Prior to Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, the federal government did very little to
preserve America’s natural resources.
The U.S. Forest Service had been established in 1887, and 45 million acres of timberlands
had been set aside as a forest reserve, but the development of land in the American West
continued on unchecked.
In the late 1800s, America’s natural resources were disappearing at an alarming rate as private
interests continued exploiting the shrinking wilderness.
Forests were leveled and prairielands were plowed up by pioneer farmers.
Ranchers brought in herds of livestock which overgrazed the Great Plains.
Coal companies polluted and gutted the land with large-scale mining projects.
Lumber companies cut down huge swaths of forests without replanting new trees, and no thought
was put into the impact these operations had on flood control or the ecosystem.
Across the country, cities dumped raw sewage and industrial wastes into America’s river
systems, polluting streams and creating health hazards.
Roosevelt opposed the common American assumption that the nation’s natural resources were
endless, and his policies made conservation a major tenet of his administration.
In 1903, Roosevelt travelled to California’s Yosemite National Park where he spent three
days camping with conservationist John Muir.
During the trip, Muir pleaded with Roosevelt to do more to set aside other areas in the
United States for park purposes.
After his visit to Yosemite, Roosevelt noted, “There can be nothing in the world more
beautiful than the Yosemite, the groves of the giant sequoias...our people should see
to it that they are preserved for their children and their Children's children forever, with
their majestic beauty all unmarred.”
Roosevelt appointed Gifford Pinchot to head the U.S. Forest Service.
Together the two men worked to keep tracts of federal land exempt from private sale,
thus conserving forest and grazing lands, but allowing other areas to be developed.
This approach enabled the settlement of the West to continue without all of the region’s
woodlands and wildlife being compromised.
Roosevelt signed the National Reclamation Act of 1902 which allowed for money from the
sale of public lands to fund massive irrigation projects.
The Shoshone Dam in Wyoming and the Roosevelt Dam in Arizona made agriculture possible in
those territories.
It also established a precedent of the federal government managing the scarce water resources
of the American West.
During his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt set aside 148 million acres of forests, protecting
them from development.
His signature created five national parks, 18 national monuments, 55 national bird sanctuaries
and wildlife refuges, and 150 national forests.