Tangled Roots: The Appalachian Trail and American Environmental Politics

Introduction: The Tortuous Path Toward Public-Private Partnership

3 introduction The Tortuous Path toward Public-Private Partnership In 1921, Progressive forester Benton MacKaye proposed a plan to build a footpath along the spine of the Appalachian Mountains that would run from Georgia to Maine. When later asked what the purpose of this Appalachian Trail might be, MacKaye replied that there were three objectives : “(1) to walk; (2) to see; (3) to see what you see.”1 MacKaye probably meant that a hiker should remain alert to her surroundings, absorbing the landscape around her and contemplating its meaning and beauty. Yet, two months into my ten-month field season on the trail in 2007, I realized that most hikers, particularly through-hikers (those who walk the two-thousand -mile trail in one season), spend the majority of their waking hours staring at the ground two feet ahead of their boots. We see dirt, mud, rocks, snow, and mile after mile of tangled roots. Every once in a while, the trail pops us out at an overlook, where we take in some scenery and enjoy that snack we’ve been thinking about for the past two hours. Occasionally we take note of the changes in the landscapes through which we traverse. Those of us who walk the Appalachian Trail (AT) from south to north are intoxicated by the smell of blooming mountain laurel in Georgia and humbled by the towering giants of old-growth forest in the Great Smoky Mountains. We stride alongside wild ponies in Virginia’s Grayson Highlands and slide through golden cornfields in Pennsylvania’s Cumberland Valley. In the mid-Atlantic area, we dash across road crossings and drool over the scents coming from backyard barbeques as we skirt around some of the most populated parts of the country. In Connecticut 4 Introduction and Massachusetts, the signs of suburbia along the trail begin to recede, replaced by thousands of acres of lush mixed-hardwood forests. These vast woodlands continue through Vermont and New Hampshire, but shift in composition to a greater percentage of northern species as we move toward the boreal forests of Maine. Although astute hikers might carefully observe changes in the physical landscape, seldom do we get a sense of the complicated political dynamics involved in creating the simple footpath that we tread on and the scenic views that surround us. This book aims to reveal that unseen story. Like the tangled roots that hikers encounter along the trail, for those involved in building this famous footpath, the tangled political roots of the AppalachianTrailwerefrustratinganddifficulttonavigateattimesbutwere ultimately an essential part of the broader system they support. Just as the tangled roots along the trail sustain surrounding forests, the trail’s diverse political structure provided the foundation for trail-building efforts, and made the Appalachian Trail one of the most successful land stewardship projects of the twentieth century and a model for environmental protection in the twenty-first century. Over the course of nearly a century, the AT project has combined the horizontal, dendritic roots of grassroots social action with the strong central taproot of federal authority. These two sources of political power evolved in dynamic interaction with one another, tipping at times toward one side or the other, but never fully separate. The history of the AT reveals a complex, relational view of power and authority between the state and private citizens. Viewing power in this way—not purely as a top-down hegemonic force or a bubbling up from the grassroots but as a much more interactive process—enriches our collective understanding of twentieth-century conservation efforts in the United States, and has important implications for the future of environmental protection. In some ways, the history of the Appalachian Trail reflects a broader story about land management and protection in the eastern United States that will be familiar to environmental historians. The trail was initiated at the end of the Progressive Era, when conservationist Republican Theodore Roosevelt found himself in the Oval Office after president William McKinley ’s assassination, and Congress began to establish federal land managing agencies such as the US Forest Service and the National Park Service. Members of a growing urban population began to “get back to nature” through a variety of outdoor activities such as hiking and camping, and by means of influential outdoor organizations, such as the Appalachian Mountain Club Introduction 5 and the Appalachian National Park Association, began working with state and federal representatives to expand recreational opportunities throughout the eastern hinterlands.2 By the time the second President Roosevelt...