ABSTRACT
The major organizations that have constituted the backbone of the environmental movement for almost the whole of the 20th century are names familiar to almost all Americans. With the founding of the Sierra Club in 1892, the National Audubon Society in 1905, the National Parks and Conservation Association in 1919, the Izaak Walton League of America in 1922, the Wilderness Society in 1935, the National Wildlife Federation in 1936, the Defenders of Wildlife in 1937, and The Conservation Foundation in 1938, the environmental establishment incrementally became a major political force in American society. Collectively these groups became virtually synonymous with what were generally referred to in the media as “the environmentalists.” Individually or jointly, they participated in virtually all the major battles that were fought over conservation issues at least since the struggle over Hetch Hetchy in the wake of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. In so doing, for almost a half-century they effectively defined environmentalism and no discussion of environmental politics can even begin without acknowledging the value, nature, and extent of their involvement.
