relationship with the olmsted's, having edited the master list of design projects which i just mentioned, as well as parts of the papers of frederick law olmsted, a mere 12 volumes, thousands and thousands of pages. she is currently the co-chair of the friends of fair stud, the nonprofit partner of the frederick law olmsted national historic site as well. and with that, welcome, lauren. thank you. and if i can figure out the technology here, i'm going to pull up the next. i might need someone not opening. i'm not a mac users. i do. i just click on it here. i think you just you just going there it is sort a double click in the middle, double click in the middle. different than my. yeah. well who. welcome everyone to session two. i'm i'm going to kick off this this panel covering a sort of a flyover of the role of the olmsted in the national park service. faller followed by scholar and historian hope cushing, who will do a deeper dive into the work of frederick law olmsted jr and ending with sam hunter, who will talk about the important, historic and current work of saving the redwood leagues in california. we're going to do this panel just boom, boom, boom. speaker after speaker in order to create the most time possible for questions from all of you. during olmsted 200, we celebrate the bicentennial of frederick law olmsted senior. so i'll begin with three areas in which 19th century precedents by the by olmsted contributed to the development of the national park service. some of these you have, of course, heard before first we heard previously about frederick law olmsted, advocacy for scenic reservations, such as niagara and yosemite, his feeling that it was an important, responsible liberty of government to create parks for the people and of the healing power of natural scenery. but there are two other areas of the olmsted where the olmsted firm influence the work of the national park service as the first full scale office for the practice of landscape architecture. the olmsted firm developed a site based design process that integrated both landscape architecture and preservation into a single project that's that transformed a given place into a park. their approach formed the basis for conserving large scenic areas with carefully designed public access. this was emulated and expanded by the national park service in the 20th century. in the development of park planning through the creation of general plans, as well as more detailed studies for individual park facilities. third olmsted collaborations with architects calvert fox and h.h. richardson resulted in parks that were enhanced with architecture features inspired by their natural setting and utilizing local materials. the connection between the olmsted firm's design esthetic and the rustic architecture nature of the national park service has been well documented by many, including linda mcclellan, laura harrin and ethan carr. but the national park service took rustic design to new heights. sometimes called park, a texture, giving your early national parks a distinctive architectural feel and character. frederick law olmsted junior was one of the founding members of the american society of landscape architects, and john charles olmsted served as its first president in 1915, the sla formed a committee on national parks and national forests, and in 1916 devoted their annual meeting in boston to a discussion of national parks. articles presented by olmsted junior warren manning. james sturgis prey and henry hubbard. all called for an organized system thematic approach to creating national parks was a fundamental goal of preserving natural scenery and using the art of landscape architecture to successfully design new parks. olmsted also wrote about the important distinction between national parks and national forests, and i'm referring to olmsted jr mostly in this talk at that time, there were already approximate 14 national parks and 28 national monument since. but their administration was fractured. as we heard earlier amongst the departments of interior war and agriculture. and for oh, i'm sorry, i forgot to mention that following the meeting, olmsted work collaboratively with several legislators and park advocates to draft the legislation that would create the national park service. olmsted contribution to the organic at the legislation that created the national park service. as we know it today, is its state ment of purpose. the olmsted firm was involved in the national parks in many ways. this included both external and internal advocacy. and when i say external, i mean working outside of the national park service through organizations and congress to advocate and protect existing parks, as well as advocating for new ones. olmsted jr was embroiled in the controversy regarding hetch hetchy even before the the passage of the organic act and hope cushing soon to talk more about that after the 1906 san francisco fire, city officials increased their efforts to expand the city's water supply and selected hetch hetchy valley in the northwest part of the cemetery national park as the best option. olmsted was called upon by many to help fight the proposal. from 1910 to 1913, he wrote letters to members of congress and joined with many national leaders opposing the project. the most eloquent record of olmsted's objection was a lengthy editorial in the boston transcript, noting the potential damage to the scenery of the valley, a lack of definitive need for the project and the potential precedent it would create regarding private interests and public lands. regardless, the bill passed both house and senate and the project advanced. frederick law olmsted jr's role in the wassily committee led to consultations with local florida and national park service officials regarding the potential of the everglades as a new national park. earnest co, a landscape architect, had been promoting the idea at a time when florida was undergoing a surge in population, land, speculation and poaching of rare wildlife and plants. legislation to investigate the everglades passed in 1929. olmsted was simultaneously engaged in an adversarial dialog with sterling yard of the national park association, who felt national park should be based solely on professor and natural scenery. olmsted argued for a broader interpretation, including a wide range of landscape types and and ecosystems and habitats, including the everglades unique tropical ecosystem item he agreed to lead a special committee of the national parks association, and in january 1932, olmstead and others embarked on an extensive trip by automobile motor cruiser, small boat on foot and by blimp, an airplane. to examine how. yeah, and the photos are fabulous, by the way, on flickr to examine to examine hundreds of miles of the everglades. the outcome was a written resolution of the national park association by olmstead and its president, william warden, that conveyed the organization's strong support and which had a critical impact on the passage of legislation to create the park olmsted jr also prepared many planning reports for the national park service related to their current condition, with recommendations for future action. in 1929, he traveled to the territory of hawaii, where he made a detailed report on various issues related to design and planning with a focus on the killer whales section of the island of hawaii, part of what was then called hawaii national park, established in 1916, olmsted reported on the challenges of human use and park development in a fragile setting with significant cultural and natural resources, and advocated for the preservation of natural native species and their use in planting projects. he addressed the management of the park boundary recommending design review for areas visible from the park. he