Schedule

Conservation Studies

Schedule

Week 1 (meet in class both days this week)

8/26 Introduction
8/28 Beginnings
Packet: Smith, “Description of Virginia”; Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown.”
Nash: Black Elk, “Native Americans Define the Natural Community.”
Online: Charles C. Mann’s “1491”:
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/03/mann.htm

In Class: Selections from The Book of Genesis.

Week 2

9/2 Environmental History & Early Conservation
Nash: “The Potential of Environmental History,” (pp. 1-8). Cronon, “The Human Factor in Environmental
Change”;
Jacobs, “Frontiersmen and the American Environment”; Catlin, “An Artist Proposes a National Park.”
Online: Thoreau’s “Walking”:
http://www.walden.org/thoreau/default.asp?MFRAME=thoreau/writings/default.asp
This link will take you to a menu of Thoreau’s writings. From here, click on Essays. Scroll down and click on Walking.

Mini-Lecture: The Ideas of Emerson and Thoreau

9/5-9/7 SHENANDOAH RIVER TRIP!

Week 3

9/9 CLASS MEETS ON ROOSEVELT ISLAND
The Progressive Conservation Crusade & The Resource Conservation Ethic—Teddy Roosevelt
Nash: Pinchot, “The Birth of ‘Conservation’”; Roosevelt, “Publicizing Conservation at the Whitehouse.”

Online: The Roosevelt Dam and Roosevelt, Friend of the Birds (two short films).
To view the films go to: http://memory.loc.gov. Click on search. Type in: "Roosevelt friends of the birds." Choose early films (#1). View film. Return to http://memory.loc.gov. Click on search. Type in: "The Roosevelt Dam and Roosevelt." Choose option #3 - early films. View film.

Mini-Lecture: Teddy Roosevelt and the Closing of the American Frontier.

Week 4

9/16 The Preservationist Ethic—John Muir
Online: Muir’s A “Windstorm in the Forest”:
http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/index.html
This is the main page for the Sierra Club’s John Muir Exhibit. From here, click on Books at sidebar. Scroll down and click on The Writings of John Muir. Scroll down to Books by John Muir and click on The Mountains of California. Click on Chapter 10, A Windstorm in the Forest.

Muir’s “The Hetch Hetchy Valley”:
Follow same prompts as above to reach The Writings of John Muir. Scroll down to Articles by John Muir and click on The Hetch Hetchy Valley (The title appears twice on this list. You want the second one.)

Muir’s “Exploration of the Stickeen Glaciers”:
Follow same prompts as above to reach The Writings of John Muir. Scroll down to Books by John Muir and click on Travels in Alaska. Click on Chapter VIII, Exploration of the Stickeen Glaciers.

Film: The Wilderness Idea.

Week 5

9/23 Conservation in the New Deal Era—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Nash: Lilienthal, “The Tennessee Valley Authority”; Roosevelt & Fechner, “The Civilian Conservation Corps.”
Film: The Tennessee Valley Authority.
Music: Woody Guthrie, “Grand Coulee Dam” & “The End of the Line.”
Mini-Lecture: The Dust Bowl: Effects on Ecology and Policy.

Week 6

9/30 From Conservation to Environmentalism--Aldo Leopold
Packet: Leopold, selections from A Sand County Almanac.
Online: Brower’s “Leopold’s Gift”:
http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200101/leopold.asp

Mini-Lecture: Aldo Leopold in Context.
COMPLETE DRAFT OF PROFILE DUE: WORKSHOP TODAY

Week 7

10/7 Early Environmentalism: Prime Movers
Nash: Carson, “Pesticides”; Erlich, “Overpopulation”; Brower, “Friendship with the Earth” (first section).
Nelson: Williams, “One Patriot.”
Film: Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.
REVISED DRAFT OF PROFILE DUE

Week 8

10/16 CLASS MEETS THURSDAY THIS WEEK
Packet: Williams, “The Clan of One-Breasted Women.”
Nelson: Nelson, “Patriots for the American Land.”
OPEN JOURNAL MIDTERM

Week 9

10/21 Wilderness
Nash: Marshall, “Wilderness”; Stegner, “The Meaning of Wilderness for American Civilization”; Nash, “Wilderness Advocacy.”
Packet: Snyder, “The Etiquette of Freedom.”
Online: Wildlands Project home page: http://www.wildlandsproject.org

Click on The Wildlands Project link on the class web page and read the three main sections—Vision, Science, Action—accessed from the home page.
Film: Wild by Law.

Week 10

10/28 Biodiversity & Intrinsic Value
Packet: Hunter, “What is Biodiversity?”
Nash: Wilson, “Species Extinction”; Snyder, “Respect for Nature”; Douglas, “Mineral King and ‘Standing’ for Trees.”

Week 11

11/4 Conservation Today: Theories & Practices
Deep Ecology
Nash: Sessions & Devall, “Deep Ecology”; Abbey & Foreman, “Monkeywrenching.”
Packet: Abbey, selections from Desert Solitaire.
Online: EarthFirst Journal:
http://www.earthfirstjournal.org/efj/

COMPLETE DRAFT OF PERSONAL ESSAY DUE: WORKSHOP TODAY

Week 12

11/11 Conservation Today: Theories and Practices, Continued
Bioregionalism & Sustainability
Nash: Brown & Postel, “Sustainability.”
Packet: Berry, “Conservation is Good Work”; Snyder, “Coming Into the Watershed.”

Week 13

11/18 Conservation Today: Theories and Practices, Continued
PEER TEACHING: GROUP PROJECTS ON GREEN LIVING

Week 14

11/25 Looking Beyond our Borders
Guest Speaker(s)
REVISED DRAFT OF PERSONAL ESSAY DUE TODAY