Timeline
Stewart resigned as Secretary of the Interior in 1969, but his legacy left an indelible mark on federal environmental policy and upon the U.S. Environmental Movement.
His work predated and ushered in the eventual establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during the Nixon administration. Neither before or since on such a scale has the U.S. adopted widescale environmental policy or cultural nation-building efforts.
Stewart Udall continued to be active in environmental law and Native American legal initiatives within Arizona and the federal government. His work continued through a teaching position at Yale University (as a visiting professor of environmental humanism from 1969-1971); within the Central Arizona Water Conservation District Board as a member; through the international environmental consulting firm Overview (where he would serve as Chairman of the Board from 1969-1973), and as an author of various environmentalist publications.
The following timeline of significant events from the U.S. Environmental Movement between the 1960s and the 1980s appears in Stewart L. Udall's book The Quiet Crisis and the Next Generation (1988).
- 1964
- Wilderness Act passed; Land & Water Conservation Fund established
- 1965
- Storm King Lawsuit won by Sierra Club
- 1966
- Clean Water legislation passed; First law enacted to protect endangered species
- 1967
- Environmental Defense Fund founded; Air pollution legislation passed
- 1968
- Grand Canyon dams stopped by Conservation Coalition; Wild & Scenic Rivers act passed
- 1969
- Santa Barbara Oil Spill; National Environmental Policy Act passed
- 1970
- Earth Day observed on U.S. university campuses; Trans-Alaska Hot Oil Pipeline stopped by first NEPA lawsuit
- 1971
- SST Stopped by Congress; Environmental Protection Agency established
- 1972
- Comprehensive law passed to prevent water pollution
- 1973
- Endangered Species Act passed
- 1974
- Atomic Energy Commission dismantled by Congress
- 1976
- Land Management Policy Act passed
- 1978
- Atomic Energy Conservation Program initiated
- 1980
- Law passed to protect 100 million acres of Alaska's public domain