Perpetually “giving life” to conservation

Excerpt

In 1965, Alvin F. Bull, chairman of the Journal of Soil and Water ConservationEditorial Board at the time, stated that “communication gives life to ideas—the proper function of a forum and a job for which the journal is ideally suited.”

This journal has recently been launched online—a breath of new life for this rich, well-cited periodical that has remained both stable and dynamic in the course of over 60 years of its history.

Developing the online journal was a very interesting process from both a technical publishing perspective and from the opportunity it provided to bring fresh new attention to decades of work originally printed in its pages.

The journal has experienced its share of transitions and traditions. The popular Viewpoint feature in the journal can be traced to the January/February 1965 issue, where Alvin Bull introduced the Viewpoint as a necessary addition to ensure the journal was “challenging, inspiring and, most important, thought provoking.”

The first issue of the journal (July 1946) has been often cited for setting the course of the journal and society (including such lofty objectives as “world peace through soil conservation”). But the third issue (January 1947) is arguably of equal interest, including a piece…