wrote extensively on the appropriate design of park facilities in order to preserve the essential quality of the park and for the creation of a general plan. the resulting report stands as a thorough and thoughtful evaluation of park planning and design in a sensitive visual, cultural and ecological setting. the first and largest project undertaken by frederick law olmsted jr. in his role as national park service collaborator. was an official position. he held from 1941 to 1950. is the colorado river basin recreational survey. this project came at a time when the national park service needed a representative to work cooperatively and collaboratively with other federal agencies around the complex issues of water rights, dam construction, water based recreation and scenic preservation in the arid southwest. and i think it's very, very interesting to think of this project 30 years after the hetch hetchy controversy, it had become a fait accompli. that water was needed. but olmstead clearly was so committed to the importance of national parks that he was a great outside entity to help facilitate the national park service interests in these in this work. in his first set of assignments, olmsted covered some 3500 miles in just in 1941, resulting in a list of potential recreation sites from steamboat springs to dinosaur national monument. and working and working continually through 1942. in 1943, covering a vast geographic area, he continued to consult on matters of water and reclamation on the colorado river as late as 1950, when he was asked to develop pros and cons related to the inclusion of the echo park and split mountain dams in dinosaur national monument. in 1926, steve stevens mather asked olmsted jr for assistance in evaluating the area in the vicinity of el tovar hotel in in grand canyon village at the south rim. daniel hull had taken over the design of the village road, but the national park service remained concerned about the potential expansion of the hotel, which was operated by a concessionaire. olmsted's role was to assess if and how the hotel could expand without a detrimental effect on the park and its facilities. his primer key concern was preservation of the view and the arrival sequence for visitors and that and also the irreplaceable preserving the era place of el character of the canyon. and he recommended separating arrival from internal circulation and a step in the establishment of view corridors keeping new development away from the rim and creating soil conditions that would facilitate recovery of the landscape through review tation. picking up on something that ralph talked about, the grand canyon is one of the few parks, national parks where olmsted jr was involved in land use issues related to indigenous peoples. when the havasupai tribe asked the federal government for boundary adjustments to provide more suitable grazing land. what's interesting to note is that olmsted provided input because he was asked to solely based on the preservation of the park's scenery, but not on the merits of the havasupai proposal. the olmsted firm had the longest relationship with yosemite frederick law. leinster jr began officially advising the national park service as early as the 1920s, related to use conflicts and overcrowding in yosemite valley. and in 1928 stepped in as the first chair of the committee of expert advisors, a position he held intermittently until 1953. the committee was to provide guidance and a broad plan for yosemite that would ensure scenic preservation. while the national parks service considered park development to accommodate increasing public use, it also gave the park service the opportunity to address outside criticism by selecting a committee the agency's critics could support air flow. junior served with duncan mcduffie, with whom he was working on the california state park system, and john paul wilder, a geologist at caltech. the committee studied several locations in the park and advised on topics from winter recreation activities to public sanitation to a proposed cableway from the valley floor up the rock face to glacier point in lieu of costly road, costly road construction, which of course you now he opposed. well, this work was most often submitted to the national park service in the form of letters and reports. it did sometimes require solving site specific design for which olmsted jr turned to the firm for help. as in the case of the parking area at glacier point. the proposed development of a new village in yosemite valley was a major activity of the board in the late 1930s, particularly early with respect to what public uses were appropriate, where to locate new trails and how the vehicle, air circulation and placement of new buildings would occur. the board also advised on road alignment to minimize potential scarring of the steep slopes and rock cliffs that would diminish the park's scenic value, often involving the olmsted firm in the development of design options, the olmsted firm's work on mount desert island and and i'm really just talking about acadia began with bart island in 1908 but it was the work on the motor roads that left the greatest imprint on the new national park in 1926. daniel hull and thomas flint visited the road work. john de rockefeller, jr was doing at his private estate on the island. and this led to rockefeller's patronage of the motor roads. rockefeller contacted the olmsted office in 1929 regarding the opportunity and over the next six years, the olmsted brothers completed approximately 130 design plans for the park, focused primarily on the motor roads. rockefeller hoped this would ensure protection of the serene natural beauty of the island with the olmsted brothers also serving as a neutral party to mediate differences of opinion with george dorr, the park's first superintendent. perhaps you're seeing a little theme here. in 1930 and in 1937, the national park service director, arno kammerer, wrote to olmsted jr regarding the design of a memorial for laura spelman. rockefeller at the newly established great smoky mountains national park. of course, this was also funded by john d rockefeller jr. henry hubbard stepped in to assist the national park service and rockefeller with the design. the new found gap site was selected with thomas vent and the new design created stone terraces built into the hillside that would provide outstanding views of the gap construction of the memorial began in 1939 with local labor and built of local stone and served as the setting for the dedication of the park by fdr in 1940. the national park service also consulted with the olmsted firm regarding the bureau of public roads plans for fighting creek gap road, and hubbard was appointed as consulting landscape architect to assist with the design review. and in 1951 of olmsted jr's last projects for national parks was the development of an nps policy on wilderness values in national parks that was necessitated by public concern regarding the preservation of the south appalachian oceans and smoky mountains. as you heard earlier, the olmsted brothers firm made a significant contribution to the public landscapes of the national capital, now managed by the national park service. in 1901, olmsted jr was appointed to the mcmillen, also known as the senate park commission. in 1910 to the u.s. commission on fine arts and in 1926 to the national capital and planning commission, the firm undertook design project x in the vicinity of the mall, potomac park, the washington monument, the jefferson memorial, white house grounds, and roosevelt island. well, olmsted jr served on the fine arts commission between 1910 and 1918. the firm carefully avoided design projects under their jurisdiction, but he did often provide regarding how. the landscape of the mall, the federal building grounds and memorials should be treated. olmsted jr provided recommendations for the white house grounds in 1928 with later design completed, completed. 