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This paper investigates the rise and decline of deep ecology in North America during the 1980s and 90s through articles in The Trumpeter, an ecophilosophical journal started in 1983. The purpose is to identify possible explanations for why deep ecology became marginalized. Followers adhered to an ecocentric world view and envisioned an alternative society where nature was valued differently. In light of a climate crisis, it is appealing for many people to imagine a new dawn where we live in harmony with nature, which makes deep ecology relevant. While there are prior studies on Earth First!, the activist branch of deep ecology, none exist that trace the world views of the North American philosophers. I contextualize the source material against conservation biology and sustainable development, which both became important topics in the late 1980s. My findings point towards dispersal, where deep ecology found a new home in conservation biology, and that it lost its radical edge as a new generation of thinkers brought more moderate perspectives. An esoteric circle of philosophers critical of modern society wrote a lot and no one replaced them. The political climate also changed as world leaders started addressing the environmental crisis. As such, the radical perspectives of deep ecology in the 1980s were, in many ways, a product of their time.