Thread: My dad is visiting from central Montana and brought me this beautiful 1966 @Interior book. It's an edited collection of articles. 1/ 
It sold for $9. The forward is written by @Interior Secretary Stewart Udall. It is the update to a previous volume titled "Waterfowl Tomorrow." 2/
It's an unbelievable time capsule that records the thinking of the time. In 1966 @Interior and its leadership believed that if people were simply more knowlegable about the impact they had on the environment behavior would change in support of conservation of natural resources.
The last 200 pages of this book include chapters from the world's leading scientists on topics like #ClimateChange, air pollution, oil spills, and habitat destruction. 4/
Page 490 asks, "...who knows of the plight of the Attwater's greater prairie chicken?" 5/
We know now. A year after this book was published the bird was listed as endangered and in 1973 the Endangered Species Act provided immediate protection for this seriously declining bird. We now have a @USFWSRefuges named Attwater Prairie Chicken NWR. 6/
Just a few months after this book was published there were just over 1000 birds left. Fast forward to 2017 and @NRDC published this article: nrdc.org/onearth/did-hu… 7/
Apparently there was a time (before I was born) when government and NGOs shared a collective vision. The @NWF is described as "the center of a foresighted program to help arouse all citizens to a keener appreciation of all our natural assets."
The @audubonsociety, @DucksUnlimited, @Wilderness, and @nature_org all get a shout out in a chaper entitled "Men and an Idea." 9/
As there was no internet in 1966, the @Interior publication gives physical addresses of all these orgs and describes them as "democracy in action." 10/
