The Environmental Debate, Third Edition

64 The Environmental Debate

fair chase, by still-hunting or otherwise, at least

one individual of one of the various kinds of

American large game.

Article IV. Under the head of American large

game are included the following animals: Bear,

buffalo (bison), mountain sheep, caribou, cou-

gar, musk ox, white goat, elk (wapiti), wolf (not

coyote), pronghorn antelope, moose and deer.

Article V. The term “fair chase” shall not

be held to include killing bear, wolf, or cou-

gar in traps, nor “fire-hunting,” nor “crusting”

moose, elk or deer in deep snow, nor killing

game from a boat while it is swimming in the

water.

Source: “Constitution of the Boone and Crockett Club,”

in Theodore Roosevelt and George Bird Grinnell, eds.,

American Big Game Hunting (New York: Forest and

Stream Publishing, 1893), pp. 337-38.a

Document 57: Constitution of the Boone and Crockett Club (1887)

In the latter part of the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries, a number of outdoor clubs devoted

to hiking, fishing, and hunting were organized with constitutions that contained conservation agendas aimed at

protecting their interests. Among the most influential of these sportsmen’s groups was the Boone and Crockett

Club, whose founding members included the painter Albert Bierstadt; George Bird Grinnell; Jay Pierpont;

Archibald Rogers, secretary; Theodore Roosevelt, president; and several other Roosevelt family members.

William “Buffalo Bill” Cody joined the club soon after its inception.

Article II. The objects of the club shall be—

1. To promote manly sport with the rifle.


2. To promote travel and exploration in the wild
   and unknown or but partially known portions
   of the country.


3. To work for the preservation of the large game
   of this country, and, so far as possible, to fur-
   ther legislation for that purpose, and to assist in
   enforcing the existing laws.


4. To promote inquiry into, and to record obser-
   vations on the habits and natural history of the
   various wild animals.


5. To bring about among the members the inter-
   change of opinions and ideas on hunting, travel
   and exploration; on the various kinds of hunting
   rifles; on the haunts of game animals, etc.
   Article III. No one shall be eligible for mem-
   bership who shall not have killed with the rifle in

Document 58: John Wesley Powell on the Lands of the Arid Regions (1890)

John Wesley Powell, who was the first person of European descent to travel by boat through the Grand Canyon,

spent many years studying the Great Basin region between the Rocky and Sierra Mountains while serving on the

staff of the U.S. Geological Survey. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the idea of scientifically studying and

developing the nation’s natural resources.

In 1878, Powell published his original report on the arid regions of the West and sent a copy to Carl Schurz

[see Document 52]. The report was ignored in government circles. However, Powell spent the next twenty

years promoting his ideas in a variety of venues, including popular publications such as Century Magazine,

from which the following selections are taken. Eventually, Powell’s writings came to the attention of Theodore

Roosevelt, who took much of his 1901 address to Congress [see Document 62] from Powell’s report. The

Reclamation Act [see Document 63], passed the following year, was an outgrowth of the address.

Although Powell’s writings on the arid lands show him to be a man of his times who believed that nature

could be harnessed and controlled, they also reveal him to have been a visionary conservationist who recognized

the need to conserve the forests of the West.

A. The Irrigable Lands

[W]ill not the hills of New England, the moun-
tains and plains of the sunny South, and the prairies

of the middle region be sufficient for the agricultural

industries of the United States? The area is vast, the

soil is bountiful, and the heavens kindly give their