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Trustees for Conservation records
BANC MSS 74/71 c  
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Collection Overview
 
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Description
This collection contains the records of the Trustees for Conservation, a California environmental organization formed in 1954. The records document the legislative and fundraising activity of the Trustees for several major projects and campaigns, including the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964, the California State Park System, the San Francisco Bay Shoreline and Point Reyes National Seashore, and opposition to the Echo Park Dam on the Colorado River at the Dinosaur National Monument. Included are correspondence, financial records, legal documents, administrative records and meeting minutes, and program documents from the Trustees for Conservation and other environmental organizations, notably the Wilderness Society and Sierra Club.
Background
Trustees for Conservation was a California environmental organization formed in 1954, in response to a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation proposal to create a dam on the Green River tributary of the Colorado River, in the Echo Park district of the Dinosaur National Monument. The Echo Park Dam project was opposed by The Sierra Club and other organizations, which created Trustees for Conservation “expressly for the purpose of raising money and spending money in education and legislative activities in which existing conservation organizations felt they could not engage,” after a Supreme Court decision in the same year affirmed the federal government’s power to revoke the tax-exempt status of organizations that spent significant time and resources on lobbying. (1) After the abandonment of the Echo Park project in favor of Glen Canyon Dam, the Trustees continued their involvement in federal and state environmental policy and lobbied for the creation of a National Wilderness Preservation System, Outdoor Recreation Resource Review Commission, and other park systems in California and the San Francisco Bay Area. The objectives of the organization, according to its by-laws, were to “promote the wise use and conservation of the natural resources” of the U.S. and to secure the “protection and preservation of our National Parks and Monuments” and “wildlife and wilderness areas.”
Extent
5.2 Linear Feet (4 cartons, 1 slim document box)
Restrictions
Materials in this collection may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). In addition, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of University of California gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Availability
Collection is open for research.