NATH8252E, 3 CEU 
Class day and time: Fridays, 12-2 pm  
Class meetings: January 13-March 17
Class Location: Lectures online via Zoom 
Field trip dates: January 22, Prince William Forest Park; February 12, Urban Parks of DC; March 5, Indigenous Conservation
Members $350, nonmembers $400
Instructor: Eliza Cava
This course examines the development of natural resources conservation and preservation thought and policy in the United States from the pre-colonial era through the early twenty-first century. The class considers how land and natural resources have been fundamental agents in shaping the lives of the country’s inhabitants and, in parallel, how Americans’ perceptions of the environment and its resources have shaped the natural world. Some of the topics studied include varying cultural views of nature and wilderness; U.S. land dispersal policies; the creation of National Parks, Forests, and Wildlife Refuges; principal conservation policies from 1900-1964; the environmental and ecology movements from 1960-2000s; and the intersection of conservation with the climate and environmental justice movements of the 1990s-2020s. Students will learn about famous conservation “heroes” as both professionals and people, whose complicated, and often racist, views shaped patterns and divisions in the early conservation movements that continue to echo today. Students will explore the historical origins and development of a conservation topic of great interest to them with a written paper and class presentation. Field trips will visit sites of local conservation initiatives from different eras. Registration closes January 6. REGISTER.

Required Books and Materials (available at the Woodend Nature Shop):
Down To Earth: Nature’s Role in American History (3rd or 4th editions) Author(s): Ted Steinberg, Publisher: Oxford University Press, ISBN: 978-0-19-979739-4 or 978-0-1908644-2

Preserving the Nation: The Conservation and Environmental Movements, 1870-2000. Author(s): Thomas R. Wellock, Publisher: Harlan Davidson, Inc., ISBN: 978-0-88295-254-3

Title: A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. Author(s): Aldo Leopold, Publisher: Oxford University Press, ISBN: 0-19-5-5305-2

Title: Silent Spring. Author(s): Rachel Carson, Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co, ISBN: 0-618-25305-x­

The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection. By Dorceta E. Taylor. This is an e-book and one or two chapters will be assigned.