1934 and five by olmsted hands. koehler and henry hubbard during the fdr administration in olmsted, the nps asked olmsted to serve as an informal consultant to the jefferson project, and in 1938 they hired the olmsted brothers as landscape architects for the memorial with henry hubbard completing the majority of the work through 1941, enduring multiple design agreements over traffic workmanship and the government's construction specifications. frederick law olmsted senior had considered the appropriate treatment of rock creek in projects undertaken for the d.c. streets and the national zoological parts park. and in 1917, the olmsted brothers undertook an effort to document park lands, preparing diagrams that analyzed the landscape and a narrative report. olmsted jr and edward clarke whiting were largely responsible illustrations using an overlay method originally developed by henry humphry repton. so a sketch of existing conditions with a flap that could be lifted to reveal the proposed landscape treatment. several historic sites with olmsted involvement became part of the national park system at a later date. this includes the 1913 design for washington square in philadelphia, which was incorporated into independence national historical park in 1991, in 1914, the mayor of baltimore asked the olmsted brothers to assist with the design of the landscape of fort mchenry in the vicinity of the francis francis scott key monument that included road design, grading and planting by percival jones. fredricka olmsted jr evaluated proposals for the treatment of george washington birthplace in 1928 and by the wakefield memorial association in advance of the 1932 bicentennial, which was funded in part by also by j.d. rockefeller jr. olmsted objection to the conjectural reconstruction of the wakefield house shed. considerable light on his preservation philosophy grounded in a commitment to authenticity and the historical record. frederick law olmsted home and office in brookline, massachusetts, became a unit of the national park service in 1979 and 1980. and you heard from jay newman from, brookline, the olmsted firm, had advised cated for national parks both directly and indirectly through nional archives that organizations of which many of the olmsted firm partne were active as well as design and planning projects directly. the national park service. well frederick law olmsted jr singly contributed the most to the entire portfolio. pouliot of national park work. he was by no means the only individual in the firm to do so. the olmsted firm helped establish a national appreciation of the importance of scenic preservation, a broader understanding of the diverse city of ecosystems and landscape types that would make suitable national parks the importance of preserving historic and archeological sites using appropriate methods. the critical need for national parks within easy distance of major urban population lines, and the role of sites. sustainable design to address safe and appropriate access to national parks. i think you're going to hear some overlap with in our panel, but i think what's what's fun for me in that is that you'll see these some of issues through a variety of different lenses. and so with that i would like to turn the podium over to pope cushing. ready. you have to close. first first. hello, i'm delighted to be here today and to celebrate this of the olmstead and conservation in america. oops, i got to do thing first don't i forgot. and then i have to go down here. there. and i particularly want to thank didi and nrp for their exuberant celebrations of olmsted seniors centennial year and for including frederick lawns, the junior and me in this particular one, the younger olmsted called rick was early on sensitized to nature and wilderness with the lifelong tutelage of his father combined as it was, with sustained exposure to unspoiled old landscapes and outdoor activities throughout his growing up years from an early age, he was kept apprized of his father's commissions, including conservation efforts. rick proved an eager and apt pupil, and for the duration of his life, spent a significant amount of time reflecting upon the lessons he had absorbed and building upon those contemplation and through his own subsequent consideration of conservation matters sharpened as they were by his awareness of the expansion of human habitation that rapidly transformed and compromised landscape and wilderness. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, enhanced by a summer job where the united states coast and geodetic survey deep in the colorado mountains in 1894 and through his association with forestry experts gilbert gifford, pinchot and carl schenck during his 1890 495 apprenticeship at biltmore, the vanderbilt estate in north carolina, his exposure and training and experience provided a natural segue into the founding and practice of the rapidly unfolding field of city and town planning, as well as his prominence in establishing landscape architecture, education in america. he lived these trends affirmations every day, honing his far ranging, practical and esthetic or esthetically oriented intellect and sensibilities traits that facilitated his role in the development of modern planning key to his approach in all landscape matters, it should be remembered, was his embrace of continuous sleep, balancing practical necessity with the safeguarding of self and beauty, beginning in 1903, there was a forceful call to the dam. the tuolumne river in yosemite's hetch hetchy valley. as you've heard in order to provide water for the city of san francisco. so when the debate reached congress in 1913 with powerful voices on both sides, rick olmstead, linda, public defense of wilderness places, writing forcefully against the flooding of the valley. although always considered himself open to arguments for responsibly combining utility and natural beauty and wilderness places. he was firm, in his opinion, that such deviations must be accomplished without harmful impairment to the site in question, hetch hetchy, he wrote with its distinct scenic charm, would be irreparably injured by the alteration in the last century. he wrote in the boston evening trends script quote has shown such an enormous increase in the appreciation of and resort to the wilder and less manhandled scenery as means of recreation from the intensify and strain of our civilization and the amount of that sooner is so rapidly shrinking that it is a very rash and unkind servant of thing in the present time of transition, to abandon or make over into an essentially different thing. any piece of such scenery that has once been deliberately set apart to be saved as a sample for posterity, unquote, as well, he concluded. altering the valley would set an inauspicious precedent. well, that battle was ultimately lost. of course, but it had the effect of further incentive advising already active advocates for the establishment of what they initially called a national park bureau. although as a member of the newly established commission of fine arts, brigham stone felt him has to overt participation. he worked quietly, along with the more public advocates over the following years during repeated attempts to formulate and pass a bill that establish an independent entity to protect existing parks and create and protect wilderness areas and conjunction with affording this safekeeping of national monuments provided by the antiquities act of 1906. in 1911, he was asked to write a letter delineating priorities for the proposed bureau. the strongest suggestion he made was for what he called the importance of, and i quote, some