Conservation: A Watershed Issue
Redlands historian Tom Atchley will speak at the September chapter meeting on the topic of the forest preservation movement in America, with emphasis on Southern California forests. The story starts when President Benjamin Harrison set aside the San Gabriel Timberland Reserve in 1892, the first in California. The reserve became the Angeles National Forest 16 years later. Who were the individuals and organizations that led to this act of protection?
Tom will discuss how the Department of the Interior managed the reserves and what criticism the department received. His talk will answer many questions: What prompted the Interior Department to take more aggressive steps to protect the forest reserves? How did Abbott Kinney, Theodore Lukens, John Muir and Gifford Pinchot direct the conservation movement? What impact did President Theodore Roosevelt have on conservation in Southern California?
Tom’s presentation will reveal a web of individuals and organizations, including the Sierra Club, that educated the public on the impact that forests had on water supply. What threatened the forests of Southern California and how were these threats resolved? What problems did the early Forest Service face?
Tom Atchley retired in 2011 after teaching history and journalism for 38 years at Cope Jr. High School and Redlands High School. He was Teacher of the Year in 2005. After 42 years, he continues to teach San Bernardino Valley and Redlands history for the A. K. Smiley Library.
Nearly 50 years ago he started working summers in San Bernardino National Forest. He started working on trail and road crews. Later, he was an interpretive naturalist at the Barton Flats Visitor Center. He did most of the weekly summer programs at the San Gorgonio Amphitheater. As a manager and a concessionaire, he was responsible for seven National Forest campgrounds for several decades.
Tom has written extensively about Redlands and Southern California forest history, including five chapters for John Robinson’s History of the San Bernardino Mountains. Speaking of his research into the early years of forest preservation in Southern California, Tom said, “I'd like to offer the Sierra Club here my discoveries. I think they would be interested.”
