Everybody knows about the two great American traditions of cOnSeRvATiOn aNd PrEsErVaTiOn (and if you don't, we're exploring it here!) Not many people look backward beyond John Muir and Gifford Pinchot. We all assume American conservation started when the big evil oligarchs cut down too many trees and a few idealists convinced Teddy Roosevelt to stop them. But conservation came from somewhere, and its true roots go deeper into the American past-- back to the romantic artists and writers around the Transcendentalists, back to the scientists and explorers the federal government sent out to map everything, back almost to the beginning of the Republic. These guys wrote their thoughts down as they wandered around the wilderness, and subtly shaped the ideas that the first rangers in the new National Parks and National Forests would bring with them to the great adventures of public land management in the 20th Century.

It's not all hugging trees (even though that's the fun part!) Take a listen and let us know what you think below-- questions, comments, vicious personal attacks, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. And remember-- if you have ever had a wet dream about the U.S. Forest Service, nobody's judging you.

Some notes:

-George Catlin did paint Native Americans, but the guy who went out west to get healthy was Francis Parkman, and his book was The Oregon Trail.

-"Our Common Ground: A History of America's Public Lands," by John D. Leshy

-"Natural Rivals: John Muir, Gifford Pinchot and the Creation of America's Public Lands," by John Clayton

-"Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and the Scientist in the Winning of the American West," by William H. Goetzmann

-"Wilderness and the American Mind," by Roderick Nash

-"Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency: The Progressive Conservation Movement, 1890-1920," by Samuel P. Hays

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