Theodore Roosevelt's Contribution To Conservation In The US

Imagine the United States, our United States, without Crater Lake Nation Park (OR), Yosemite National Park (CA), Devil’s Tower (WY), The Grand Canyon (AZ), the Muir Woods (CA), and El Morro (NM), to name a few. These national parks and national monuments may not exist if it weren’t for the thoughtfulness, passion, and dedication of Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt and many other likeminded naturalists and conservationists of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Roosevelt’s contributions to conservation in the United States of America are extensive. There has been no other President in the history of the United States who has done more for the conservation of the country’s public lands and wildlife than “Teddy” Roosevelt.

In 1881, he was elected to the New York State Assembly, at the age of twenty-three. Roosevelt was conservative, but also known to be a reformer. Roosevelt 's father also significantly influenced him. His father was a prominent businessman and well respected leader in New York 's cultural circles, and helped found the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Roosevelt Jr. said, “My father, Theodore Roosevelt, was the best man I ever knew. He combined strength and courage with gentleness, tenderness, and great unselfishness. He would not tolerate in us children selfishness or cruelty, idleness, cowardice, or untruthfulness” (Roosevelt 1913 p. 13). Lots of family trips to faraway places, such as; Europe, Egypt, and the Swiss Alps, also helped shaped his growing worldly perspective. These trips also involved lots of hiking and strenuous activities, leading him to discover the benefits of exercise and fitness, which in turn, helped his asthma condition and overall physical

His mother Martha, and his wife Alice, died within hours of each other on Valentine’s Day, 1884, Roosevelt, then 26-years-old, vacated his governing position and headed to the Badlands of Dakota Territory. There, he began to hunt and explore like a true western frontiersman. He’s quoted in saying, "For the last week I have been fulfilling a boyhood ambition of mine -- that is, I have been playing at frontier hunter in good earnest, having been off entirely alone, with my horse and rifle, across the prairie” (British Heritage Vol 34). His life experience was once again growing and evolving. It was here, in the rugged North Dakota Badlands, that many of Roosevelt’s raw experiences and personal concerns continued to give shape to his future environmental and conservation efforts. Roosevelt would go on to become our nation’s 26th President, as well as our nations’ first conservationist president. Although he was a sportsman and hunter for most of his life, he deeply mourned for the loss of animal species and natural habitat. A feeling which would eventually lead him to become a co-architect of The American Antiquities Act of 1906. The American Antiquities Act of 1906 was an Act written for the preservation of American “antiquities,” passed by the U.S. Congress, and signed by President Theodore Roosevelt on June 8, 1906. It gave the president power to protect our cultural heritage