They Saved Land Like Rockefellers (Published 2005)

The limestone buttes, granite steppes and near-permanent icecap that make up the urban expanse known as Rockefeller Center constitute the best-known landscape connected to the famous family's name.

But those 12 acres in Midtown Manhattan are far from the only vista that owes its existence to Rockefeller philanthropy.

Over the last century, five generations of Rockefellers have used the family wealth to reshape the American horizon, creating a magnificent panorama of open spaces and more than 20 national parks from the rocky coast of Maine to the icecapped mountains of Wyoming.

These natural oases are not always linked to the Rockefeller name, but tonight they will be. As part of the yearlong celebration of its 100th anniversary, the National Audubon Society, one of the nation's largest and oldest conservation organizations, is honoring the family for a record of conservation that matches the society's century-long existence.

"Cumulatively, no other family in America has made the contribution to conservation that the Rockefeller family has made," said John Flicker, the society's president.

The towering Palisades that guard the west bank of the Hudson River were preserved with Rockefeller money. So was Colonial Williamsburg. The family created exquisite miniatures like Greenacre Park, tucked between two buildings on East 51st Street in Manhattan, and it donated 35,000 acres to help form Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Part of the family's Pocantico estate in Westchester County has become a beloved forest preserve, and an educational center known as the Stone Barns.