Ecology Hall of Fame: Teddy Roosevelt

By Ginamarie Yacovelli

This Land Is Our Land: How Theodore Roosevelt Helped Make It That Way

One of the lasting legacies of the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, is the conservation effort he helped promote. He is credited with being the first president with the goals of environmental conservation. As he stated in his Seventh Annual Message on December 3, 1907, “To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed. (Theodore Roosevelt, seventh annual message, 3 December 1907)”
He was very resolute in his plans for the procurement of natural spaces that would be free from the hands of developers. Even prior to becoming President of the United States, Roosevelt was adamant about the positive role that environmental awareness played. In 1887, Roosevelt founded a club with George Grinnell, the founder of “Forest and Stream” magazine. The Boone and Crockett Club had the intent of protecting the interests of environmental issues. The club stepped in when it was made aware that mining and railroad companies were interested in Yellowstone National Park. At the time there were no rules for the protection of parks. “With editorials, speaking engagements, and furious lobbying among Washington's rich and powerful, the B & C succeeded. In 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed a bill protecting Yellowstone.”(PBS). Roosevelt would continue this type of protecting parks during his presidency. During his time in office, Roosevelt started the National Park Service with the intent of protecting the great expanses of nature so that Americans could enjoy them. “The forest reserves were renamed “National Forests” in token that their resources of all kinds, instead of being kept away from the people, were opened for use and made ever more and more accessible, as Roosevelt so fully and continuously advocated” (Lewis). The man was dedicated to seeing that the citizens of the United States would not be denied the protection of natural wonders like the Grand Canyon. He wanted to make sure that generations to come would have the same breathtaking scenes to marvel at and be inspired by. And he looked out for the people in other ways, too. “He pushed through the Pure Food and Meat Inspection laws of 1906, forcing Congress to acknowledge its responsibility as consumer protector” (Morriss, 1998). Theodore Roosevelt was a truly inspiring individual that was able to see with clarity the importance of environmental issues. Luckily for the citizens of the United States, we had Theodore Roosevelt looking out for our land.


References
Morriss, E (1998, 04 13). Leaders and revolutionaries. TIME Magazine

Lewis, W.D. (1919). The life of theodore roosevelt. John C. Winston Company

T.R.'s legacy - the environment. Retrieved April 1, 2007, from PBS.ORG Web site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/tr/envir.html

Quotations about the environment. Retrieved April 1, 2007, from Quotegarden.com Web site: http://www.quotegarden.com/environment.html