Teddy+Roosevelt

=** Theodore Roosevelt - The Conservationist **= Theodore Roosevelt is considered by many to be one of the greatest American presidents of all time. He worked hard to efficiently bust trusts, reform labor, and release the corporations hold on working class Americans. However, some of Teddy’s greatest and longest lasting achievements are those in the area of the conservation of natural resources and wildlife. He saved millions of acres of forest from the ax of big businesses and created wildlife refuges, national monuments, and national parks that are still around today. As his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot said, “The greatest work that Theodore Roosevelt did for the United States, the greatest fact which will give his influence vitality and power long after we shall have gone to our reward… is the fact that he changed the attitude of the American people toward conserving the natural resources.”

** The Making of a Naturalist ** [[image:http://www.trsite.org/content/images/history/tr-boy-full.jpg width="222" height="240" align="right" caption="Theodore "Teedie" Roosevelt as a young child"]]
As a child, Teddy was often taken ill with severe asthma attacks. One of the few things that helped relieve the symptoms was to sit outside in the fresh air. In his time outdoors, he spent the majority of it observing wildlife of all kinds, particularly birds. He became skilled at recognizing many different species of birds and recorded his observations about them in a journal. He also read a great deal about them, studying the anatomy of over 600 bird species indigenous to North America. His interests expanded to include other animals and he started collecting snakes, turtles, and mice as pets. He became adept and taxonomy and eventually started a collection of specimens which he called the “Roosevelt Museum of Natural History” which included insects, mice, and even the head of a dead seal he had found on a wharf. At the age of twelve, Teddy learned about Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Teddy began to use Darwin’s ideas in his own observations of birds, noting the different beak shapes and how they varied. He admired Darwin, as well as Huxley, who practiced anatomy. Huxley used his anatomical research to work to prove that humans were descended from apes. Teddy was deeply intrigued by both of their theories. In his later years, he often carried around a copy of Darwin’s //On the Origin of Species.// Teddy traveled to several places as a child that increased his love for nature. During the summer of 1868, Teddy visited Barrytown, New York and fell in love with the wildlife present in the Hudson River Valley. In May of 1869, he traveled to Europe with his family for a year. He preferred the animals of North America, and was appalled at some of the small acts of animal cruelty he saw while in Europe. In 1871, Teddy visited the Adirondack Mountains where he became very interested in bears and spoke of them often.

** Early Conservation Efforts **
=== Before Roosevelt came into office, few steps were made to conserve natural resources. Congress passed a few bills, including the Desert Land Act of 1877, the Forest Reserve Act of 1891, and the Carey Act of 1894. The Desert Land Act sold land in the desert cheaply to those who would irrigate it within three years of purchasing it. The Forest Reserve Act allowed the president to preserve public forests as national parks. Because of this, 46 million acres were saved in the 1890s alone. The Carey Act gave federal land away to states on the condition that the land was irrigated and settled. === Ironically, even Roosevelt’s love of hunting enabled him to assist in preserving wildlife. He was president of the Boone and Crockett Club, founded in 1887. It was a club comprised of rich and influential sportsmen who had the power to make changes. The club members pushed for the passing the Park Protection Act which kept parks safe from development. This law prevented a railroad from being built through Yellowstone National Park. This group also organized the American Bison Society, which convinced the Bronx Zoo to give 15 of the few remaining buffalo to Witchita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. Their numbers increased quickly, helping buffalo make a comeback. Soon afterwards, the National Bison Range was created in Montana, along with buffalo refuges in South Dakota and Nebraska. Teddy began making an effort to conserve natural resources and protect wildlife before he entered the White House. As the governor of New York, he banned logging from certain regions of the Adirondack and Catskill mountains. He also made a law prohibiting jacklighting, which was stunning animals with a bright light before shooting them, and deerhounding, which consisted of herding deer towards a river where hunters could shoot them from boats. During this time, Roosevelt asked Gifford Pinchot, a forester, for a plan to manage the forests in New York. Teddy quickly approved of Pinchot’s ideas, and formed a friendship that would impact the future of America’s natural resources.

As president, Roosevelt finally had all of the power he needed to accomplish his goals. He was aided by Gifford Pinchot who became his chief forester. They shared similar views on policies about conservation. Pinchot’s main concern was to preserve the natural resources so that they could be used later on. However, he wasn’t as much as a wildlife enthusiast as Teddy was. Pinchot wanted the laws to steer clear of businesses interested in exploiting the resources, but he also wanted to avoid the tree huggers who didn’t want the useful lumber he saw to be used at all. He started off working to tame the desert. In 1902, Congress passed the Newlands Act which enabled the government to collect money from the sale of public land and use it for irrigation projects. The people settled there paid the government for this service, thus making more money available to make the desert into farmable land. That year, Teddy even banned Christmas trees from the White House in order set and example of conservation. In 1903, he made Pelican’s Island the first national wildlife refuge, simply because there was no law against him making it one, and it would protect the birds that lived there. Within the next couple years, he created six more wildlife refuges. Also during this year, large hotel companies came up with the idea to build hotels along the edge of the Grand Canyon. Teddy told them off, and tried to get Congress to make it a national park. They wouldn’t, so Roosevelt declared 800,000 acres of the canyon a national monument under the already-created Antiquities Act. He created a total of eighteen national monuments, and today there are over 100. Many prominent locations from American history were being vandalized with the carving of names and dates. In 1906, Teddy took action against this by passing the National Monuments Act which protected these historic sites. Roosevelt did anything and everything to conserve as much of the forests as he could. When Congress decided to pass a bill that would take away Teddy’s power to create national forests in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming, Teddy quickly sent Pinchot to map out land that could be made into national forests. He managed to add sixteen million acres of forest to the national forests before the bill could be passed.
 * President Roosevelt **

Roosevelt had promised that he wasn’t going to run for president again in 1908, so he went on a ten month safari to Africa. All of the exotic beasts that he shot were stuffed and sent to the Natural History Museum in Washington. He ran for president against Taft in 1912 but lost, so he was unable to continue with his large scale conservation methods.
 * Post Presidency **

Teddy really started the ball rolling for conservation. Others continued his work, increasing the number of refuges, national parks, national forests, and national monuments. During his presidency, he created 51 national wildlife refuges. There were five national parks before he became president and he added five more while in the White House. There are 52 national parks today. He added over 125 million acres of national forest to the previous 42 million acres. He created a total of 18 national monuments, of which there are over 100 of today. His work has convinced many to conserve natural resources and wildlife for our future generations.
 * Lasting Accomplishments **


 * Bibliography**

Auchincloss, Louis. // Theodore Roosevelt //. New York: Times, 2001. Print.

Brinkley, Douglas. // The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America //. New York: HarperCollins, 2009. Print.

"Historic Photos." // US Forest Service //. Web. 16 Feb. 2011. .


 * Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A. Bailey. "Progressivism and the Republican Roosevelt." // The American Pageant. // Boston: Houghton Mifflin College Div, 2006. 656-78. Print. **


 * Marrin, Albert. // The Great Adventure: Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of Modern America //. New York: Dutton Children's, 2007. Print. **


 * Morris, Edmund. // Theodore Rex //. New York: Random House, 2001. Print. **


 * "Theodore Roosevelt Hunter Conservationist Cover Front." // ESPN //. Web. 16 Feb. 2011. . **


 * "Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site: Early Years." // Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site //. Web. 16 Feb. 2011. . **