Reckoning with Our Past: California State Parks and the Dark Side of the Conservation Movement

abstract:This introduces the special issue, “Reckoning with Our Past: California State Parks and the Dark Side of the Conservation Movement.” It identifies Madison Grant, conservationist and White supremacist, who was honored by California State Parks with a monument and grove bearing his name. The introduction describes the rest of the articles in the issue: David G. McIntosh on Grant’s work as a conservationist and eugenic propagandist; Rena M. Heinrich on a campaign to have Grant’s monument removed; Leslie Hartzell on the response of California State Parks to that campaign; Victor Bjelajac on the Grant removal and other state parks initiatives to undo past wrongs; and a letter sent by Jim Weaver to California State Parks employees calling for the removal of the Grant monument. It concludes with discussion of other state parks that should be considered for renaming.