traumatic event in my life."[74] Marshall was interred at Salem Fields Cemetery, a Jewish burial ground in Brooklyn, New York City, beside his parents and sister Ruth (Putey) Marshall, who had died of congestive heart failure at age 38 in 1936.
Legacy
A bachelor, Marshall left virtually all of his $1.5 million estate (equivalent to $31 million today) to three causes dear to him: wilderness preservation, socialism, civil liberties.[14] Three trusts were established in his will. The first, focused on education related to "the theory of production for use and not for profit", received half of his estate; the second, aimed at "safeguarding and advancement of the cause of civil liberties", received one-quarter of his estate; and the third supported "preservation of the wilderness conditions in outdoor America," establishing what became the Robert Marshall Wilderness Fund. Trustees of the latter trust included Robert Sterling Yard, Bob Marshall's brother George, Irving Clark, Olaus Murie and Bill Zimmerman, early leaders of The Wilderness Society.[75] Marshall left money to only one individual: $10,000 (equivalent to $207,896 today) to his old friend and guide, Herb Clark.[3]
Marshall's posthumously published book Alaska Wilderness, Exploring the Central Brooks Range (1956), edited by his brother George, became a seminal work.
Since its founding, The Wilderness Society has helped pass many bills for preservation and conservation of public lands. It has also purchased lands for preservation, contributing a total of 109 million acres (421,000 km2) to the National Wilderness Preservation System.[36] Marshall's dream of permanent wilderness protection became a reality 25 years after his death when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Wilderness Act into law on September 3, 1964, in the Rose Garden of the White House.[78]
Written by
Places and dedications
The
Mount Marshall (previously called Mount Herbert), which stands 4,360 feet (1,330 m) high in the Adirondack Mountains, Camp Bob Marshall in the Black Hills, and Marshall Lake in the Brooks Range of Alaska, north of the Arctic Circle, are also named for him.[3] In 2008, the Adirondack Council was encouraging the state of New York to create the Bob Marshall Great Wilderness near Cranberry Lake in the western Adirondacks; if successful, it would be the largest wilderness area in the Adirondack Park at 409,000 acres (639 sq mi; 1,655 km2).[82]
At the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF), Bob Marshall Fellowships in wilderness management and policy studies are offered to graduate students and faculty engaged in research in recreation resource management; the fellowships are supported by the college's Bob Marshall Endowed Fund.[83] Also at ESF, a student "outing club" named after Marshall honors his love of the outdoors and the Adirondack mountains.[84] A bronze plaque commemorating Bob Marshall's contributions to wilderness conservation was installed in the entrance of Marshall Hall, a hub of campus events and activities named after his father.[85]
Selected list of works
Articles
- "The Wilderness as a Minority Right", U.S. Forest Service Bulletin (August 27, 1928), pp. 5–6.
- "Forest devastation must stop", The Nation (August 28, 1929)
- "The Problem of the Wilderness", The Scientific Monthly (February 1930), pp. 141–148
- "A Proposed Remedy for Our Forest Illness", Journal of Forestry 28 (March 1930)
- "The Social Management of American Forests", League for Industrial Democracy (1930)
Books
- Arctic Village. New York: The Literary Guild (1933)
- reprinted by the ISBN 978-0-912006-51-2)
- The People's Forests. [On Forestry in America.]. New York: H. Smith and R. Haas (1933) LCCN 33-36029
- reprint (with a foreword by ISBN 978-0-87745-805-0)
- Alaska Wilderness: Exploring the Central Brooks Range, 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press (1970) )
- (first published as Arctic Wilderness, in 1956)LCCN 56-6774
References
Notes
- ^ Sutter, p. 233
- ^ Sutter, p. 194
- ^ a b c d e Brown, Phil (August 2007). "Wilderness Advocate". Conservationist. 61 (1): 2–6. Archived from the original on April 7, 2009. Retrieved March 12, 2008.
