Blue-eyed grass	Calls for Conservation   Little bluestem	Barn owl
	The people would act today if the situation were clearly understood. The question is whether we do the right thing now or wait until the expense shall have increased a hundredfold. - Thomas H. Macbride, President's address to the Iowa Academy of Science, 1897

By the end of the nineteenth century, Iowans no longer could ignore the destruction that had accompanied our first fifty years of statehood.  In the process of building a strong farm economy, stable industries, growing cities, and an efficient transportation system, we also had ravaged many of the natural features and resources of the land.  Visionary leaders began to call for protecting some of the remaining natural heritage.

Thomas Macbride, a University of Iowa botany professor who also was president of the Iowa Academy of Science, a founder and president of the Iowa Parks and Forestry Association, and later, president of the University of Iowa, led the conservation movement.

IOWA'S EARLY CONSERVATION LEADERS
Thomas Macbride, Natural scientist Photo from the Calvin Collection, University of Iowa.	Samuel Calvin, Geologist Photo from the Calvin Collection, University of Iowa.

Louis Pammel, Biologist Photo from the Special Collections, Iowa State University Library.

Ellison Orr, Archaeologist Photo from the Office of the State Archaeologist.

Ada Hayden, Botanist (left in photo) Photo from Botany Dept., Iowa State University.

Bohumil Shimek, Ecologist Photo from Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries.

Ding Darling, Cartoonist Photo courtesy of the J.N. "Ding" Darling Foundation.

In his 1902 president's address to the Parks and Forestry Association, Macbride described the losses of the state's natural beauty that he had witnessed in just his own fifty-four years: ". . . little of it [is] left for our injury or desecration; the prairies are plowed almost to the last acre; the woodlands have been cleared away entirely or converted into pasturelands . . . ; the streams near the town are the dumping place for all uncleanness and in the country are esteemed only as a convenient place for watering domestic animals."

Macbride continued his pleas to establish parks and to protect watersheds and forests, pleas that he had initiated in addresses to the Academy of Science in 1895 and 1897.  The Academy also had petitioned the Iowa Legislature in 1896, but to no avail, asking for laws to help protect the state's natural lakes.  He also urged Iowans to recognize their "environmental rights" to clean air and natural beauty: "Is it not possible for us as intelligent self-governing people . . . to use wealth and opportunity and power in such wise [ways] as to conserve for ourselves and our children all those finer instincts of humanity?"

Laws might be needed to bring out those "finer instincts," Macbride acknowledged.  It should be "a criminal offense . . . to allow any species of filth, from hog-lots, barnyards, privies, dead animals, or anything of the sort to drain into or find exit in the waters of any lake or stream," he said.  Pressure from Macbride and others led the legislature to strengthen the powers of the State Board of Health in 1913.

Still, Macbride firmly believed in conservation as wise use, rather than strict preservation.  "Our streams are for use," he said.  "Conservation bids us to use them and use them wisely; likewise our forests, these shall not simply stand as in the ages primeval, they must stand and be productive, be used."

Backbone State Park, dedicated in 1920, was the first in Iowa's park system.  This scenic treasure in Delaware County provides recreation, education, and inspiration for young and old alike.  Ledges and crevices of weathered dolomite at "The Backbone" provide the backdrop for this family outing in the late 1890s.  Calvin Collection, University of Iowa.

Along with Iowa State College botanist Louis H. Pammel, Macbride worked to establish a system of state parks in Iowa.  Their efforts led to the establishment of the State Board of Conservation in 1917 and eventually to the dedication of Iowa's first state park, Backbone, near Strawberry Point, in 1920.  Although Macbride might have quarreled with the idea of recreational "multiple use" in parks that he had conceived as natural areas, he recognized the need for all people to have places to go to get in touch with the land and with nature.  "The park shall set us free," Macbride said.

Despite the success of the park advocates, however, many Iowans argued that the state's natural treasures remained in danger.  They realized that many of our original resources had been permanently lost or altered and that the state was on the verge of sacrificing much, much more.

In 1931, the Iowa General Assembly instructed the State Board of Conservation (the parks agency) and the State Fish and Game Commission (which oversaw wildlife management) to prepare a twenty-five year conservation plan.  The charge was to lay out a blueprint for the "orderly and scientific development of natural resources, recreational areas and park systems of the whole state."

Civilian Conservation Corps workers built many beautiful and useful structures on public lands in Iowa.  The shore patrol station and rustic lodge at Gull Point State Park in Dickinson County are excellent examples.  The rounded, colorful field stones left by glacial melting are abundant in the region and make good construction materials for buildings.  Photo by Jean C. Prior.

