Theodore Roosevelt Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Theodore Roosevelt (1858 -1919) was the first American president (1901-09) to successfully promote conservation as an issue important to domestic politics. His passion for conservation grew from his lifelong interest in natural history and hunting. As a boy, he kept meticulous notebooks describing the natural world and collected specimens in order to make accurate observations about the physical characteristics of wildlife.

Early Influences

Roosevelt never outgrew his childhood interest in the natural world. From his ranch in North Dakota he wrote several books drawing on his experiences on the Western frontier. Among his writings are: Hunting Trips of a Ranchman (1885), The Winning of the West (1889-96) and Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail (1888). While living on the ranch Roosevelt became concerned over disappearing wildlife habitat, which he believed was the result of uncontrolled cattle grazing.

His fears about overgrazing were realized when a major drought occurred in the summer of 1886, followed by an unusually brutal winter that killed hundreds of thousands of livestock by starvation and exposure. This event, known as Great Die-Up of 1886-87, coupled with a lifetime of exploration and study of nature, fostered in Roosevelt a concern for the sustainable use and protection of natural resources that played a central role in the domestic policy of his presidency.

Three Principles

Roosevelt’s concern over the environment was driven by three principles: conservation should serve as a utilitarian tool for sustained economic growth providing the greatest good for the greatest number; wilderness and frontier experiences played a critical role in shaping America’s identity; and the nation’s unique natural wealth should be protected for future generations. The challenge in balancing these views is illustrated in Roosevelt’s 1903 speech on the forestry service. According to Roosevelt, the primary objective is:

not to preserve forests because they are beautiful-though that is good in itself-not to preserve them because they are refuges for the wild creatures of the wilderness-though that too is good in itself-but the primary object of forest policy … is the making of prosperous homes, is part of the traditional policy of homemaking in our country.

Roosevelt’s belief in the importance of natural resources for “homemaking” was reflected in his conviction that conservation should be a central element of a strong democracy. He believed that westward expansion and frontier life in the United States had created an identity for Americans that separated them from their European roots. And he hoped to provide the opportunity for modern Americans to experience the wilderness, where they could develop self-reliance and courage and experience the benefits of hard work, attributes that Roosevelt felt were central to a strong democracy.

But Roosevelt worried that the nation’s dependency on natural resources could become a weakness if these resources were overexploited. In 1907, in his Seventh Annual Message to Congress, Roosevelt declared:

there must be a realization of the fact that to waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land …, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.

It was a blending of Roosevelt’s utilitarian ethic, his conviction that conservation strengthens democracy, and his romantic notion that the transcendent qualities of nature enriched mankind’s spirit that inspired him to create the first of many protected areas. In 1903, Roosevelt visited Pelican Island in Florida, a nesting ground for shorebirds. Current fashion had driven a demand for plumes for women’s hats that was decimating shorebird populations. To counter the possibility of massive extinction, Roosevelt created Pelican Island Bird Reservation, the first of over 50 bird refuges that he established during his presidency.

Roosevelt’s conservation agenda was also an important component of his Progressive era politics for political and economic reform. Ultimately he believed democratic reform and conservation would produce better living and working conditions for Americans. His land policies promoted a democratic view of greater land distribution and access to resource for the lower socioeconomic classes by opening up the National Forest lands suitable for agriculture to small farmers and by challenging the exclusive grazing rights of large ranchers on the public lands of the West. In 1907, in his message to Congress, he spoke about the need for the federal government to take control over the range and end the current abuse of the land by large ranchers. Drawing on his progressive roots, he wrote:

The government should part with its title only to the actual homemaker, not to the profit-maker who does not care to make a home. Our prime object is to secure the rights and guard the interests of the small ranchmen, the man who ploughs and pitches hay for himself. It is this small ranchman, this actual settler and homemaker, who in the long run is most hurt by permitting theft of public lands.

Wise Use Versus Preservation

The conservation legacy of Roosevelt’s presidency encapsulates many of the environmental debates that continue today. During his presidency Roosevelt was bracketed by two opposing views of conservation: Sustainable or “wise” use versus preservation. Gifford Pinchot, as chief forester for the U.S. Forest Service under Roosevelt, believed that conservation should be achieved by the highest possible sustainable use of natural resources. John Muir, who came to represent the preservationist view of conservation, disagreed with Pinchot’s sustainable use approach to conservation. Roosevelt, while politically committed to utilitarian perspectives of resource conservation, deeply respected Muir’s transcendental reverence for the natural world. While Roosevelt had to navigate this internal conflict with conservationists, his conservation polices were also opposed by laissez-faire capitalists who felt that conservation limited individual rights. George L. Knapp, a fervent opponent to conservation, wrote in 1910 that conservation was driven by “zealots [wanting] to install themselves as official prophets and saviors of the future.” For Knapp, conservation would result in “mining discouraged, homesteading brought to a practical standstill, power development fined as criminal, and worst of all, a Federal bureaucracy arrogantly meddling with every public question.”

The tensions in the conservation movement came into sharp relief in the Hetch Hetchy dam debate. The proposed dam, which would provide water and electricity to the arid San Francisco region by damming portions of Yosemite Valley, became a landmark case for the fragmented conservation movement and forced Roosevelt to choose between creating a reservoir for the benefit of people or protecting the wilderness area. In 1907, with grave reservations, Roosevelt supported the proposed Hetch Hetchy dam. John Muir and other preservationists launched an aggressive campaign and argued that Yosemite National Park, including the valley that would be flooded by the dam, was an important “public playground.” The campaign proved temporarily successful and Roosevelt retreated from his endorsement of the reservoir. The dam was approved under Woodrow Wilson’s administration in 1913.

Roosevelt’s legacy to conservation includes 51 Federal Bird Reservations, five National Parks, 18 National Monuments, four National Game Preserves, and 21 Reclamation Projects. Altogether, in the seven and a half years he was in office, he provided federal protection for almost 230 million acres.

Bibliography:

Daniel Filler, “Theodore Roosevelt: Conservation as the Guardian of Democracy,” pantheon.cis.yale.edu (cited May 2006);
George Knapp, “The Other Side of Conservation,” North American Review (v.191, 1910), reprinted in Carolyn Merchant, ed., Major Problems in American Environmental History, 2nd ed. (Houghton Mifflin, 2005);
Curt Meine, “Roosevelt, Conservation and the Revival of Democracy,” Conservation Biology (v.15/4, 2001);
Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind (Yale University, 2001);
Theodore Roosevelt, “Bird Reserves at the Mouth of the Mississippi,” A Book Lover’s Holiday in the Open, bartleby.com;
Theodore Roosevelt, “Opening Address by the President,” Proceedings of a Conference of Governors in the White House, reprinted in Carolyn Merchant, , Major Problems in American History, 2nd ed. (Houghton Mifflin, 2005);
Theodore Roosevelt, “Seventh Annual Message to Congress,” December 1907, sageamericanhistory.net.