Contributions to energy conservationTeddy in his element, the mountains (Courtesy of blog.nature.org)
"Of all the questions which can come before this nation, short of the actual preservation of its existence in a great war, there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us." |
Roosevelt went to the Badlands in 1883, and wanted to kill the big game their before it disappeared . Though, after doing so, he started to lament about the waste of nature's resources. He once said,
"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." When he became president, he used his authority to protect wildlife and nature. He made the United States Forest Server (USFS) and made 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, 4 national game preserves, 5 national parks, and 18 national monuments by enabling the 1906 American Antiquities Act. During his role of presidency, TR protected about 230 million acres of public land!
"We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune."
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