National Park Service honors longtime historian-turned-critic
Dozens gather for unveiling of plaque commemorating man whose work changed ecosystem management nationwide
Longtime National Park Service historian Richard West Sellars became an outspoken critic of the agency’s policies that prioritized pleasing the public over protecting the species.
His 1997 book Preserving Nature in the National Parks served as a call to action for the agency, which now credits him with bringing about changes in the way it manages the ecosystems in its 429 sites nationwide — including 15 in New Mexico.
A few dozen National Park Service historians, rangers, officials and others gathered Monday at the agency’s office in Santa Fe to honor Sellars, unveiling a bronze plaque commemorating his work.
Sellars, a 35-year employee of the Park Service who worked for several years in the office on Old Santa Fe Trail, died in 2017.
“He influenced the way we manage our natural resources,” said Kate Hammond, the Park Service’s Intermountain Region director.
Robert Stanton, who was the Park Service director from 1997 to 2001, said in an interview at the event, “In some instances we leaned toward visitor services ... and were not as careful at managing the resources that we have.”
Stanton helped lead the 1999 charge to create a Natural Resource Challenge in response to Sellars’ findings.
Preserving Nature in the National Parks was based on nearly a decade of research. In an introduction published in a later release of the book, Sellars recalls thinking as a park historian in the 1970s that “biologists must wield considerable power and influence” when it came to ecosystem preservation.
He was wrong. The Park Service of the 1990s, when he wrote the book, was focused on “promoting public access, use and enjoyment of these great scenic natural areas. To many Park Service leaders who thought nature could take
care of itself, biological expertise and advice seemed almost unnecessary and burdensome.”
After the book’s publication, Sellars wrote, Stanton invited him into some high-level meetings to talk about how the agency could address his criticisms.
Former National Parks Service historian Dwight T. Pitcaithley, who with Stanton and others had called for the commemorative plaque, said in an interview Park Service leaders initially pushed back against Sellars’ book because the agency “doesn’t like change.”
But that pushback “dissipated fairly quickly when they realized what he was talking about,” Pitcaithley said.
In years since the book’s first publication, the Park Service initiated a number of measures to ensure it could meet the public’s desire to visit national park property while protecting the ecosystems.
Among the initiatives, Sellars writes in the introduction, was a muchneeded inventory of species within the parks, long-term ecological monitoring to determine species’ abundance and distribution, protections for native endangered species and improved air and water quality programs.
Stanton said placing the plaque in the Santa Fe office will remind people of the effect of Sellars’ research and writing.
“We want our young people ... to understand that when we talk about preserving our resources for this and future generations, there are individuals who have done their very best in trying to contribute to that noble effort,” he said.
He said he hopes others “will be encouraged to devote their energies to something in a similar fashion.”