kind of unmistakable terms of the primary purpose for which parks and monuments are set aside. accompanied by a prohibition of any use which is directly or indirectly in conflict with that primary purpose, in point of fact, ought to me lay. excuse me, in point of fact. ultimately, it was he who provided those concise, crucial, and subsequently widely quoted words the national park service. he wrote, would promote and regulate national parks, monuments and reservations. and which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife life therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. although successful passage of the national park service organic act in 1960 depended upon the compromise of allowing for grazing, damming and scientific management of forests, preferably in remote areas where the few park visitors ventured. after this time, olmsted remained committed to preserving as much as possible without such intrusion. by the time of the bill's passage, the olmsted firm in particular, he was involved with the development of the planned community of palos california, deepening is already developing for the western united states. in the early 1920s, the olmsted junior family, consisting of himself, his wife sarah and daughter charlotte, moved to the area and while he still traveled a great deal, the family began putting down roots in their new environment. shortly before their move, rick spent the months of july and august 1921 touring national parks with members of the national park service, including a cemetery where he wanted to see firsthand how the construction of dams on federal lands in response to the federal power act of 1920 was put into practice. from sequoia national park and into kings canyon. first by autumn abele and then through a series of strenuous first packing trips, he writes home and lyrical passages to his wife and daughter of his devotion to and or the vast, unspoiled portion of western lands. two years later, speaking at that of that trip to the american civic association, in a talk entitled views of an out experience. sorry views of an experienced outsider or the usually dispassionate and detached olmstead reveals in an unusually overt, heartfelt manner his deepest feelings about the unspoiled, natural world and i quote no matter how impressive or beautiful, the one thing which made the deepest impression on me and which i believe to be the most priceless recreation qualities of these reservations, was a sense of freedom and independence that give to be free and to know that one is free of his own right. as a human being without trespass or intrusion to go where the spirit, spirit moves uphill and down due in any direction, day after day, on fence, hedged until milled by the vexing artificial web of property rights and the other restrictions on personal liberty which a crowded civilization had built to keep its clothes packed life from chaos does more than anything else to calm nerves and cool the timber and rest the mind of the ordinary, modern, civilized man harassed by his struggles in that web, grown to complex for him to understand and accept in its entirety as reasonable. unquote. he had already clarified his unwavering position on the equally important but fundamentally different functions of national forests and national parks. in a 1916 speech, the american society of landscape architects and in this talk for the aca, he reiterated his convictions, his convictions. national forests. he said, are set apart for economic ends, and their use for recreation is a by product. properly be secured only insofar as it does not interfere with the economic efficiency of forest management. national parks encounter us are set apart primarily in order to preserve to the people for all time the opportune, peculiar kind of enjoyment and recreation, not measurable in economic terms, but to be obtained only from the remarkable scenery which they contain unquote. despite the sharp distinctions he felt must be made between policies for the two entities. olmsted's involvement in forestry matters never ceased in 1934 or forester for the united states forest service wrote. perhaps no single man and contemporary in his american life has given more constructive thought to the of forestry matters than frederick law olmsted. as early as 1903, long before he moved to california, olmstead devoted been sought by the outdoor league of california in their efforts to preserve the calaveras big tree redwood groves along the northern coast. eight years after the save the redwoods league was founded in 1918, the new president, newton drury, brought olmsted in as an advisor, resulting in his serving on its board councilors for 29 years. in 1943, olmstead was hired by the league, along with former chief forester of the united states, colonel henry graves, to make up three etchings survey and report for a redwood conservation master plan. the following year, when the garden club of america focused on the idea of purchasing a grove of redwoods to honor americans who fought in world war two, it was the league they turned to purchase, establish and manage their memorial. the league immediately entrusted olmstead with selecting a location after his usual thorough, thorough survey of the entire northern coastal road. he recommended a site near crescent city, four miles from the coast. the subsequent fundraising efforts by the league and, the garden club of america, raised enough to preserve 5000 acres in what is now prairie creek redwoods state park. the olmsted graves survey wrote a letter league president duncan became the, quote, bible earl of redwood conservationist. not only in california, but in other states as well. significant as his long years of championing california redwoods and conservation was, it could be argued that the most consequential impact of his work with the california state parks committee quickly morphed into the california state parks commission. it a group consisting of businessmen, conservationists and government officials who gathered to discuss the predicament of rapid, unregulated growth across the state. beginning in 1925. enlightened citizens and officials concerned for the historic monuments of the state, as well as for the varying and unique natural features, succeeded in getting a $6 million bond passed in order to fund a comprehensive statewide survey of potential park land sites and to plan their subsequent acquisition. when the bill passed in 1927, they immediately hired olmstead to spearhead the survey effort. they gave him one year until december 1928 to complete the entire enterprise, remembering the vast expanse of california. it was and is a stone, a shame to contemplate such a task, especially given the fact that the commission allotted olmstead a mere. $15,000 in a year to complete the entire project. the ever resourceful olmstead immediately devised a system for covering the greater part of the state with a skeletal corps staff of landscape architects all working at significantly lower than normal rates and supplemented, he said, by periodic help from the olmstead firm staff. he divided the area to be covered into 12 districts and that his suggestion, the commission, quote, selected and appointed representative citizens throughout the state interested and well-informed on the general subject to act as advisers. these represent, in turn recruited close to two volunteer advisers, men and women who gave their time and travel expenses without charge. consultations were made with press, civic organizations, public hearings and state and federal officials. it was a massive organizing feat spread across the state. in the end, he declared that, quote, despite the fact that limitation of time and funds made it in some cases more hurried and less thorough than would have