HOWARD CLINTON ZAHNISER – ENVIRONMENTAL LOBBYIST
Howard Clinton Zahniser will always be remembered as the ‘Father of the Wilderness Act 1964’ and the ‘Savior of the wild places’. The Wilderness Act of 1964 protected some 9.1 million acres of national forest wilderness areas in the United States. The Wilderness Act was and will always be remembered because of its succinct and poetic definition of wilderness;
“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”
-Section 2(c) of the Wilderness Act
Howard Clinton Zahniser (1906-1964) was born on February 25, 1906, in Franklin, Pennsylvania. Howard Zahniser spent his teenage years in Tionesta, just west of what is now the Allegheny National Forest where he developed a life-long interest in nature, environmental studies and a love of literature. He graduated from Greenville College in 1928 where he received a degree in humanities. His major courses included environmental courses that only strengthened his bond with nature and the environment. In 1931 he joined the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and worked there for the next 12 years. He was greatly influences by the likes of Ira Gabrielson and Edward Preble and soon started doing his own environmental research. He also started writing environmental articles and essays based on his own research. He was also the broadcaster on wildlife research and conservation.
Howard Zahniser’s ideas about the ecosystems and wilderness were greatly influenced by the likes of Aldo Leopold and Bob Marshall,
In the Rose Garden, September 3, 1964. President Lyndon B. Johnson has just signed the Wilderness Act and hands pens to Mardy Murie (left) and Alice Zahniser. Their husbands, Olaus and Howard, had died during the final year of the long lobbying campaign. Source: Commons.Wikimedia.org
who were the founders of The Wilderness Society in 1936. In 1945 he became secretary (later Executive Director) of the Wilderness Society and editor of its magazine ’The Living Wilderness’, positions that he held until his death. He was also the book editor of Nature magazine from 1935 till 1960. In the 1950s he led a successful campaign to defeat the proposed Green River Dam, which would have flooded wilderness areas in Dinosaur National Monument on the Colorado-Utah line, although he was not against the hydro energy generated by building dams. Howard Zahniser served as a representative of conservation interests in negotiations with the government and the issue was finally resolved in 1955 with no dam being built. After the issue was resolved, he put forward his services in suggesting alternate energy trends and came up with a number of alternate energy bills. He also helped them in sorting out the wind power and solar energy issues. With the support he had garnered from both sides, he went on to be an important leader in the campaign for federal wilderness legislation in the 1950s and early 1960s.
In 1955, Howard Zahniser drafted a bill to convince Congress to establish a national wilderness preservation system and hence protect some of the nation’s remaining wilderness. By the late 1950’s it seemed as if it would eventually become a law but there were a lot many legislative battles still to be fought. Ironically, Howard Zahniser who pushed so hard for the act died on May 5, 1964, just months before it became the law of the land. Zahniser died at the age of 58. September 3, 1964 was the date when President Lyndon Johnson signed The Wilderness Act – eight years after the first wilderness bill was introduced by Senator Hubert H. Humphrey.
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