BCJ_WINTER18 Digital Edition

American Sportsmen and the Origins of Conservation
by John F. Reiger
Reiger’s American Sportsmen is an expanded look into the entwined history of sportsmen, ethics
and policy that shaped what we now know as conservation and sustainable management.
Many sportsmen, and even historians, are quick to stop at George Bird Grinnell and Theodore
Roosevelt – obvious pillars in the Progressive era of the late 1800s and early 1900s – when mapping
the lineage of modern American conservation. Though it cannot be denied that Grinnell and
Roosevelt, as well as their renowned contemporaries, deserve every bit of our reverence for their
leadership; Reiger also points to the fraternity of “gentlemen sportsmen” as the first to formalize
the ideals of game and habitat conservation. It was this sportsman’s code, coupled with an early,
un-articulated version of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, on which Grinnell
and Roosevelt founded the Boone & Crockett Club in 1887. That began to cement the sportsman’s
role as conservationist and, with the power of Roosevelt’s presidency, created wildlife national policy.
-JESSE SALSBERRY, BHA Northwest Chapter Coordinator
Wildlife in America by Peter Matthiessen
Before The Snow Leopard and At Play in the Fields of the Lord – and before the environmental
movement gained national traction – Peter Matthiessen brought a novelist’s sense of pace and drama
to the already shattering losses of wildlife in the country. For me, reading the book in my early 20s,
two decades after it was published, first brought to light how the written word has a powerful role in
the saving of the wild places.
-T. EDWARD NICKENS, BHA National Board Member,
Field & Stream Editor-at-Large
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
Published posthumously in 1949, Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac is as close to a bible for
conservationists as any work can be. In it he discusses things like a “land ethic,” which simply says:
“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community.
It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”
He reflects on predator control in service of better deer hunting and the moment earlier in his life
when he killed one of the last Mexican wolves in the Southwest, coming upon her body in time to
watch “a fierce green fire dying in her eyes.”
With constant gems of wisdom like these, one feels compelled to read this book over and over
again. Whether you’re an environmentalist, passionate hunter, third generation rancher or all of
the above, you’ll find a lot to like about the unifying philosophies Leopold explores. Using adroit
storytelling, Leopold involves you in his thoughts like few others have. He worked tirelessly on
every word in this book, ensuring a compelling narrative that stands the test of time. This was and
is as formative of a book as any in my life. I can feel his presence every time my wife and I walk our
yellow Lab along the Aldo Leopold Trail in the Rio Grande State Park in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, with one of the
largest cottonwood galleries in the West – an area he helped protect.
-TED KOCH, BHA Life Member and Legacy Partner
Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo
and the Birth of the New West by Michael Punke
This book lays out so much of the history that then spawned the North American Model of Wildlife
Conservation and how Grinnell, with his pen (at Forest & Stream) and a bit of luck, worked to save the
last of the buffalo. I think it would be a shock to many to learn that we deployed the 7th Calvary to
Yellowstone to protect the wildlife and resources. Far too many hunters, anglers and conservationists
lack the understanding of our history, challenges and triumphs at the prior turn of the century.
- J.R. YOUNG, BHA National Board Member and Legacy Partner
WINTER 2018 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 41