been desirable. it was tailor complete, unquote. as always. olmsted felt it was essential for him to visit the proposed sites up and down the state. and during the summer of 1928, he said to charlotte set out on frequent trips of varying lengths and topographical conditions over roads that differed dramatically in quality. their newly licensed daughter at age 14 behind the wheel, charlotte subsequently reported. we drove all over california and all sorts of roads. one thing it did take away any fear i might have had about mountain driving after driving over some of the roads we did that summer. anything i come across later has always seemed a piece of cake. the ensuing detail report richly illustrated and replete with observations and recommendation tions, covered every aspect of resources in the state, emphasizing the importance of providing increased recreational facilities for the fast growing and increasingly prosperous population. balanced as it must be with preservation of the natural and historic sites up and down the state and offering examples of first, inevitably redwoods. water features. geology. mountains and hill country. the many immensely popular beaches, deserts and last but not least, this iconic image of a point lobos. monterey, cypress set against the rippling sea at the northern end of the big sur after an energetic campaign around the state, people of california voted 3 to 1 to pass the state bond act, allocating $6 million toward the acquisition of lands for park preservation. the state then allowed olmsted's plan, even then followed olmsted's plan even through the great depression. it purchased 80% of the sites, proposed in the report, eventually affording californians the outstanding park system they enjoy to this day. at the same time, he embarked upon the california survey of parks. he also assumed the role that lauren referred to the chairman ship of the newly formed yosemite national park service, board of expert advisors. it was an entity he had suggested as early as 1911, and his acceptance reflected a deep rooted commitment to the park maintained until 1956. i may be wrong about that. you said 53 until 53, three years before his death. four years before his death. one of the major issues confronting the board dealt with how to plan for and cope with the intensify creation of visitation to the increasingly popular park. as you can imagine, awards were heaped upon frederick junior throughout his life, the one that may resonate with him the most came on his 83rd birthday and the various body had chosen as a memorial grove for the garden club of america. so many years before his old biltmore friend, the forestry expert carl schenk, had been honored with a grove in his name. and it was his idea to create one contiguous with his own for his good friend rick olmstead, as well. earlier writing to a friend and describing shank's memorial grove, olmstead rhapsodized about the very sight and i this valley presents one of the most impressive and beautiful examples of primeval forest enlivened by a sparkling dancing stream of clear water that i have ever seen in my explorations of redwood country. completely self-contained and then framed by a dense sloped forest of fine quality. and now it was olmsted's turn on july 4th, 1953, a group of friends and family and colleagues assembled in a towering grove, carpeted with ferns. the ever modest olmstead was immensely pleased. surely such close association with one of his chief passions and concert vision could not have been a more perfect manner in which to honor his work and his legacy. thank you. hi, everybody. how you all doing? all good. ready for some more, olmstead and redwoods. all right. we're going to keep that theme going. let me get to the next presentation. all right. all right. perfect. hi, everybody. my name's sam hodder. i'm president and ceo of save the redwoods league. i'm going to follow up on some of the themes today of the connection between olmstead, the redwoods and the broader conservation movement. but i want to start by saying thank you so much for being here. thank you. thank you. now, p, what a great opportunity to honor such a critical voice in the american landscape and in the conservation landscape. i'm really pleased to be here and celebration of the olmstead legacy. and today i'm going to share a bit about how that legacy is rooted in the mighty redwood forests, as we just spoke a little bit about and how olmsted's connection to the efforts to save the redwoods helped to launch the land conservation movement in this country. and in my view, positioned us collectively to lead again in the new era of urgency at a time when our shared spaces play an unprecedented role in our resilience in the face of a rapidly changing world. we would do well to ask ourselves, what would olmstead do today. as we all well know, frederick law olmsted ed senior and junior were visionaries who saw parks as elemental to american society, part of the fabric of modern life that reflected the purely american sense of place like schools, churches and museums. parks were a critical element to the of a healthy and vibrant community. and the power and beauty of nature that took center stage and olmsted's parks were credit was critical to our health and our well-being. a core element of their philosophy was to make the beauty of nature a part of our lives. they believed that it was the american way that our most beautiful landscape shapes were not just for the landed gentry and the landowning class, but rather should be set aside for all of us. the physical manifestation of our right to the of happiness. personally, i'm lucky to have lived in and around olmsted designed landscapes my whole life. my childhood neighborhood in massachusetts, the acadia national park, where my grandmother lived, where i spent many weeks every year. the emerald necklace of parks around portland, maine, where i practiced land conservation for many years. olmsted's light was behind all of those landscapes. and then when i moved to california to work in land conservation where the modern conservation movement began from, in the views of many, i learned once again that the park systems and the ready access to the beauty of nature that so defines the ethos of the golden state was again a part of olmsted's vision as was mentioned. frederick law olmsted jr a councilor and save for save the rebels league for 29 years. through much of the early phases of our organization, all development and activity in land conservation and as such the dnr a of our organization is really tightly entwined with the philosophy of the olmstead family. and as many of us have talked about today and as we see both around this room and in the broader celebration of the bicentennial, we feel we represent one of many organizations are carrying that legacy forward through our ongoing conservation activity. but i wanted to talk a little bit olmstead junior and his instrumental in his creation of the california state parks system, as was mentioned earlier. he was actually commissioned by save the redwoods league as as we were kind of a core component of the state parks commission in 1928 to develop that master plan for the california state park system. and the park plan recommended acquisition of 125 parks throughout the state. and i think it is remarkable to think about the fact that he nearly that almost all of them were turned into parks within just a matter of a years. that's remarkable. and think of that today. imagine proposing a plan today for 125 new parks in a single state and having it actually happen. i mean, that's just mind boggling. and as if that weren't enough to demonstrate olmsted's ability to catalyze or harness community support for conservation and translate that support into transformational