Environmental Hero: Theodore Roosevelt
Posted: 21-Apr-2003; Updated: 25-Apr-2003
To Theodore Roosevelt, the environment was a vivid metaphor for the country's concerns.
"The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life," he told Congress in 1907. This sentiment underscored the message of Roosevelt's conservation record in office.
In 1902 he established the first national park at Crater Lake, Oregon and went on to create four more (Wind Cave National Park, SD; Sully's Hill, ND; Platt National Park, OK; and Mesa Verde National Park, CO). During his tenure as president from 1901 to 1909 he created 51 wildlife refugees, passed the Antiquities Act (which led to the creation of 18 national monuments), and created the National Park Service.
PHOTO: Theodore Roosevelt, left, with his friend, environmentalist John Muir, on Glacier Point, Yosemite Valley, California.
"A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself," Roosevelt proclaimed. "Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people." He backed up these words by protecting 150 national forests. In all, Roosevelt protected some 230 million acres of national land.
The nation's first conservationist president was born in New York City in 1858 to a wealthy family. His public service included governor of New York and police commissioner of New York City before becoming Vice President in 1901. Later that year the 42-year-old became the youngest person to assume the presidency following the assassination of William McKinley. In 1906 he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his mediating role in the Russo-Japanese War.
Among the many remarkable achievements the twenty-sixth president of the United States made were a number of protections to the environment, which seemed to be the cornerstone of his policy. "The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method," Roosevelt wrote in 1916.
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