During the photo shoot for Jimmy Carter’s presidential portrait, Ansel Adams presented Carter with two memos (via the National Archives) urging the administration and Congress to block residential and energy development on yet-unspoiled lands in California and Alaska. For Adams, the issue of California’s Big Sur coast hit close to home, writing in that memo, “As a photographer, a conservationist and a nearby resident, I have long had a very deep personal interest in the protection of this magnificent, rugged coast.”
In 1980, soon after giving Carter the memos, Adams was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his conservation efforts. Although happy for the recognition, privately, Adams still had misgivings about the Carter administration’s efforts. In June 1980, he complained that despite Carter’s assurances of White House support for the conservation of Big Sur, “Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Rupert Cutler was quite negative, and left a clear impression that the White House did not support Big Sur legislation.” In the end, the legislation died in the Senate amid opposition from California’s senatorial delegation.
Adams was more successful in Alaska. In 1980, Congress passed, and Carter signed, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which designated millions of acres of federal land as wildlife refuges, national parks, and other protected wilderness. Sec. 1003 explicitly banned oil and gas production, although it exempted pipelines passing through. Carter was delighted, calling the legislation one of his proudest and most enduring achievements.