investment. just a decade later, he was hired again by many of the same bay area leaders. duncan mcduffie i know was mentioned earlier to design a park system for the east hills and to advance that plan. the residents of the east bay in the middle of the great depression voted to tax them selves in order to create more parks and open space, and that launched the largest regional park system in the country. the east bay regional park district. that, to this day is the gold standard of regional park systems. again, in continuous dna between the garden club of america, save the redwoods league and the east bay regional parks district. dr. rinehart, who spoke at the dedication of the garden club of america, grove and humboldt redwoods state park, was the first woman elected to public body in california as as one of the board founding board members of the east bay regional park district. and to this day, redwood regional park and east bay regional park district name bears her name. and that is my neighborhood park where i go almost every weekend. so the primary message from my remarks today is that we could use a little bit more homestead these days. we need the rejuvenate of and community building power of parks. now more than ever, if we've learned anything from this pandemic, it's that we need the healing power nature in our lives. and if there is anything we have learned from changing climate and its impact on our communities, we need more spaces where nature can hold sway. when olmsted began his state park plan, there were around 5 million people living in california. now there are around 40 million and it's growing and it has been almost 15 years. it's been more than 15 years since california state parks has acquired any new land of substance, let alone created a new park. in contrast to the substantial public investment in parks and open space of olmsted's era. when olmsted and the league, together with our partners, inspire the creation of an entire park system from whole cloth in a matter of decades. today, funding for california state parks is less than 1/100 of 1% of the overall state budget. we are about do for another olmsted era. so as we think about how olmsted inspired the transformation of our nation's relationship with nature and public spaces, and think about that transformed in the context of the challenges opportunities we face today. i keep asking myself, what would olmsted junior do today in the face of the existential threat of climate change, a global pandemic, and a movement to reimagine green, inclusive and equitable parks and public lands? what would olmsted junior do today? so to work towards that answer, i'm going to start with what i know best. the redwood forest olmstead jr's philosophy has been infused in the mission of save the redwoods league ever since he joined our board of councilors in 1926. and he served again there for the next 29 years. he sought to immerse visitors in restorative and therapeutic natural landscape, an experience he viewed as most profound and effective antidote to the stress and ailments of urban life in developing the plans for california state parks. he drew inspiration from the redwoods for good reason. if you've ever been to a redwood forest, then you know to be in the presence trees so massive and so ancient, inspired is a sense of resilience and community. redwood forests are places where. life decisions are made where finds perspective, where life finds its balance. even these forests clean our air and breathe out and end like the lungs of the world. they are our holy places. so a little bit about what the why of redwoods what drew olmstead to the to save them so indulge me in some quick redwood fun facts we know, for example that redwood trees are the tallest trees in the world, the tallest being over 380 feet tall and still growing. we know that they are massive. there's a giant there, giant sequoia that have a circumference of over 100 feet. and they are mind bogglingly old. some giant sequoias growing today are over 3000 years old. they were already mature trees. when homer wrote his first draft of the iliad, we know from the fossil that the redwood forest itself is truly ancient, dating back millions of years to the era of the dinosaurs, the redwoods have seen the evolve and have survived through global change across millions of years. they used to circumnavigate the northern hemisphere, but after multiple ice ages, the redwood forest were wiped out across much of the world with the coast redwoods surviving only in a narrow band 450 miles long, going north, south along the coast of and into southern oregon. and the giant sequoia. and groves found only on the western slopes of the sierra nevada. fast forward to the 1840s, when millions of years of stability turned on a dime as a reference point. the population of settlers in san francisco in 1848, of course, there were indigenous communities throughout that landscape for thousands and thousands of years. but the settlers in san francisco, 1848, it was a community of a thousand people. in 1849, 25,000 people by 1870, the city grew to more ten, ten times larger. there were 265,000 people who in the bay area and san francisco was a full fledged city. a city built almost entirely of redwood and land was thanks to the timber and stone act of 1878. the federal government was selling the redwood forest again, selling the redwood forest that they owned of the war that was mentioned earlier. two newly formed timber companies for, $2.50 an acre when timber value per acre was hundreds of times that. and within just a few years and for the first time ever, the redwood forest was privately owned and it began to disappear within a lifetime following the gold rush just 75 years later, in the early 1920s. almost half of the coast redwood forest. and about a third of the ancient giant sequoia trees had been cut down by the mid 1970s, only about 5% of the old growth coast redwoods standing primarily in parks identified by and protected by save the redwoods and our partners here. of course, you see that the kind of darkish green beige as the former redwood range and the red represents the old growth virgin forest that remains in just a few generations. the mighty redwood forest went from over 2 million of acres of old growth, down to about 120,000 acres. and remember, in 1849, when the timber began, the concept of land conservation didn't exist. manifest destiny was still all the rage. the forest was seen as a challenge to be tamed and endless economic resource to be harnessed. then, as we have about several times today in 1860, 64, inspired by olmstead senior and the giant sequoia of the mariposa grove, president lincoln took the first great step of land conservation in the middle of the civil war. lincoln set aside the mariposa grove of giant sequoia, the yosemite valley, as publicly protected land for the first time in american history. wild nature was protected for public enjoyment. this was a watershed moment in the development of a land conservation movement in america and the sierra redwoods and the olmstead family were right there at the starting line in the early 20th century when, say, the redwoods league was founded to protect the remaining old growth redwood forests, environment ism didn't exist. there was no rachel carson's silent spring. there was no land conservation movement of the parks we've been talking about were designate from existing federal land as opposed to created or acquired from private land. so save the redwoods league who was established to acquire private land for public benefit, had to make up the rules as we went creating the tools that the conservation community has been putting to use ever since. indeed, there was not even a structured public agency with whom to partner in the long