Preservation of nature and academic respectability: Tensions in the Ecological Society of America, 1915-1979

The ESA was founded in 1915 by basic and applied scientists to "promote the interests of ecology," and claimed to encompass almost all fields of biology and some physical sciences. Various committees of the ESA strove to build the field through publications, improved methodology, revised terminology, and new theories. Many ecologists felt that the business of the ESA was to develop the intellectual content of the field rather than than become involved in social and political issues. The increasing presence of basic over applied ecology eventually restricted the authority of the Society to speak out on issues of preservation of nature by the 1960s.;The second period of major tension was prompted by Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring and the resulting public outcry over pesticides. Ecologists in the 1960s and 1970s debated whether the field would lose scientific credibility in the face of the popularization of ecology by the environmental movement. New federal environmental regulations in the 1970s created a new profession of consulting ecologists, but there were few trained ecologists to fill the sudden demand. Many ESA members were outraged that "instant ecologists" without academic training in ecology were being employed, risking the credibility of the field. ESA members involved in applied ecology called for professional standards of behavior by adopting a strict code of ethics and professional certification. This tactic of restriction attempted to exclude those people calling themselves "ecologists" who did not have formal ecological training. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).;Victor Shelford (1877-1968) and Rachel Carson (1907-1964) were central figures in the two episodes of tension between pure science and advocacy for nature within the ESA. Shelford strongly believed that ecologists had a moral obligation to better society through the preservation of natural areas. His way of working for social good received less and less support from the ESA executive committees, who had different ideas of the proper social role of scientific societies. In 1946 Shelford's preservation committee split from the ESA to form the Ecologists Union, later renamed The Nature Conservancy.