Kevin R. Marsh

Kevin Marsh teaches and writes on environmental history in western North America. His book "Drawing Lines in the Forest: Creating Wilderness Areas in the Pacific Northwest" examines the various groups and individuals who influenced the eventual location of wilderness areas in the Cascade Range of Oregon and Washington and how we use and understand those areas today. Rather than focusing on what wilderness means as a concept, this approach examines wilderness as a form of land use in specific locations and as a process by which increasing numbers of citizens on all sides of the issue got involved in environmental politics from the 1950s to the 1980s and continuing to the present day.

Marsh is currently chair of the Department of History at Idaho State University, where he teaches environmental history, regional history of Idaho and the West, and modern U.S. history. He is also co-author of the centennial publication of the Idaho State Historical Society, "Idaho: The Heroic Journey." Since 2008, he has been the editor of "Idaho Yesterdays," the journal of Idaho history (available online at idahoyesterdays.org). He also served two terms as a member of the board of the Idaho Humanities Council.

Dr. Marsh received his Ph.D. in History from Washington State University and a B.A. from the University of Oregon. He has taught at Boise State University, University of Idaho, and Washington State University and has lectured on U.S. history at several universities in Ukraine. Much of his interest in natural resource management in the American West comes from his experience of ten years working for the U.S. Forest Service in Washington State.