stewardship of these special places that we were working to protect. again, back to the story how in 1910 and the year after frederick law olmsted junior joins save the rebels league's council, the league initiated it and led the legislative effort to create the california state park system to own and manage the redwood forests that the league and our partners working to acquire. then in 1928, the league launched what at the time was the biggest publicity campaign in california history to promote the parks board. the california state park bond act was the was the state's first ever parks bond. and one of the first of its kind in the nation. it passed in every county and by a margin of 3 to 1. it was funding program that launched the acquisition california state park system. that same year, the league recruited frederick law olmsted jr to create a master plan a vision for the parks that would become california's state system. his plan in 1928 identified 125 potential sites which are today core what is often said to be the finest state park system in the world. and given olmsted's love of redwoods he does. he designed a california state parks plan around a spine of redwood forest parks, stretching up and down the california coast. and so the league got to work protecting these forests acre by acre. humboldt redwoods. state park. prairie creek redwoods. state park. del norte. jedediah smith. these all parks that were identified in the plan as critical opportunities to protect the last of the ancient today. those state along those by olmstead in his plan contain more than 40% of the world's remaining old growth redwood forest. and they are the heart and soul of a network of redwood parks that welcome more than 30 wonders million visitors every year now a century after save the rebels league began. we remain on protecting the redwood forest. that initial objective. the goal in the beginning was to protect what were deemed they were called representative stands of the ancient redwood forest before they were all lost. and today, with the devastation and clear cutting of the forests that surround those representative stands. indeed, they are just that they are like museum exhibits of what the forest used to be. we know now that that's not enough a grove, just not a forest make. and we need healthy, resilient forests to sustain the planet and to compel a more expansive conservation. in recent years, we have learned that old growth, redwood forest sequester, more carbon per acre than any other forest on the planet by a shot. the second place finisher isn't even anywhere close again. more carbon per acre than any other forest on the planet. one of the parks in olmsted's plan, jedediah smith redwoods state park. that's the one up north by the oregon border contains more above ground biomass per acre than anywhere in the world. more leaf surface area than anywhere in the world. more empathetic appetites are plants that grow on other plants than any anywhere else in the world. our researchers found a mature doug fir tree growing out of the canopy of a twig thousand year old coast redwood tree. more carbon sequestered per acre than anywhere in the world. there is one tree in that park that puts on a metric ton of wood every year in a single tree. there are historically had been the belief that old forests were static. not so. the bigger and older. a coast redwood tree, the more wood it puts on in the year. a ton of wood in a single year in just one tree and at a time we are struggling to mitigate the proliferation of carbon in the atmosphere in order to save the planet. it's worth paying attention to that little piece of data. i would wager that olmstead would suggest we incorporate that information into our investment choices. that in a time of climate change, we need to expand our park vision to a landscape scale vision, protecting and restoring the sea of young redwoods that surround even the islands of old growth in a healing forest to be the old growth of the future. so that's what we're doing. for example, after acquiring ing del norte and jed smith, redwoods, state parks in the 1930s, again based on olmstead plan in 2002, 70 years later, save the redwoods league acquired the 23,000 acre mill creek watershed, a sea of former clear cuts and tangled with old logging roads that links together those two spectacular islands of old growth. we added this young recovering redwood forest to national and state parks and are currently actively managing removing miles and miles of abandoned logging roads thinning, overly dense stands encourage the dominant trees hiring yurok tribal crews to help restore riparian areas to bring back the salmon. olmstead believed in nature's hand, guiding the esthetic of parks a light touch landscape, scenic vistas of untrammeled nature. today we know that these landscapes have suffered that now because of the devastating impact of timber active stewardship is critical in helping to heal these natural places. so with what we've learned about climate, about carbon sequestration, about biodiverse city in the redwood forest, olmstead would no doubt have expanded his vision for why we need save these critical forests. i think it urgent that we evolve our understanding of for whom we are saving it. for all of our debt. to the early founders of the conservation movement. we know now that many of our community were excluded from the process. indeed, the roots of save the redwoods are tangled with the leadership of the eugenics movement of the early 1900s and the exclusion of marginalized communities from early conservation. and in california and in many parts of the west, while land was being distributed for industry and agriculture to and parkland tribes were forcibly removed from the places that were fundamental to their identities, their cultures and histories. in california, tribes systematically eradicated through government sponsored genocide in the years preceding and following california's. today, indigenous people continue to restore their relationship with their ancestral lands and their stewardship traditions. the league is pursuing opportunities together with many partners to support california tribes restoring their connections with their ancestral lands through seeking opportunities for co-management, for tribal acquisition, of culturally significant conservation lands, or traditional stewardship and cultural access, and most fundamentally in alignment with the olmstead. knowing that our parks really are overrun and often inaccessible to many, we are accelerating that pace and scale of our conservation and creating parks that connect all of us to the beauty and power of nature. in recent years, the league has protected some of the most important remaining redwood and forests left with the ultimate goal of providing more and better redwood parks for people. in 2019, we acquired and protected alder creek, 530 acres of ancient sequoia forest, a crucial missing piece of the sequoia national monument, and a landscape of indescribable beauty with alpine meadows and wildflowers and hundreds of ancient giant sequoia, including many that are more than 2000 years old. in 2018, we acquired and protected the red hillgrove, the second largest on protected giant sequoia grove, after alder creek, which was largest. most recently, we protect and that same year in the coast redwood range, we what's now called the harold richardson redwood in sonoma county. at hundred and 30 acres it was the largest unprotected old growth coast redwood grove left in the coast redwood range most recently, we protected the 3100 acre lost coast. redwood property, including five miles of the pacific coast. it is the largest privately owned california shoreline in the coast. redwood, with extraordinary redwood forest. it is the missing