An Environmental Chronology * 1626 Plymouth Colony Passes ordinances regulating the cutting and sale of timber on colony lands 1634 Plymouth prohibits the setting of forest fires 1639 Newport, Rhode Island, prohibits deer hunting for six months 1681 William Penn, proprieter of Pennsylvania, decrees that for every five acres of land cleared, one must be left forested 1691 British colonial policy provides for reserving large trees, suitable for masts, in New England by marking them with a "broad arrow" 1828–31 First experiment in federal forest management with live oaks on Santa Rosa Peninsula, Florida 1832 George Catlin proposes a national park 1849 U.S. Department of the Interior established 1858 Mount Vernon purchased as a historical site 1864 Yosemite Valley, California, reserved as a state park 1869 John Wesley Powell decends the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon 1871 U.S. Fish Commission established 1872 Arbor Day designated as April 10 as a result of the efforts of J. Sterling Morton; currently celebrated last Friday in April. 1872 Yellowstone National Park established 1875 American Forestry Association organized 1878 John Wesley Powell publishes Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States 1879 U.S. Geological Survey established 1881 Division of Forestry created in the Department of Agriculture as a fact-finding agency 1882 American Forestry Congress organized 1885 New York establishes the Adirondack Forest Preserve (later Adirondack State Park) 1886 New York Audubon Society organized 1890 U.S. Census announces the end of the frontier as a definable line 1890 Yosemite National Park created 1891 Forest Reserve Act permits the president to establish forest reserves (later national forests) on the public domain 1892 Sierra Club founded 1895 American Scenic and Historical Preservation Society founded   next page >>     * Reprinted with permission from American Environmentalism – Readings in Conservation History by Roderick Nash. McGraw - Hill, 1989.

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