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From Conservation to Environment: The Sierra Club and the Organizational Politics of Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2008

McGee Young
Affiliation:
Marquette University

Abstract

In the 1950s, the Sierra Club emerged as a leader of the nascent environmental movement. In challenging a proposal to build two dams within the boundaries of Dinosaur National Monument, the Club found its voice as a public advocate for the preservation of wilderness and in the process introduced a new type of politics to old conflicts over conservation. Born out of the Dinosaur dam conflict was a new environmentalism characterized by confrontation with state authorities and emotion-laden appeals to the public for political support. The Sierra Club's success in pioneering these strategies launched it to the forefront of the new movement, elevated its executive director David Brower to icon status among environmentalists, and affirmed the philosophy of Aldo Leopold as the moral compass of the movement. In this essay, I argue that interest group entrepreneurs ought to be considered alongside institutional actors as agents of change within processes of political development. As the case of the Sierra Club demonstrates, the internal organizational politics of a group can be just as important in establishing a trajectory of political development as are processes of policy feedback.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

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40. Arthur makes this point most explicitly, as does Pierson. Large set-up costs are one of the four main sources of path-dependent processes that Arthur identifies. With respect to the forces that create “lock-in” effects, Arthur writes, “Capital assets … are not transferable or easily reversed, and here repositioning is costly.” See Arthur, Increasing Returns, 112–18; Pierson, Politics in Time.

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42. For Sierra Club history in general, see Cohen, Michael P., The History of the Sierra Club, 1892–1970 (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1988)Google Scholar; Fox, John Muir and his Legacy; Jones, Holway R., John Muir and the Sierra Club (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1965)Google Scholar.

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46. The relationship between the Sierra Club and the two principal agencies that it came into contact with, the National Park Service and the Forest Service, was not always smooth. But generally Sierra Club leaders and agency officials found ways to compromise, usually by finding alternative locations for ecologically destructive endeavors. See, e.g., Schrepfer, Susan, “Establishing Administrative Standing: The Sierra Club and the Forest Service, 1897–1956,” in Miller, Char, ed., American Forests: Nature, Culture, and Politics (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997)Google Scholar.

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48. Devall, “The Governing of a Voluntary Organization.”

49. There is little in the way of interest group literature that examines the way interest group leaders operate in this respect. The sociological tradition is the richer vein to mine here. One of the best collections of perspectives on social movements is McAdam, Doug, McCarthy, John D., and Zald, Mayer N., eds., Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996)Google Scholar. See also, Clemens, The People's Lobby; Snow, David A., et al. , “Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation,” American Sociological Review 51, 4 (August 1986): 464–81Google Scholar.

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52. Clemens, The People's Lobby.

53. We will also see diminishing returns associated with political moderation. Good relations with agency officials became less useful and, as the Sierra Club increased its membership, the willingness to accommodate conservative voices within the organization lessened considerably.

54. Sierra Club Records, “Dinosaur National Monument (Colo. And Utah), 1938–56,” Carton 64, Folder 14, BANC MSS 71/103 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley; Martin, Russell, A Story that Stands like a Dam: Glen Canyon and the Struggle for the Soul of the West (New York: Holt, 1990), 52Google Scholar.

55. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from Devereaux Butcher to Sierra Club,” March 4, 1950, Carton 64, Folder 15.

56. Sierra Club Records, “Internal Memo,” March 21, 1950, Carton 64, Folder 15.

57. Martin, A Story that Stands Like a Dam, 51.

58. These trips became widely available beginning in the summer of 1953. See Martin, A Story that Stands Like a Dam, 58.

59. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from JW Penfold to Richard Leonard,” November 29, 1950, Carton 64, Folder 16.

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61. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from David Brower to Philip Hyde,” March 30, 1952, Carton 64, Folder 18.

62. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from William Voigt, Jr., Executive Director Wilderness Society to Richard Leonard,” January 12, 1953, Carton 64, Folder 19. Reportedly, this facility would have been used to develop the hydrogen bomb. See Harvey, A Symbol of Wilderness, 90.

63. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from Howard Zahniser to David Brower,” January 21, 1953, Carton 64, Folder 19.

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66. Marshall, Robert, “The Problem of Wilderness,” Scientific Monthly (February 1930): 141–48Google Scholar. The article was reprinted in the Sierra Club Bulletin 31 (May 1947): 43–52.

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70. Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind.

71. David R. Brower, Environmental Activist, Publicist, and Prophet, an oral history conducted 1974–1980, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1980, 65; Cohen, The History of the Sierra Club, 117.

72. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from Howard Zahniser to David Brower,” January 21, 1953, Carton 64, Folder 19.

73. See, e.g., United States Congress, Senate, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, “Secretary of the Interior-Designate Douglas McKay,” Confirmation Hearings, 1953.

74. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from Conrad Wirth to Harold Bradley,” January 27, 1953, Carton 64, Folder 19.

75. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from Martin Litton to David Brower,” July 12, 1953, Carton 64, Folder 20.

76. Sierra Club Records, Richard Leonard commenting in margin of “Letter from Martin Litton to David Brower,” July 12, 1953, Carton 64, Folder 20.

