Tag Archives | Gifford Pinchot

The Battle to Restore Hetch Hetchy Valley

By on January 19, 2011 in Sustainability General

by Shawn Skinner

Hetch Hetchy Valley, a “smaller mirror image”  of the Yosemite Valley, is located in Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California.  Although still boasting rugged, towering mountains, the area is below 4,000 feet in elevation, making it the lowest region of the park.  Yosemite was declared a California state park in 1864 by a bill signed by President Abraham Lincoln.  It was not until 1890 that Yosemite was declared a National Park, much to the credit of legendary naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club, John Muir. 

According to Muir, Hetch Hetchy is “one of Nature’s rarest and most precious mountain temples.”  It would seem that since Hetch Hetchy is nestled within the boundaries of a national park, that it would remain safe and protected for the enjoyment of future generations.  Unfortunately, this has not been the case.… Read the rest

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Gifford Pinchot

By on September 13, 2010 in Sustainability Efforts in History, Uncategorized

“The vast possibilities of our great future will become realities only if we make ourselves responsible for that future.”

“Conservation is the foresighted utilization, preservation and/or renewal of forests, waters, lands and minerals, for the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time.”

Gifford Pinchot’s love for being in the woods led him to become Chief of the Division of Forestry in 1898. He first graduated from Yale, but when no school in the United States had a Forestry degree went to Nancy, France to learn more on the subject.  When he returned to the U.S., he worked at Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Forest Estate and was involved with the National Forest Commission where he traveled to the west looking for possible forest reserves.… Read the rest

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