link at, the southern end of 60 miles of the famed lost coast of california. that is collaborate tively and jointly owned and managed by the bureau of land management and the king grange. california state parks the intertribal sinking on wilderness council owning culturally significant tribal lands in that landscape, and now save the redwoods league. looking to add this 75 miles plus two properties. we already own seven miles into that protected fabric of critical recreational, cultural and conservation value. but we know that it isn't just about buying the land, especially when so much of land we are working to protect has now suffered from years of extraction and intense management. we have to expand on the olmstead vision of protecting land and parks to include active management for restoration in recent years. save the redwoods league and partnership with the national park service. state parks. all three of us with the homes with olmstead in our dna have launched the ambitious restoration project ever considered in the redwood forest. it's called redwoods in the northern most parts of the redwood range, where the trees grow taller than anywhere else in the world. we are actively restoring former clear cuts that surround the old growth groves that olmstead identified 95 years ago accelerate the healing of the young redwood forest on its path to be the old growth of the future. this is another example of that opportunity for restoration. this is the former mill site where the old growth from this collection of parks, redwood national and state parks used to be milled. they were harvested up on the hillside and they came to that that 45 acre block of pavement to be milled into boards. we bought that property in 2013. we are currently working to remove all of the pavement. we're again working with the baroque construction crew at this critical junction of redwood creek and prairie creek in the core, your park ancestral territory. they are restoring the landscape, reintroducing the meander of the stream and the winter channels for salmon rearing. and that is the place where there is going to be a new gateway into redwood national state park, together with a europe village site and with cultural for ceremony and traditional use. and in addition to protecting and restore, king olmstead would likely have lots to say about how today's parks curate the unprecedented of the visiting public. for example, downstream that restoration work up in mill creek in the heart of jedediah smith, redwood state park. visitors have been wandering off trail to find legendary grove of massive trees publicized on social media visitors eager for the inspiration of were trampling on the understory and clambering over roots in what had been hidden from view for years until just a few years ago. after years of the stay on, the trail signs failed to the the forest floor. we installed a raised walkway that allows for that access without the firms and mosses and huckleberry or the roots of these massive trees in the world. and here in this primeval wilderness, where more. above ground. below ground. more above ground. biomass than anywhere else in the world. interpretive signage was designed by the descendants of the original stewards of this land. the tullibody need people. the story of this place. its flora, fauna. its history and culture. and importance is told in the language of. the tallow, a people by their cultural leaders. today, visitors come from around world to visit this extraordinary example, the power of nature identified for conservation by olmstead nearly 100 years ago. and those visitors are now welcomed and guided by the voice and language of the indigenous people of this place. save the rebels league has created a redwood park system in partnership with frederick law olmsted, both for the sake of the forest and because parks make our lives better, our community stronger, and our families healthier. today, california is home to 40 million people with a level of cultural and ethnic diversity that was never considered when the parks were created. olmstead and his fellow councilors at save the rebels league through the thirties and forties believed deeply that parks, particularly our redwood parks, were fundamental to healthy communities. and today we collectively are advancing that fundamental belief, its fullest implementation. we are bringing the voices and communities that were excluded in past eras to the table to lead in the conservation of our parks and special places. ensure that redwood parks feeling inclusive and welcoming to all of us. in conclusion, the more i thought about the legacy of olmstead and the relevance of his core philosophy to the challenges face today, the more i am convinced that we need another olmstead era. we need to inspire another level of investment in nature based solutions to climate change through landscape scale, conservation and active restoration and management. we need to reinforce our partners and community, elevate the importance of parks and and public spaces in both public and philanthropic investments, and to keep pace with our growing population by protecting more parkland and reimagining our parks to inspire a new generation visitors. by broadening the community of partners in the process of healing the forests and natural lands that will help in turn to our communities and. so doing, we have an opportunity to restore the roots that link us together and build back the natural resilience of our landscapes. our world has changed so much and fast, and as we climb out of these intense years of health crisis, of economic crisis and political crisis and climate and wildfire crisis, and we wrestle with the world we hope create in its place we would be wise to remember how frederick law olmsted ad clearly saw the power of these forests to inspire a love of nature and lives. he understood how the peace and beauty these forests can provide respite and resilience from the stresses of modern life. and we are deeply proud of how olmstead set in motion our conservation vision. 100 years ago. and today we that philosophy that centers power of resilience, of nature and its connection to all of us. as we look to accelerate the pace and scale of that work that he helped us to start. thank you very much. i know that are we have another coming up, but i am told we can take two questions so. anybody quick. yes. i'm curious about frederick law jr. was there any sort of animus between father and son or jealousy or because so much of what the son did is credited to the father, that kind of thing? absolutely not. and they were extremely close allies, so much. i mean. that was the reason why steven hill, the grandson of. so is your microphone. yes. just put it on. that. that's one reason why steven hill was the grandson of a drug lord jr offered a grant to write about him because he really wanted those two entities to be drawn apart, evaluated separately, so that almost ted jr got credit for a lot of the things he did. i'll just add to that that i think one of the challenges that that all of us who deal with olmstead the olmsted legacy in some way struggle is the fact that there were in fact three homesteads right. and there were a number of other individuals, particularly in that later firm who contributed significant ently to the work of the almost dead firm. and so i think that it's kind of a misconception that happens. and we hear the name olmstead and most people connected with olmsted, you know, olmsted senior. but in fact, the the biggest legacy happened. you know, the largest number of projects happened after the death of olmsted senior. anyone else. well great. well, i want to thank my fellow panelists so much and to to any help and the architects of the capital. and we look forward to the next session.