The film “Conservation of Natural Resources” dates to 1937, decades before the modern environmental movement took firm root in the United States. The film was released by Erpi Classroom Films, a division of Encyclopedia Brittanica, with the assistance of the University of Missouri (:07) The film focuses on the United State’s effort to protect natural resources and restore damaged land and waters beginning in the 1930’s. It opens with the image of an oil rig (:22) as petroleum is one of the most valuable resources that was being used up rapidly. Coal was another resource in danger as cargo trains move the resource on screen (:28). The refuse from these resources from factories and towns left waterways polluted (:36). Farmlands and forests were left to ruin by misuse (:58). A map appears showing that the continent had once been nearly half covered with forests (1:11). At this point in time only about 2/5ths of them remained (1:24) and only about 1/4th of good timber remained (1:32). Lumber jacks are seen hacking at a massive tree (1:44), however about 60% of every tree cut went to waste. After the removal of trees, land was subjected increasing amounts of forest fires (2:13) and a hunter is seen flicking a cigarette butt which turns the forest quickly into flames. One hour of burning would ruin trees that took nearly a hundred years to grow (2:27). A man in binoculars is peering out into the forest as federal and government agencies sought to protect forests (2:53). The sign for Bass River State Forest in New Jersey appears (3:03) as a campaign of education began to help prevent forest fires. Another attempt to protect the trees is seen as people hack away at underbrush which would catch flame easily (3:17). At a lumber mill (3:26) one log is getting trimmed and much waste was created by just the sawdust made from cutting the wood. An image of two young girls playing with toys in a wooden box is shown as this is what the lumber was used for (3:46) as well as for artificial silk (3:52). A replanting program is depicted (4:01) as trees were to be replaced. A horse drags a hoe over the land and much of it had been cleared away for crop cultivation (4:19). Through annual replanting, the soil was left unprotected and this led to soil erosion (4:27) which in turn left the soil worthless. This also led to flooding and a man atop a canoe passes by houses nearly covered by flood waters (4:54). Dams were constructed to help prevent this (4:58) and beavers were removed from their natural habit and relocated to small streams where flood waters began to aide in building natural dams (5:21). Man made dams, such as the Hoover Dam (5:36) were also constructed. In order to rebuild land that had been eroded, contour planting and terracing was used (5:46). A look at the Dust Bowl is next and this occurred as the topsoil was very fine and after years of over plowing and high winds, large dust clouds sent 300 million tons of topsoil into the air (6:07). Images of farm equipment and houses nearly completely covered in the dust are shown (6:43). Much of the land was returned to grass to reverse this as well as the government purchase of lands to return them to grazing (7:14). An oil rig erupts and as gushers blew in much of the petroleum was wasted (7:38). Another rig explodes in flames (7:56) due to careless measures. It was believed the most effective way to keep from too much waste was to ensure adequate use of petroleum’s by-products (8:07). About 200 products could be made from petroleum (8:12) as a man uses one to refuel his car (8:19). Other products included lubricating oil, mineral oil (8:34), and asphalt (8:40). The film returns to our waterways as much had been polluted (8:53). This could be avoided by sending waste to sewage plants (10:15) which turned most of it into fertilizer. This film draws to its end with the notion of proper conservation returning the land and waterways back to beauty (9:30). This is an Encyclopedia Britannica Film (10:04).

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