Abstract
Beginning with European occupancy of the North American continent, man's relation to natural resources was dictated by the wild condition of the land. Nature was viewed as a reluctant treasure which men fought to tame, subdue, and then exploit. Not until the nineteenth century was the alarm sounded by individuals protesting the destruction and the resulting ugliness of the landscape. This protest began as a scholarly and scientific movement and climaxed in political action during the Progressive (1900-1910) and New Deal eras (1933-1943). A struggle developed, however, between conservationists and exploiters, and also between those who would utilize natural resources in the best public interest and those who would preserve them to protect the landscape for the enjoyment of future generations. The third phase of the conservation movement, coinciding with the presidential administrations of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, brought triumph for the preservationist or aesthetic philosophy and gave a new direction to conservation. No longer did conservation mean only setting aside priceless and irreplaceable natural treasures and the wisest multiple-allocation of renewable resources, but an attempt was also made to understand the relationship of all living things to their total environment..
LeUnes, Barbara Laverne Blythe (1977). The conservation philosophy of Stewart L. Udall, 1961-1968. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -368420.