Curious Iowa: Who were Iowa’s earliest conservationists?

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Iowa has 63 state parks and more than 90 state preserves. Maybe you’ve kayaked at Lake Macbride State Park in Johnson County or bird watched at Hayden Prairie in Howard County. These natural areas are named to honor important figures in our state’s conservation movement.

In this installment of Curious Iowa — a series from The Gazette that answers readers’ questions about the state — we look back at the contributions of four Iowa conservationists. These scientists helped establish Iowa’s state parks system, preserve flora and fauna, and better our understanding of nature.

Rebecca Conard, author and environmental historian, said in the territorial days, natural resources were viewed in terms of economic development. To gain statehood, a territory needed a concentration of people and a way to maintain the economy. This led to agriculture dominating Iowa’s economy.

By the late 19th century, loss of natural resources became front of mind — particularly with sportsmen whose game were in decline.

“As sciences are kind of emerging from the catch all of natural science into botany and geology, ornithology ... you get people who are beginning to take a much closer look at them scientifically,” Conard said.

“Most of (Iowa’s early conservationists) were attached to universities or colleges, and they were academics first,” said Jerome Thompson, former state curator at the State Historical Society of Iowa. “But I think they recognized that through their work, they had a responsibility to preserve the lands that they are working on.”

As these scientists began to study problems, they worked with the Iowa Legislature to develop, and even write, bills.

“We turn that all over to lobbyists these days, but there was a much closer relationship between the people making policy and people who were interested in the policy and who actually came from the world of science.” Conard said.

Who was Theodore S. Parvin?

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Theodore S. Parvin is considered the first person to advocate for conservation in Iowa. Parvin worked as the private secretary to Robert Lucas, Iowa’s first territorial governor, and was the state’s first territorial librarian.

In 1857, Parvin advocated for land in Des Moines near the state Capitol to be developed into a park that would be dedicated to Iowa’s native trees.

In a 1922 article in Annals of Iowa, museum curator Edgar R. Harlan referred to Parvin’s advocating for the preservation of trees as “the earliest conservation utterance we have encountered of an Iowa public man.” Harlan said that Parvin’s “vision was clearer than that of any other public official of his time.”

When Louis Pammel revisited Parvin and Harlan’s writing in 1930 in Annals of Iowa, he noted, “Parvin’s advice was not heeded. There are only a few of these native trees left on the State House grounds, a lone basswood, some ash and a few oaks — all the rest are gone.”

Kevin Mason, associate professor of history at Waldorf University, said Parvin was a lone voice in the early days of Iowa’s statehood.

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“Even those in the generation immediately following him, like Pammel, look back at him as one of those inspirational voices for conservation in Iowa when that was certainly not part of … the zeitgeist,” Mason said.

Parvin began a weather journal on Dec. 1, 1838 in Burlington, Iowa. He continued his detailed observations in Muscatine and later, Iowa City.

“Most of our other records from that time period that talk about the environment … have some of that information but it’s oriented in such a different way,” Mason said. “With Parvin, you don’t have to read against the grain with it.”

Additionally, Parvin is remembered for his work as the state’s first land office registrar and for teaching natural history at the University of Iowa. He established the first official state library and the Iowa State Historical Society.

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Who was Thomas Macbride?

Thomas Macbride was a botanist, naturalist and an expert on fungi. Conard describes Macbride as an “idea person.”

“On the spectrum of philosopher to scientist ... he’s a little bit closer to the philosopher end of that spectrum,” she said.

Macbride was one of Iowa’s earliest advocates for parks. In 1896, he gave a landmark address to the Iowa Academy of Science, calling for county parks.

He said that parks were an educational necessity and that they would directly affect public health and happiness. Plus, “county parks would tend to preserve to those who come after us something of the primitive beauty of this part of the world, as such beauty stood revealed in its original flora.”

This address was a catalyst for the creation of the Iowa parks system, of which Macbride, Bohumil Shimek and Pammel were forces behind.

In 1901, Macbride became the first president of the Iowa Parks and Forestry Association, which later became the Iowa Conservation Association. According to the Iowa State University Parks Library, this is the first state organization in Iowa dedicated to conservation issues.

Eight years later, Macbride, Shimek, Pammel and Samuel Calvin started Lakeside Laboratory in Milford. The goal was to support scholars studying wetlands, prairie and botanical issues relating to agriculture and plant diseases. Lakeside Laboratory succeeded in fostering collaboration between scholars from across the state and advancing conversations about conservation.

Who was Louis Pammel?

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Louis Pammel had a seismic impact on Iowa’s conservation movement. Throughout his career, he conducted extensive research on the flora and weed flora of Iowa, poisonous plants, fungi and gas-producing bacteria.

“He had this boundless energy and was this connector of people,” Mason said. “He was deeply motivated by what he saw as the need for change in relationship to conservation and then he ... did something about it, whether that was in his scientific work, whether that was in his communities, whether that was working actively to try to get the government to do things about it.”

“His research, which is quite extensive into plant diseases, it’s also into kind of the what we’re losing, what’s native and what’s introduced.” Conard said. “He’s got that knowledge about how much we’re losing of our native species.”

She described Pammel as “the guy with a finger in every pie.”

Pammel spoke to community groups weekly, Conard estimated. He gathered material for Iowa State’s herbarium and trained botanists Ada Hayden and Charlotte King, who carried on his work.

He also waded into politics — he drafted the state park bill. This act led to the creation of a Board of Conservation, of which Pammel was the first chair and president. The bill also constructed a state park system, cementing Iowa as an early leader in the state park movement.

During Pammel’s tenure, 38 state parks were dedicated. How the Board of Conservation accomplished this feat could be a topic for an installment of Curious Iowa in itself. In short, it took a lot of ground work, traveling to places to pinpoint locations for parks and working within those communities to acquire the land.

Who was Ada Hayden?

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Ada Hayden was a botanist and prairie preservationist. She was the first woman to receive a doctorate from Iowa State and the fourth person to earn a doctorate from the school.

At the start of her career, Hayden was Pammel’s right hand person until his death in 1931. Following that, Hayden devoted her work to the study and preservation of prairies. Prior to Hayden, prairies were largely thought of as wasteland.

“She recognized that there was a diversity in prairies and how those systems worked in enriching soil and providing an ecological system where a lot of different species are dependent.” Thompson said.

Hayden was described as modest and unassuming, but like Pammel, she spoke to community and women’s groups to spread her message.

“She, as part of those public presentations, used these hand-colored lantern slides, which, just to me, they pop out … so in addition to her vivid, eloquent way of describing the prairies … looking at those slides I can’t help but imagine persuaded more than one person that, you know what? This isn’t a wasteland.” Laura Sullivan, digital collections librarian at the ISU Parks Library, said.

In 1945, Hayden and J.M. Aiken, chair of the conservation committee of the Iowa Academy of Science, issued a report that identified sections of remaining prairie that should be preserved. This work, led by Hayden, developed a scientific database that the State Conservation Commission used to inform its land acquisition decisions.

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The first tract of prairie the SCC purchased was 240 acres in northern Howard County. It was named for Hayden after her death in 1950.

Over her career, Hayden added more than 40,000 specimens to the Iowa State Herbarium, which was named in her honor in 1988.

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Comments: bailey.cichon@thegazette.com