77. Sierra Club Records, “Memo from Richard Leonard to Bestor Robinson, C.R. Gutermuth, Jack Barnard, David Brower, Lewis Clark, Harold Crowe, Alex Hildebrand, Einar Nilsson, Bus Hatch, Jess Lombard, Martin Litton, Fred Packard, Joe Penfold, Olaus Murie, Howard Zahniser,” July 31, 1953, Carton 64, Folder 20.

78. The Sierra Club strategy was outlined in a memo from David Brower to John B. Elliott, then President of the California War Memorial Park Association. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from David Brower to John B. Elliott,” December 18 1953, Carton 64, Box 22.

79. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from Horace Albright to Richard Leonard,” December 18, 1953, Carton 64, Folder 22.

80. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from John B. Elliott to David Brower,” Carton 64, Folder 22.

81. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from David Brower to Al Gustus,” January 6, 1954, Carton 64, Folder 23.

82. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from Alfred A. Knopf to Richard Leonard,” December 21, 1953, Carton 64, Folder 22.

83. Harvey, A Symbol of Wilderness, 177–78.

84. Cohen, The History of the Sierra Club, 162.

85. Sierra Club Bulletin 35, 8 (September 1950): 6.

86. Schrepfer, Susan R., The Fight to Save the Redwoods: A History of Environmental Reform, 1917–1978 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983), 177–78Google Scholar.

87. Cohen, The History of the Sierra Club, 141.

88. Alex Hildebrand, “Sierra Club Leader and Critic: Perspective on Club Growth, Scope, and Tactics, 1950s–1970s,” an oral history conducted 1980–1982, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1982, 14.

89. Farquhar, Francis, “Sierra Club Then and Now,” in Voices for the Earth: A Treasury of the Sierra Club Bulletin, ed. Gilliam, Ann (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1979)Google Scholar.

90. On this relationship, see Richardson, Dams, Parks, and Politics.

91. At this point, conservationists were willing to sacrifice Glen Canyon to keep the dams out of Dinosaur, a position they would later come to regret. See Martin, A Story that Stands Like a Dam, 60–63; Harvey, A Symbol of Wilderness, 191–95.

92. Brower, “Environmental Activist,” 122.

93. Harvey, A Symbol of Wilderness, 213–17.

94. Brower, “Environmental Activist,” 123.

95. Martin, A Story that Stands Like a Dam, 66.

96. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from Martin Litton to Richard Leonard,” September 19, 1953, Carton 64, Folder 22; also quoted in Cohen, The History of the Sierra Club.

97. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from Ansel Adams to Richard Leonard,” October 8, 1954, Carton 1, Folder 21.

98. Sierra Club Records, “Memo from David Brower to Nathan C. Clark,” October 21, 1959, Carton 1, Folder 25.

99. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from Bestor Robinson to John Marr,” July 20, 1953, Carton 64, Folder 21.

100. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from Bestor Robinson to Richard Leonard,” July 23, 1953, Carton 64, Folder 21.

101. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from Richard Leonard to Olaus Murie and Howard Zahniser,” August 20, 1953, Carton 64, Folder 21.

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103. Sierra Club Records, “Conservation Policy Guide, Part XI,” 2, Carton 6, Folder 8.

104. Internal Revenue Code of 1954, 501(c)(3).

105. Sierra Club Records, “Conservation Policy Guide, Part XI,” 2, Carton 6, Folder 8.

106. Ibid., 3.

107. Ibid., 4.

108. Harvey, A Symbol of Wilderness, 260.

109. Devall, “The Governing of a Voluntary Organization.”

110. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from Alfred A. Knopf to David Brower,” February 1, 1955, Carton 66, Folder 3.

111. DeVoto, Bernard, “Shall We Let Them Ruin Our National Parks?Saturday Evening Post (July 22, 1950), 42Google Scholar.

112. The public relations offensive saw articles get placed in dozens of major news outlets, including more than twenty in the New York Times. Bernard DeVoto continued to raise awareness in his column in Harper's Magazine, Eleanor Roosevelt opined about Dinosaur in her syndicated column, and former New Dealer Raymond Moley opposed the dams in his newspaper column. Editorials and essays from newspapers across the country joined the chorus to protect Dinosaur National Monument. See Harvey, A Symbol of Wilderness, 236–37.

113. Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, 215.

114. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from Harold Bradley to Ansel Adams,” January 8, 1959, Box 1, Folder 2.

115. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from William Voight, JR. to Arthur Carhart,” May 2, 1955, Carton 65, Folder 18.

116. Sierra Club Records, “Telex from Fred Packard to David Brower,” May 20, 1955, Carton 65, Folder 18.

117. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from David Brower to Joe Penfold,” June 3, 1955, Carton 65, Folder 18.

118. Ibid.

119. Sierra Club Records, “Press Release,” November 1, 1955, Carton 67, Folder 17.

120. Sierra Club Records, “Letter from Howard Zahniser to Olaus Murie,” November 4, 1955, Carton 65, Folder 20.

121. Bestor Robinson, “Thoughts on Conservation and the Sierra Club,” an oral history conducted 1974, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1974, 23.

122. David R. Brower, “Environmental Activist,” 139.

123. Cohen, The History of the Sierra Club, 128.

124. Cohen, Ibid., 216.

125. The Club would grow from around 7,000 members in 1950 to over 100,000 members by 1970.

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132. Hays, Beauty, Health and Permanence, 52.

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