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Recent public opinion polls indicate that Americans strongly support
clean air, water, and land - our shared environment. It was not always
so. In fact, environmental concern is a fairly recent phenomena in American
history, initially expressed by groups of outdoor enthusiasts and preservationist
in the past 150 years.
When
European settlers first colonized North America its forests were thick,
game was abundant, freshwater teemed with life, and its air was pure and
clean. As much as any pioneering spirit, it was this natural bounty that
allowed Americans to push westward in the early 18th century, They explored
and settled the southwest, built cities in the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes
regions, planted cotton in the south and corn in midwest prairies. In
the latter half of the 1800's, America's railroad expansion greatly affected
frontier settlement patterns and spurred the growth of cities in the midwest
and west.
Forests
were logged. Plains and prairies were devoted to grain production and
livestock. Nature was commodified. Public demand for beef, corn, and timber
grew sharply. Large sewer systems were developed that dumped wastewater
into freshwater resources. Industry was consuming clean water and disposing
dirty water. Coal was burned, darkening city skies. Solid waste removal
became a challenge in urban areas. Fur trapping and sport hunting were
depleting wildlife resources. Gradually it became apparent that some of
these resources were finite. But it was not until shortages in resources
such as water and timber arose that individual Americans and the government
responded to conserve and preserve certain commodities.
Americans
in towns and cities were literally distanced from nature. Grassroots organizations
sprung up to safeguard natural resources and to protect wildlife. Some
of the better known efforts continue today. The forerunner to the Audubon
Society was begun in 1886 to protect the birds of America. The Sierra
Club was founded six years later to study, preserve, and enjoy the
Sierra Nevada. 30 years later the Izaak
Walton League was founded to combat water pollution and the Wilderness
Society was created soon after. Public
interest in environmental issues rose rapidly following World War II.
This increase is often attributed to sharply higher college enrollments
and to scientific advancements in ecology, the study of relationships
between organisms and their environment. By the end of the1960's, public
interest in environmental protection, spurred by media stories of industrial
pollution, wasteful energy consumption, and catastrophic accidents such
as oil spills, culminated in the celebration of the first Earth Day in 1970.
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The Federal government responded in two ways. First,
it created agencies to study the Nation's natural resources and to promote
their multiple use while continuing to stimulate economic growth. Other
organizations were created to conserve natural spaces and to protect species.
And beginning in the early 1960's, the Federal government began to set
goals for clean air and water and to regulate industries that made it
difficult to achieve those goals.
Long
before there was a National Park Service, Yellowstone National Park was
created in 1872. For the first time the term "conservation,"
so commonly applied to coal, iron, or other raw materials of industry,
was now applied to mountains, lakes, canyons, forests and other great
and unusual works of nature, and interpreted in terms of public recreation.
The United States Geological Survey was created in 1879 to assess mineral,
energy, and water resources. The U.S. Forest Service was established in
the early twentieth century to scientifically manage and conserve our
forests. Despite warnings about the environmental impacts of irrigating
the wastelands, public lands were sold to create and fund the Reclamation
Service that engineered large water projects. Drought was also the driver
behind the creation of the Soil Erosion Service. Public
interest in the preservation of wildlife species helped established the
Federal Biological Survey. In the same year that the first Earth Day was
observed, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established to
protect human health and the environment. In addition to the creation
of agencies to study, regulate, or manage natural resources, a number
of key laws were passed in recognition that the health of our
Nation's land, water, and air were being challenged.
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Within these pages of the National Atlas, we offer maps, stories, and
data related to America's environment. But don't expect this information
to be confined to this lone chapter on the environment. For example, you
will find information on water quality in our Water
chapter or maps on biodiversity, ecosystems, and species distribution
in the Biology chapter. Our maps in the Environment
chapter currently identify EPA-permitted point sources of pollution, including
their location and the toxic substances or hazardous wastes found there.
We also link to more detailed maps of these locations. ![Tidal marsh along the Edisto River, South Carolina](images/ENV/marsh2.gif)
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