Conserving the Commonwealth: The Early Years of the Environmental Movement in Virginia

Conserving the Commonwealth is the book that anyone interested in conservation and environmental issues has been waiting for. This history describes the earliest days of Virginia's environmental movement, recounting the efforts of a farsighted group of leaders to preserve Virginia's priceless resources—open land, waterways, and historic sites—and to create new parks within reach of all the state's citizens.

In 1965, Governor Albertis Harrison selected State Senator FitzGerald Bemiss to chair...