Federal scientific agencies, not just activists, first sounded suburban environmental alarms

Evidence

Though some federal agencies repeatedly battled with environmentalists, other federal agencies were instrumental in putting environmental problems on the public agenda. The overdrawn contrast between the conservation and environmental movements has also caused historians to miss the important role of the federal government in the rise of environmentalism. As several scholars have argued, the government’s conservation and land-management agencies often pursued policies that were anathema to environmentalists. But officials in the government’s scientific agencies were often the first to sound alarms about the environmental problems caused by suburban development. At the request of the Federal Housing Administration, the U.S. Public Health Service conducted a pioneering set of studies of the hazards of septic-tank use in densely settled areas. The U.S. Geological Survey, the Soil Conservation Service, and the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife drew public attention to the ways suburbanization affected water, soil, and wildlife. At a time when the nation had few institutional sources of environmental information, the government’s research centers and outreach networks often were catalysts to action. The leadership provided by federal agencies was not due solely to exceptional resources. Though Americans now distrust “big government,” federal officials in the 1950s and early 1960s enjoyed great respect, and their recommendations had considerable influence. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 46

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Federal scientific agencies actively pioneered, not merely followed, suburban environmental awareness — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 854

Broader Connections

• Federal scientific agencies actively pioneered, not merely followed, suburban environmental awareness #corroborates (0.98) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 854