- ^ Glover, p. 7
- ^ Shabecoff, p. 80
- ^ Glover, p. 9
- ^ Glover, p. 11
- ^ Sutter, p. 196
- ^ Nash, p. 201
- ^ a b c Marshall, p. 44
- ^ Sutter, p. 199
- ^ a b Brown, p. xxiv
- ^ a b Catton, p. 133
- ^ a b "Robert Marshall: The Wilderness Society". The Wilderness Society. Archived from the original on November 30, 2009. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
- ^ Nash, p. 202
- ^ Glover, p. 38
- ^ Glover, p. 39
- ^ Glover, pp. 41–42
- ^ Sutter, p. 200
- ^ Brown, p. 3
- ^ Brown, p. 1
- ^ Zeveloff, p. 140
- ^ Brown, p. 159
- ^ Graham, p. 191
- ^ Glover, p. 53
- ^ Borneman, p. 305
- ^ Sutter, p. 202
- ^ Northern Region Forest Service Centennial. (1992). "Bob Marshall". Adapted from Terry West's "Centennial Mini-Histories of the Forest Service". Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service. Archived from the original on June 2, 2008. Retrieved February 22, 2008.
- ^ Tribune staff. "125 Montana Newsmakers: Bob Marshall". Great Falls Tribune. Archived from the original on January 21, 2012. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
- ^ a b Sutter, p. 204
- ^ Glover, p. 69
- ^ Sutter, p. 203
- ^ Glover, p. 75
- ^ Glover, p. 104
- ^ a b Catton, p. 138
- ^ a b c "How The Wilderness Society Was Founded". The Wilderness Society. Archived from the original on April 22, 2009. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
- ^ "Gates of the Arctic Wilderness". Wilderness Connect. University of Montana. Retrieved January 3, 2020.
- ^ Marshall, Robert (1956). Marshall, George (ed.). Arctic Wilderness. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 1–30, 34–35.
- ^ Glover, p. 111
- ^ a b c d Nash, p. 207
- ^ "Robert Marshall Photograph Collection, 1929". Alaska State Library. Retrieved December 24, 2012.
- ^ Glover, p. 100
- OCLC 17499842.
- ^ Glover, p. 115
- ^ a b Shabecoff, p. 81
- ^ Nash, p. 200
- ^ Glover, p. 116
- ^ Brown, p. xxv
- ^ Glover, p. 117
- ^ Fox, p. 7
- ^ Glover, p. 141
- ^ Glover, p. 142
- ^ Sutter, p. 221
- ^ Glover, p. 145
- ^ Glover, p. 146
- ^ Glover, p. 149
- ^ Glover, p. 152
- ^ Sutter, p. 231
- ^ William Cronon, "First Roll Call The Conversation That Launched the Wilderness Society: Where Did It Take Place?", p.2, William Cronon website, n.d.; accessed November 23, 2016
- ^ Jesse Lichtenstein, "Jesse Lichtenstein reviews The People’s Forests by Robert Marshall", Grist, February 11, 2003; accessed November 24, 2016
- ^ a b Catton, p. 142
- ^ Nash, p. 204
- ^ Fox, p. 8
- ^ Nash, p. 206
- ^ Sutter, p. 234
- ^ Glover, p. 253
- ^ Glover, p. 236
- ^ Glover, p. 244
- ^ Glover, p. 245
- ^ Glover, p. 248
- ^ Glover, p. 262
- ^ Zeveloff, p. 141
- ^ Glover, p. 265
- ^ Glover, p. 268
- ^ "Introduction", Robert Marshall Wilderness Fund Records, Denver Public Library.
- ^ "Alaska Wilderness by Robert Marshall - Nate Shivar". July 9, 2021.
- ^ "Bob Marshall in the Adirondacks". Lost Pond Press. Archived from the original on December 31, 2008. Retrieved February 22, 2008.
- ^ Shabecoff, p. 82
- ^ Graham, pp. 228–229.
