Pres. Theodore Roosevelt--Hunter and Conservationist

 "I have always said I would not have been President had it not been for my experience in North Dakota."
 Theodore Roosevelt

 "The Bad Lands of North Dakota grade all the way from those that are almost rolling in character to those that are so fantastically broken in form and so bizarre in color as to seem hardly properly to belong to this earth."  Theodore Roosevelt

 "The farther one gets into the wilderness, the greater is the attraction of its lonely freedom."
Theodore Roosevelt

"The extermination of the buffalo has been a veritable tragedy of the animal world."
Theodore Roosevelt

"it is also vandalism wantonly to destroy or to permit the destruction of what is beautiful in nature, whether it be a cliff, a forest, or a species of mammal or bird. Here in the United States we turn our rivers and streams into sewers and dumping-grounds, we pollute the air, we destroy forests, and exterminate fishes, birds and mammals -- not to speak of vulgarizing charming landscapes with hideous advertisements. But at last it looks as if our people were awakening."
"And to lose the chance to see frigatebirds soaring in circles above the storm, or a file of pelicans winging their way homeward across the crimson afterglow of the sunset, or a myriad terns flashing in the bright light of midday as they hover in a shifting maze above the beach -- why, the loss is like the loss of a gallery of the masterpieces of the artists of old time."  Theodore Roosevelt


In the early twentieth century, President Theodore Roosevelt was a dynamic force in a relatively new movement known as conservationism. During his presidency, Roosevelt made conservation a major part of his administration. As the new century began, the frontier was disappearing. Once common animals were now threatened. Many Americans, including Roosevelt, saw a need to preserve the nation's natural resources.  He wanted to protect animals and land from businesses that he saw as a threat.  Roosevelt said, "the rights of the public to the natural resources outweigh private rights, and must be given its first consideration."  By the end of his time as president, he had created five national parks, four game refuges, fifty-one national bird reservations as well as the National Forest Service. It could be said that Theodore Roosevelt, through laws, executive orders, and his strong personality, opened the nation's eyes to the natural wonders of the land.  Roosevelt had changed the attitude of America.