‘Wild Earth’ Magazine: Saving Untamed Places

Private donations in the past century have helped shield from development more than 100 million acres in the United States as national parks or wilderness areas — and such action is needed now more than ever, says Wild Earth (Summer) in a collection of articles on what it calls “wildlands philanthropy.”

“With North America now the home of more millionaires and billionaires than ever before, many private citizens have the means to purchase and protect wildlife habitat on a scale commensurate with the threat,” writes Tom Butler, the quarterly magazine’s editor. “Whether or not one believes this accumulation of wealth to be a benign or a pernicious social trend, the fact remains that the wealthy may use their resources to further degrade — or to help heal — the tattered fabric of America’s ecosystem.”

Opportunities abound. More than a million forested acres in northern New England and New York are for sale this year, according to an article by two officials with Sweet Water Trust, a Boston foundation that makes grants to preserve wild places.

In another article, the historian Robin W. Winks traces how John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Laurance S. Rockefeller played key roles in helping to establish or expand Acadia National Park in Maine, Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, Virgin Islands National Park on St. John, and dozens of other projects.

“Like his father before him,” Mr. Winks writes, “Laurance Rockefeller focused on matching grants, on precipitating action, on being a catalyst; he seldom met the full cost of any undertaking, for he was convinced that a broad spectrum of support best assured success and continuity for a project.”

There are now 376 units of the National Park System in the United States, and “it is likely that some portion of every one is the result of private philanthropy,” writes Mr. Winks — although such gifts by private individuals have declined since World War II, he adds. Grant makers to some extent are filling the gap: In March, for example, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation pledged $175-million to buy and protect land in California.

But even people with far fewer resources can help preserve wild places, whether through conservation easements or by donating it to land trusts, the magazine says.