Two marmots on a tree trunk, Grand Teton National Park (NPS/Jane Gamble)

Along Pinnacles National Park's Balconies Trail (NPS/Emily Novack)

When we think about preservation and land management in the United States, Teddy Roosevelt is likely to come to mind before George Perkins Marsh. But Marsh wrote the book on stewardship and land conservation. "Man and Nature, or the Physical Geography as Modified by Human Behavior," published in 1864, laid the groundwork for what is now the modern conservation movement. When Marsh died, Frederick Billings purchased the home and put Marsh’s theories into practice. Another champion of conservation, Laurance Rockefeller, later purchased and preserved the home that is now Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park. The ultimate goal of conservation and stewardship is to create conditions that allow the relationship between the land and those that occupy it to flourish.