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Trustees for Conservation records
BANC MSS 74/71 c
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
The Bancroft Library
Title: Trustees for Conservation records
Creator:
Trustees for Conservation
Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 74/71 c
Physical Description:
5.2 Linear Feet
(4 cartons, 1 slim document box)
Date (inclusive): 1951-1975
Abstract: 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.
Language of Material: Collection materials are in English.
Physical Location: Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information
on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Collection is open for research.
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.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the
Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley 94720-6000. See: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html.
[Identification of item], Trustees for Conservation records, BANC MSS 74/71 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley.
There are no alternate forms for this collection.
The Bancroft Library holds several collections related to the conservation and environmental movements in California and the
United States. These include the records of Sierra Club, its chapters and members, and environmentalists such as David Ross
Brower, Thomas J. Graff, and the correspondence of Trustees for Conservation president Ansel Adams. The Bancroft also holds
the records of the Friends of the River Foundation, Friends of the Earth, and the Save the Redwoods League.
Gift of Trustees for Conservation via William J. Losh, Executive Secretary, on September 20, 1973.
No additions are expected.
Arranged to the folder level.
Processed by Lori Dedeyan in 2017, with the generous support of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
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.”
Trustees for Conservation had its offices in San Francisco. Its membership included leaders of the conservation groups by
which it had been created and prominent environmentalists of the time, such as Ansel Adams, Thomas H. Jukes, Clifford V. Heimbucher,
Lewis F. Clark, Edgar Wayburn, David Ross Brower (first Executive Director of the Sierra Club and founder of Friends of the
Earth, Earth Island Institute, and other environmental organizations), Wallace Stegner, Alfred A. Knopf, Newton B. Drury (fourth
director of the American National Park Service and the executive director of the Save-the-Redwoods League), and Howard Zahniser.
Howard Zahniser, the primary author of the Wilderness Act of 1964, was also the Washington representative of the Trustees
for Conservation during this time, as well as executive secretary and executive director of the Wilderness Society.
1. “Purposes and Objectives of the Trustees for Conservation.” Trustees for Conservation, 1958.
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.
The collection is arranged into three series:
Series 1 (Correspondence) includes incoming and outgoing correspondence within the organization, with other environmental
organizations, general correspondence, and inquiries.
Series 2 (Administrative materials) includes meeting minutes, financial documents and tax forms, legal documents and lobby
registration forms, and lists of the leadership.
Series 3 (Program records and publicity materials) includes correspondence, mailers, and documentation relating to various
projects and campaigns.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Landscape protection--United States.
Wilderness areas--United States.
Wilderness areas--California.
Unites States. Wilderness Act
National parks and reserves--United States
National parks and reserves--California
Environmental protection--United States--History.
Environmentalists--United States.
Dinosaur National Monument (Colo. and Utah)
Trustees for Conservation