Historical Roots and Evolution of Environmental
Stewardship in the Army
The Army’s engagement with land stewardship
and natural resources management has extensive his-
torical roots that long preceded current perspectives
on sustainability. The evolution of these historical and
organizational perspectives is important to consider
as a foundation for embracing and implementing
sustainability. Historically, in its relationship to the
founding of the American nation and its early con-
tinental expansion in North America, the U.S. Army
represents a unique military organization.
The Army possessed a strong environmental ethic
during its organizational roots in the late 18th and early
19 th centuries. From the beginning of nationhood, the
Army’s environmental character was innately linked
to its relationships with the American landscape (Doe
2008). This began with President Thomas Jefferson’s
declaration in 1802 to develop a military engineer-
ing school at West Point, New York. In addition to
mathematics and engineering, the early curriculum
at West Point included such subjects as geography,
geology, meteorology, and landscape sketching. West
Point graduates could prepare detailed topographical
maps, identify and sketch flora and fauna and write
about the natural environment with scientific clarity
and precision (Meyerson 2001). This education was
perhaps most evident in the landscape paintings of
Captain Seth Eastman, an early faculty member at
West Point, who became famous for his sketches of
landscapes along the Mississippi River while stationed
on frontier posts during the 1820’s. Subsequent expe-
ditions to the West by Academy graduates, such as
Major Stephen Long to the Great Plains and the Front