Citizen's Guide to Colorado's Environmental Era

• Year: 2005
• Title: Citizen's Guide to Colorado's Environmental Era
• Author: Colorado Foundation for Water Education
• Publications - Doc Type: Other

I Jai
In the early 1970s the United States Congress
passed some of the most stringent environmental
laws in the world, including the Clean Air and
Clean Water acts. The Endangered Species Act of
1973 is still among the most stringent national
laws for the protection of plants and animals. This
era of environmental regulation changed the way
we do business and manage water —in addition to
generating reams of environmental impact reports,
legal briefs and statutes.
This Citizen's Guide to Colorado's Environmental
Era is the second history - related guide in the
Colorado Foundation for Water Education's on-
going citizen' guide series. As a follow -on to the
Citizen's Guide to Colorado's Water Heritage, our
authors extend the history timeline to recent years,
what we have labeled "the environmental era."
This project draws together the expertise
of prominent historians and scholars from
throughout Colorado and the West. Their essays
show how recent decades and the environmental
movement have shaped Colorado's culture, com-
munities and landscapes.
Concern for the environment comes out of a
long tradition of preservation and conservation in
the United States. Around the turn of the century,
the establishment of Yellowstone Park and the
Conservation Movement of President Theodore
Roosevelt marked some of the first organized
advocacy for the sustainable use of forests, soils
and water.
The modem American environmental movement
has built itself on these conservationist and preserva-
tionist rootsQ —as well as on a mound of paperwork.
K""& � . 614�
Karla Brown
Editor and Executive Director
r
.. _
r �.._
W-7; Muir)_ ro ro._- E r -\- _.,a