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7094 BCE
Agricultural Revolution
A period of technological improvement and increased crop productivity during the 18th and early 19th centuries in Europe. -
Industrial Revolution
Movement when machines changed people's way of life as well as their methods of manufacture. About the time of the American Revolution, the people of England began to use machines to make cloth and steam engines to run the machines. -
John Muir is born
John Muir was America's most famous and influential naturalist and conservationist. He has been called "The Father of our National Parks," "Wilderness Prophet," and "Citizen of the Universe." He died in 1914. -
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Walden is a book by famous author Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. -
Homestead Act
Signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862, the Homestead Act encouraged Western migration by providing settlers 160 acres of public land in the west. In exchange, homesteaders paid a small fee and were required to live on this land for 5 years until they could own the land. -
Yellowstone National Park is founded
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American Forestry Association founded
American Forestry Association was founded in 1875. It was created to protect and restore healthy forest ecosystems. The current headquarters are in Washington, D.C -
Yosemite and Sequoia National Park founded
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General Revision Act
The General Revision Act of 1891 was a Federal legislation initiative that allowed the president to set aside land to be conserved as a National Park. -
Sierra Club founded
The Sierra Club is an environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by John Muir, who later became its first president. -
Lacey Act
The Lacey Act is law that bans trafficking in illegal wildlife. In 2008, the Act was amended to include plants and plant products such as timber and paper. This landmark legislation is the world's first ban on trade in illegally sourced wood products. -
Golden Age of Conservation
1901-1909 -
First National Wildlife refuge established
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U.S. forest service founded
On February 1, 1905, the USDA Forest Service was established within the Department of Agriculture. The agency was given a unique mission: to sustain healthy, diverse, and productive forests and grasslands for present and future generations. -
Gifford Pinchot
Gifford Pinchot was an American forester and politician. Pinchot served as the first Chief of the United States Forest Service from 1905 until his firing in 1910, and was the 28th Governor of Pennsylvania -
Aldo Leopod
Aldo Leopold was an American author, philosopher, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist. -
Audubon Society Founded
1902 Guy Bradley is hired as first Audubon game warden. 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt creates the first National Wildlife Refuge, on Florida's Pelican Island. 1905 The National Association of Audubon Societies is incorporated in New York State. William Dutcher is named first President. -
Antiquities Act
The Antiquities Act is the first law to establish that archeological sites on public lands are important public resources -
Antiquities Act
The Antiquities Act is the first law to establish that archeological sites on public lands are important public resources -
Congress became upset because Roosevelt was waving so much forest land so they banned further withdrawals
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U.S. National Park Service founded
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Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl, also known as the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the US and Canadian prairies during the 1930s; severe drought and a failure to apply dryland farming methods to prevent wind erosion caused the phenomenon. -
Civilian Conservation Corps founded
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families as part of the New Deal. -
Soil Conservation Service founded
Natural Resources Conservation Service, formerly known as the Soil Conservation Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture that provides technical assistance to farmers and other private landowners and managers. -
Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act
The Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp Act, or the "Duck Stamp Act," as this March 16, 1934, authority is commonly called, requires each waterfowl hunter 16 years of age or older to possess a valid Federal hunting stamp -
Taylor Grazing Act
The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 is a United States federal law that provides for the regulation of grazing on the public lands (excluding Alaska) to improve rangeland conditions and regulate their use -
Fish plus Wildlife Service founded
Search Results
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency of federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior which is dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats -
Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Control Act (FIFRA)
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Silent Spring published by Rachel Carson
Silent Spring is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. The book was published on 27 September 1962 and it documented the detrimental effects on the environment of the indiscriminate use of pesticides -
Wilderness Act
The Wilderness Act, signed into law in 1963, created the National Wilderness Preservation System and recognized wilderness as “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” -
Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
Search Results
The National Wild and Scenic Rivers System was created by Congress in 1968 to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values in a free-flowing condition for the enjoyment of present and future generations. -
Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio caught fire
The Cuyahoga River is a river in the United States, located in Northeast Ohio, that feeds into Lake Erie. The river is famous for having been so polluted that it "caught fire" in 1969. The event helped to spur the environmental movement in the US. -
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is a United States environmental law that promotes the enhancement of the environment and established the President's Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). The law was enacted on January 1, 1970. -
First Earth Day
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Environmental Protection Agency Established
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Clear Air Act
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OPEC oil embargo
On October 17, 1973, Arab oil producers declared an embargo that drastically limited the shipment of oil to the United States. These producers, members of a cartel known as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), enforced the embargo in response to the Yom Kippur War between Egypt and Israel. -
Endangered Species Act
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Roland and Molina announce the CFCs are depleting the ozone layer
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Love Canal, NY toxic waste leak
In 1978, Love Canal, located near Niagara Falls in upstate New York, was a nice little working-class enclave with hundreds of houses and a school. It just happened to sit atop 21,000 tons of toxic industrial waste that had been buried underground in the 1940s and '50s by a local company. -
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), enacted in 1976, is the principal federal law in the United States governing the disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste. -
Clean Water Act
As amended in 1977, the law became commonly known as the Clean Water Act (CWA). The 1977 amendments: Established the basic structure for regulating pollutant discharges into the waters of the United States. Gave EPA the authority to implement pollution control programs such as setting wastewater standards for industry. -
Surface Mining Control and Reclemation Act
The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) is the primary federal law that regulates the environmental effects of coal mining in the United States. SMCRA created two programs: one for regulating active coal mines and a second for reclaiming abandoned mine lands -
3 Mile Island Nuclear accident
The Three Mile Island accident was a partial nuclear meltdown that occurred on March 28, 1979, in reactor number 2 of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States -
Alaska Lands Act
The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) is a United States federal law passed on November 12, 1980 by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on December 2 of that year -
Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) or SUper Fund
Superfund is a United States federal government program designed to fund the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants. It was established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) -
Bhopal, Indian chemical toxic cloud kills 2,000
It occurred on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Over 500,000 people were exposed to methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other chemicals. The toxic substance made its way into and around the shanty towns located near the plant -
Chernobyl
On April 26, 1986, the world's worst nuclear accident happened at the Chernobyl plant near Pripyat, Ukraine, in the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire in the No. 4 reactor sent radioactivity into the atmosphere. -
Montreal Protocol
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (a protocol to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer) is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion. -
Exxon Valdez
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. On March 24, 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez grounded on Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound, rupturing its hull and spilling nearly 11 million gallons of Prudhoe Bay crude oil into a remote, scenic, and biologically productive body of water. -
Energy Policy Act of 1992
The Energy Policy Act is a United States government act. It was passed by Congress and set goals, created mandates, and amended utility laws to increase clean energy use and improve overall energy efficiency in the United States. -
Desert Protection Act
The California Desert Protection Act of 1994 is a federal law signed by President Bill Clinton, and passed by the United States Congress on October 8, 1994, that established the Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks and the Mojave National Preserve in the California desert -
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Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which commits its Parties by setting internationally binding emission reduction targets. -
World population hits 6 Billion
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BP oil spill
The Deepwater Horizon disaster, by the numbers. The Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico five years ago today, killing 11 men and sending nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the sea -
COP21
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international environmental agreement on climate change. · They are holding their 21st annual Conference of the Parties (COP) in Paris from November 30th to December 11th 2015.
