Science History

At the national level, environmental historians have identified three major historic strands of conservation thinking and action that have provided historic foundations for the contemporary environmental movement.

Unlike traditional museums, which often contain real artifacts and icons isolated from their origin; and unlike classrooms where knowledge is conveyed through various media that may describe real artifacts and icons; national parks have the real thing in the right place.

A tribute to retired NPS historian Richard West Sellars

Fifth in a series of five articles celebrating the Rocky Mountain National Park centennial that reviews aspects of science applied to park stewardship since the park’s founding in 1915.

Estella B. Leopold is a botanist and a conservationist. She is a University of Washington professor emeritus of botany, forest resources, and Quaternary research, and has been teaching and conducting research for more than 60 years. The author of more than 100 scientific publications in the fields of paleobotany, forest history, restoration ecology, and environmental quality,...

Denali's rich history as a place for science and research goes back over 100 years.

The National Conservation Movement focused on preservation of large wilderness tracts of land at distant locations. The conservation story in Massachusetts, on the other hand, is about people interacting with nature in their own communities and the evolving conservation stewardship ideas. Discover conservation efforts in Massachusetts dating back to the nineteenth century up through today.

Few individuals have shaped our understanding of terrestrial species in the San Francisco Bay Area and California national parks like Dr. Gary Fellers, who passed away in November. Gary worked at Point Reyes National Seashore from 1983 until his retirement in 2013, first as a National Park Service scientist, and later as a researcher for the USGS Western Ecological Research Center.

The Murie Ranch Historic District is located in Moose, Wyoming, within Grand Teton National Park. The property served not only as the setting for the writing of the Wilderness Act, but also as a place where the great minds in conservation science could converge in the seclusion of the Teton's great wilderness. The property is nationally significant for its association with the 20th century American conservation movement.

Early leadership at Tumacácori during the New Deal period of the 1930s made some of the most lasting and significant decisions in the park's history.