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Long before it was in vogue, Roosevelt was a prominent conservationist, and he was probably the first to put the issue high on the national agenda. His chief advisor on the matter was forestry expert Gifford Pinchot. Roosevelt was deeply committed to conserving natural resources. He championed the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902 to promote federal construction of dams to irrigate small farms. The Act also placed 230 million acres of land under federal protection. Roosevelt set aside more Federal land, national parks, and nature preserves than all of his predecessors combined.
Roosevelt established the United States Forest Service. He, signed into law bills creating five National Parks, and signed the 1906 Antiquities Act, under which he proclaimed 18 new U.S. National Monuments. He also established the first 51 Bird Reserves, four Game Preserves, and 150 National Forests, including Shoshone National Forest, the nation's first. Gifford Pinchot had been appointed as chief of Division of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture. In 1905, his department gained control of the national forest reserves. In 1907, Roosevelt designated 16 million acres of new national forests. In May 1908, Roosevelt sponsored the Conference of Governors held in the White House, with a focus on natural resources and their most efficient use. Roosevelt delivered the opening address entitled "Conservation as a National Duty."
In 1903 Roosevelt toured the Yosemite Valley with John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club. In 1905 Muir convinced Congress to transfer the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley to the Federal Government.
Roosevelt's legacy as a supporter of conservation of natural resources and of the National Parks service was perhaps best recognized by his inclusion, along with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, as one of the four Presidents memorialized on the Mount Rushmore Memorial, designed in 1927 with the approval of Republican President Calvin Coolidge.