We must admire the commitment to conservation shown by the legislators and others who conceived the twenty-five year plan.  With the farm economy suffering and much of the country sliding into the Great Depression, these people could have been tempted to deal only with short-term economic problems.  Yet they recognized the significance of natural resources to the state's future and were willing to suggest an ambitious strategy for protecting Iowa's natural heritage.

At the forefront of the effort were such prominent Iowa conservationists as Des Moines Register cartoonist J. N. "Ding Darling; Margo Frankel of Des Moines, for whom Margo Frankel Woods State Park was named; J. G. Wyth of Cedar Falls, whose namesake is George Wyth State Park; and Ada Hayden, who advocated prairie protection and a system of state preserves.  Among the many consultants on the project was native Iowan Aldo Leopold, the forester and wildlife biologist who became famous for his later writings, including the conservation classic, A Sand County Almanac.

Here come the Nature Lovers J. N. "Ding" Darling, 1927 Courtesy of the J. N. "Ding" Darling Foundation.

Time to take an Inventory of our Pantry J. N. "Ding" Darling, 1936 Courtesy of the J. N. "Ding" Darling Foundation.

The conservation plan published in 1933, 100 years after Iowa was opened to settlement, bluntly listed the losses of the past century: "the waste of Iowa's greatest asset, the soil; the unwise destruction of surface waters by drainage, pollution and silting; the heedless stripping of woodlands; the almost wanton destruction of wild life; the irrational use of funds for recreation in several forms; the patent failure to capitalize the state's fine potentialities all along the line."

Rather than dwell on negatives, the plan spelled out details for work that would not only "call a halt" to the abuse, but also might rebuild the resource base for future generations.  Decades later, we still must commend the extraordinary foresight of proposals to fight soil erosion, improve fish and wildlife habitat, build parks, preserve prairie, and beautify roadsides.

All told, the planners estimated the costs of the proposals, including land acquisition and improvements, at only $2 to $3 per person, or $9 to $12 per family.  The cost could be paid by hunting and fishing license fees, park concessions, gasoline or automobile taxes, cigarette taxes, or special levies, the document said.  Significantly, the plan also suggested legislation and governmental reorganization to benefit conservation.

Many of the plan's components came to pass, some sooner and some later.  Iowa's county conservation board system, which was a model for many states, began with legislation passed in 1955, some twenty-two years after the idea was formally proposed.  The plan also launched construction of artificial lakes at dozens of sites, which now are key areas for fishing and recreation.

When the Fish and Game Commission and the Board of Conservation were combined into the Iowa Conservation Commission in 1935, the new agency was governed by a citizen commission that insulated the department from politics.  The move was considered a model for other states.

"Ding" Darling's leadership also brought the first federal duck stamp to help pay for wetland protection in 1934, and the Cooperative Wildlife Research Units at Iowa State College and other state schools across the nation, beginning in 1932.

Started in 1909, Iowa Lakeside Laboratory on West Okoboji Lake is a legacy of Thomas Macbride and his colleagues Samuel Calvin and Bohumil Shimek, who believed this was an ideal location to teach Iowans about the state's natural beauty and the richness of its lake, forest, and prairie life.  The facility today features historic buildings in a natural setting to create a unique learning environment for students and visitors.  The handsome and durable Shimek Lab is constructed of colorful, rounded igneous and metamorphic boulders left throughout the area by glacial ice.  Photo by Robert McKay.

Some other ideas in the plan have changed considerably or become blurred through the years.  For example, the plan's definition of a park, preserve, wildlife refuge, and sanctuary is not always clear today.  We can agree, however, that "the state preserve and state park offer the best opportunity for the over-wrought mind to recapture its serenity and dignity and spiritual power.  "The 1933 plan emphasized the need for roadside management, but it's taken decades for us to recognize the potential of highway corridors as refuges for wildlife and native plants. Statewide zoning - of everything from billboards to timber cutting - did not catch on.  County zoning in many cases drew a similar negative response.  And the concept of protecting the land or natural features by easements has not gained popularity, as the 1933 planners had hoped it might.

Still, the plan became a catalyst for conservation.  Several groups, both public and private, that today lead Iowa's conservation movement can trace their roots to the dedication of those early leaders.  The ambitious recommendations, presented nearly seven decades ago, set goals that shaped Iowa's conservation accomplishments for the rest of the twentieth century.  And the authors laid down a challenge that may apply equally to the twenty-first century: "Let every citizen of Iowa catch and hold that vision of the economy and the enrichment of human living to be achieved only through state-wide, far-sighted development plans.  Not for too visionary, but for too meager-minded planning shall we be held to account."

This beautiful stone bridge spans Wesley Creek at Lacey-Keosauqua State Park in Van Buren County.  Civilian Conservation Corps crews hand-quarried blocks of limestone from nearby outcrops to build this and other structures within the park.  The historic quarry, while overgrown, is still accessible by foot.  Photo by Robert McKay.

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