Presidents Behaving Goodly: Theodore Roosevelt and the Environment
Long before the environment was an issue, Theodore Roosevelt knew the importance of respecting the planet. In his day, the term was conservationist, not environmentalist, but whatever label one puts on someone who cares about the long-term viability of the earth, Theodore Roosevelt was ahead of his time.
As a child, Roosevelt as home-schooled and he excelled in subjects such as biology, geology and history. One of his favorite areas of interest was ornithology (the study of birds) and he had even written on the subject as a young man. In 1884, after the death of his wife and his mother on the same day (Valentine's Day), his grief led him to leave New York and head west to the Badlands of the Dakotas. Roosevelt built a ranch that he named Elk Horn, thirty-five miles north of Medora, North Dakota. He learned to ride a horse western style, to rope and to hunt. He began writing about frontier life for national magazines and he also published three books: Hunting Trips of a Ranchman, Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail, and The Wilderness Hunter. He briefly served as a deputy sheriff, and he once pursued three outlaws who had stolen his riverboat and escaped north along the Little Missouri. He captured them and brought the thieves back to Dickinson, North Dakota, for trial.
Roosevelt organized local ranchers to address the problems of overgrazing and other concerns. He formed the Little Missouri Stockmen's Association, as well as another group that worked to coordinate conservation efforts, known as the Boone and Crockett Club. The club's main goal was the conservation of large game animals and their habitats. Roosevelt was especially concerned about the declining population among animals such as bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer and other game species. To Roosevelt, the problem was one of societal attitudes. He wrote:
"We have become great because of the lavish use of our resources. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, when the soils have still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields and obstructing navigation."
Roosevelt may well have stayed out west, but the extremely severe winter of 1886–1887 wiped out his herd of cattle, along with those of many other ranchers. He lost over half of his $80,000 investment, and decided to returned home to New York.
When he became President, Roosevelt's education and knowledge as a conservationist figured prominently in his policies. He placed what we now call environmental issues high on the national agenda. His chief advisor on environmental matters, was Gifford Pinchot, who served as the first Chief of the United States Forest Service from 1905 until his firing in 1910. (Pinchot's firing by Roosevelt's successor, William Howard Taft, was one of the things that led to a falling out between the two during Taft's presidency). Pinchot was someone who was also passionate about the cause and who shared Roosevelt's point of view about protecting the environment.
Roosevelt encouraged Congress to pass the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902. This law promoted federal construction of dams to irrigate small farms and placed 230 million acres (roughly 360,000 square miles) of land under federal protection. Roosevelt designated 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 the creation of 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 designated national forest. He said:
"It is also vandalism wantonly to destroy or to permit the destruction of what is beautiful in nature, whether it be a cliff, a forest, or a species of mammal or bird. Here in the United States we turn our rivers and streams into sewers and dumping-grounds, we pollute the air, we destroy forests, and exterminate fishes, birds and mammals -- not to speak of vulgarizing charming landscapes with hideous advertisements. But at last it looks as if our people were awakening."
In May 1908, Roosevelt held the Conference of Governors at the White House. Its focus was on natural resources and their most efficient use. Roosevelt delivered the opening address, which was entitled "Conservation as a National Duty."
In 1903 Roosevelt toured the Yosemite Valley. He said of Yosemite, "It was like lying in a great solemn cathedral, far vaster and more beautiful than any built by the hand of man." Roosevelt wanted to minimize commercial use of water resources and forests. By this time the Sierra Club had been founded, and Roosevelt found them to be an ally in his cause. John Muir was the Sierra Club's founder, and in 1905 he and Roosevelt were successful in having Congress transfer the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley to the Federal Government.
When Congress opposed Roosevelt's efforts to create a national park at the Grand Canyon, Roosevelt used his executive power to protect it as a national monument. He said:
"In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it."
A new book has just been released this month by Darrin Lunde about how Roosevelt championed the cause of protecting the environment. It is called The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt, A Lifetime of Exploration, and the Triumph of American Natural History.
As a child, Roosevelt as home-schooled and he excelled in subjects such as biology, geology and history. One of his favorite areas of interest was ornithology (the study of birds) and he had even written on the subject as a young man. In 1884, after the death of his wife and his mother on the same day (Valentine's Day), his grief led him to leave New York and head west to the Badlands of the Dakotas. Roosevelt built a ranch that he named Elk Horn, thirty-five miles north of Medora, North Dakota. He learned to ride a horse western style, to rope and to hunt. He began writing about frontier life for national magazines and he also published three books: Hunting Trips of a Ranchman, Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail, and The Wilderness Hunter. He briefly served as a deputy sheriff, and he once pursued three outlaws who had stolen his riverboat and escaped north along the Little Missouri. He captured them and brought the thieves back to Dickinson, North Dakota, for trial.
Roosevelt organized local ranchers to address the problems of overgrazing and other concerns. He formed the Little Missouri Stockmen's Association, as well as another group that worked to coordinate conservation efforts, known as the Boone and Crockett Club. The club's main goal was the conservation of large game animals and their habitats. Roosevelt was especially concerned about the declining population among animals such as bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer and other game species. To Roosevelt, the problem was one of societal attitudes. He wrote:
"We have become great because of the lavish use of our resources. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, when the soils have still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields and obstructing navigation."
Roosevelt may well have stayed out west, but the extremely severe winter of 1886–1887 wiped out his herd of cattle, along with those of many other ranchers. He lost over half of his $80,000 investment, and decided to returned home to New York.
When he became President, Roosevelt's education and knowledge as a conservationist figured prominently in his policies. He placed what we now call environmental issues high on the national agenda. His chief advisor on environmental matters, was Gifford Pinchot, who served as the first Chief of the United States Forest Service from 1905 until his firing in 1910. (Pinchot's firing by Roosevelt's successor, William Howard Taft, was one of the things that led to a falling out between the two during Taft's presidency). Pinchot was someone who was also passionate about the cause and who shared Roosevelt's point of view about protecting the environment.
Roosevelt encouraged Congress to pass the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902. This law promoted federal construction of dams to irrigate small farms and placed 230 million acres (roughly 360,000 square miles) of land under federal protection. Roosevelt designated 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 the creation of 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 designated national forest. He said:
"It is also vandalism wantonly to destroy or to permit the destruction of what is beautiful in nature, whether it be a cliff, a forest, or a species of mammal or bird. Here in the United States we turn our rivers and streams into sewers and dumping-grounds, we pollute the air, we destroy forests, and exterminate fishes, birds and mammals -- not to speak of vulgarizing charming landscapes with hideous advertisements. But at last it looks as if our people were awakening."
In May 1908, Roosevelt held the Conference of Governors at the White House. Its focus was on natural resources and their most efficient use. Roosevelt delivered the opening address, which was entitled "Conservation as a National Duty."
In 1903 Roosevelt toured the Yosemite Valley. He said of Yosemite, "It was like lying in a great solemn cathedral, far vaster and more beautiful than any built by the hand of man." Roosevelt wanted to minimize commercial use of water resources and forests. By this time the Sierra Club had been founded, and Roosevelt found them to be an ally in his cause. John Muir was the Sierra Club's founder, and in 1905 he and Roosevelt were successful in having Congress transfer the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley to the Federal Government.
When Congress opposed Roosevelt's efforts to create a national park at the Grand Canyon, Roosevelt used his executive power to protect it as a national monument. He said:
"In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it."
A new book has just been released this month by Darrin Lunde about how Roosevelt championed the cause of protecting the environment. It is called The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt, A Lifetime of Exploration, and the Triumph of American Natural History.