Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was on a vacation hunting and camping trip in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State when he got the urgent news that President McKinley had been shot, was in grave danger of dieing and that he must return at once.

Teddy Roosevelt’s love of the outdoors and the natural beauty of this country is well known. His many books and writing reflect it so. TR also became one of our staunchest environmentalists in a day when there was still a lot of wide open spaces to protect.

He told the U.S. Congress in 1907:
“The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life.” With this simple statement TR went on record as being one of this country’s strongest advocates and protectors of our natural wild and beautiful places, as well as saving the environment for all.

From 1901 to 1909 President Roosevelt caused the creation of 51 wildlife refugees, and Congress passed his Antiquities Act which led to the creation of many national monuments. It was during TR’s administration that the National Park Service came into being.

In 1902 he caused to be established the first National Park at Crater Lake, Oregon and then went on to create four more; the Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, Sully’s Hill National Park in North Dakota, the Platt National Park in Oklahoma and the Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.

Teddy Roosevelt was a great friend and admirer of John Muir, that we have Blogged about previously, and it was during this era that the Sierra Club started to flourish. Muir was famous for the statement that “The forests are the lungs of our land.”

We can all be thankful that such a visionary was in a position of power and was able to get his message out to the general public.

Let’s not let him down. We should all do our part to help the environment in what is now called the Green Movement.

Tags: national parks, national pars service, president theodore roosevelt, teddy roosevelt, tr

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 12:05 pm and is filed under environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.