after the klamath knot won the john burroughs medal for nature writing, the new york times book review invited wallace to contribute an article about nature writing. published in the july 22, 1984 issue, the article is entitled "the nature of nature writing." it stresses the genre's role as a source and manifestation of a growing conservation movement as thoreau and muir developed the idea of the national park in the nineteenth century, when the first parks were created, then as rachel carson, aldo leopold and others laid down the tenets of modern environmentalism in the twentieth century. "nature writing is a historically recent literary genre, and in a quiet way, one of the most revolutionary ones. it's like a woodland stream that sometimes runs out of sight, buried in sand, but overflows into waterfalls farther downstream. it can be easy to ignore, but it keeps eroding the bedrock." the article notes that more nature writers are active than ever in the late twentieth century, but asks if—given the increasing pressures of population and economic growth—nature writers will continue to have as much effect as in the past. wallace returned to this theme twenty years later, writing an article entitled "has success spoiled nature writing?" which observes that, despite the proliferation of nature writers and the financial success of some, positive conservation indicators such as the creation of new national parks has not kept pace with nature writing's popularity. wallace cites the failure of his own attempts to promote a new park in the klamath/siskiyou mountains region, and maintains that other new parks are needed in areas like the great plains,which biologists regard as necessary for the long term preservation of wild bison. perhaps significantly, the new york times book review rejected the article, although the los angeles times ran a shortened version of it entitled "the waning power of nature's priests" as an op ed on november 28, 2004. the complete versions of both articles are published in articulate earth, backcountry press, 2014.