- ^ "The Wilderness Act of 1964". Excerpted from Wilderness America. Washington, D.C.: Wilderness Society, 1990. The Wilderness Society. Archived from the original on November 28, 2009. Retrieved September 10, 2009.
- ^ a b "Bob Marshall Wilderness". Wilderness.net. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved February 22, 2008.
- ^ Brown, p. 307
- ^ "Giving to ESF: Scholarships and Awards". SUNY-ESF. Archived from the original on March 10, 2010. Retrieved December 1, 2009.
- ^ "ESF Clubs & Organizations". SUNY-ESF. Archived from the original on December 26, 2008. Retrieved June 17, 2009.
- ^ "SUNY-ESF: Marshall Hall". SUNY-ESF. Archived from the original on October 14, 2008. Retrieved June 17, 2009.
- OCLC 000131841.
Bibliography
- Borneman, Walter R. 2003. Alaska: Saga of a Bold Land. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-050307-6.
- Brown, Phil (ed). 2006. Bob Marshall in the Adirondacks: Writings of a Pioneering Peak-Bagger, Pond-Hopper and Wilderness Preservationist. Saranac Lake, New York: Lost Pond Press. ISBN 0-9789254-0-8.
- Catton, Theodore. 1997. Inhabited Wilderness: Indians, Eskimos, and National Parks in Alaska. University of New Mexico. ISBN 978-0-8263-1827-5
- Fox, Stephen. 1984. "We Want No Straddlers". Wilderness 48.167 (July): 5–19.
- Glover, James M. 1986. A Wilderness Original: The Life of Bob Marshall. Seattle: The Mountaineers. ISBN 0-89886-121-7.
- Graham, Frank Jr. 1978. The Adirondack Park: A Political History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
- Marshall, George. 1951. "Adirondacks to Alaska: A Biographical Sketch of Robert Marshall". Ad-i-Ron-Dac XV(3): pp. 44–45, 59.
- ISBN 978-0-300-02910-9.
- Shabecoff, Philip. 2003. A Fierce Green Fire: The American Environmental Movement. Washington: Island Press. ISBN 1-55963-437-5.
- Sutter, Paul S. 2002. Driven Wild: How the Fight against Automobiles Launched the Modern Wilderness Movement. Seattle: University of Washington press. ISBN 0-295-98219-5.
- Zeveloff, Samuel I. 1992. Wilderness Tapestry: An Eclectic Approach to Preservation. Reno: University of Nevada Press. ISBN 978-0-87417-200-3.
Further reading
- Glover, James M., and Regina B. Glover. 1986. "Robert Marshall: Portrait of a Liberal Forester". Journal of Forest History 30(3), pp. 112–119.
- Marshall, George. 1951. "Bibliography of Robert Marshall, 1901–1939, With Reviews of His Published Works and Biographical Appreciations". The Living Wilderness, pp. 20–23.
- Marshall, George. 1954. "Bibliography of Robert Marshall: A Supplement". The Living Wilderness, pp. 31–35.
- Nash, Roderick F. 2001. Wilderness and the American Mind, 4th ed. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09122-9.
- Vickery, Jim. 1986. Wilderness Visionaries. Merrillville, Ind.: ICS Books. ISBN 1-55971-435-2.
- Hott, Lawrence, and Diane Garey. 1991. ISBN 1-55974-420-0.
- Woelber, Paxson. 2013. The World Beyond the World, a short film with narration adapted from "Alaska Wilderness: Exploring the Central Brooks Range".
External links
- The Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation website – Wilderness Volunteer Projects in The Bob
- The Wilderness Society's official website
- "The Robert Marshall Collection, New York State Archives". Archived from the original on January 6, 2011. Retrieved January 1, 2011.
- The Marshall archives at the SUNY College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry
- The Robert Marshall Papers, American Jewish Archives Archived August 6, 2012, at the Wayback Machine