Clay Henderson es el autor de The Floridas. He is an environmental lawyer and retired faculty at Stetson University. He has served as president of the Florida Audubon Society and the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation. Despite Florida’s important place at the beginning of the American conservation movement and its notable successes in the fight against environmental damage, the full story of land conservation in the state has not been told until now. In Forces of Nature: A History of Florida Land Conservation (University Press of Florida), Henderson draws on historical sources, interviews, and his long environmental law career to celebrate the individuals and organizations who made the Sunshine State a leader in state-funded conservation and land preservation. He writes about early naturalists like William Bartram and John Muir, familiar heroes like Marjorie Stoneman Douglas and May Mann Jennings, and lesser-known champions like Frank Chapman, who helped convince Theodore Roosevelt to establish Pelican Island as the first national wildlife refuge in the United States. In Forces of Nature, Henderson recounts the many small victories that helped Florida create several units of the national park system, nearly 30 national wildlife refuges, and one of the best state park systems in the country.