In
addition to winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906, Theodore Roosevelt also made
a very great contribution to the conservation of our natural resources. His distant
cousins Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt continued and expanded on those contributions
during the 1930s and 1940s. But it was TR or "Teddy" who began the fight to preserve
and protect forests and national natural treasures. As a sickly child, he found
that nature had an enormous healing effect on him and ever on through his life,
he strove to educate the public on conservation. He was a friend of John Muir,
the great environmental activist and writer and made speeches all across the nation
in support of preserving natural resources. Once, he even cruised down the Mississippi
on a steamboat to show the American people the importance of inland waterways.
Wildlife preservation was also extremely important to him. He said on one occasion
"When I hear of the destruction of a species, I feel just as if all the works
of some great writer have perished." By the end of almost eight years as President,
Theodore Roosevelt had established 13 national monuments, 25 national forests
and created four commissions on the use of public lands. He used the information
he gathered from these commissions to expand public awareness and encourage ongoing
congressional action on environmental protection.
Bio
© Larry Auld
