What Are Theodore Roosevelt's Greatest Achievements

Some people say that Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation of natural resources is amongst his greatest achievements as president. On May 3, 1908, Theodore Roosevelt held a conference entitled the Conservation of Natural Resources. In this conference he told people of his views on the utilization of natural resources and how the American peoples’ utilization of these resources was wasteful. One example was of the depletion of trees in the forest which could be corrected if the people would simply take the time to replace what they take. This convention marked the beginning of Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation of natural resources movement during his presidency.
Roosevelt was an activist for conservation and felt that even though the Earth had many resources to offer the people should conserve its resources for generations to come. He believed that if people kept using the Earth’s resources without caution or hesitation that the generations to follow would suffer from the depletion. Therefore Roosevelt began to take measures to ensure the preservation on natural resources.
The way Roosevelt achieved this was he began to pass acts that would protect these natural resources from being exploited by the American people as well as acts that would help land regrow. Amongst the acts that he passed to protect natural resources he created National Parks, such as Yosemite National Park, National Monuments, such as the Grand Canyon, and wild life reservations for certain animals. In June of 1902 Roosevelt signed the Newlands Reclamation Act which authorized federal irrigation projects that would bring water to arid lands in the west which showed that not only did Roosevelt want to protect the land but he also wished to replenish it.
While Roosevelt seems to get all of the credit for passing laws that protect a lot of the modern day National Parks, Monuments, and wild life congress passed quite a few bills and acts themselves.
Congress’ main achievements can be seen as they passed many bills that established National Parks and also gave money to help improve National Parks. They also established an act to help save Niagara Falls. The Joint Resolution called for American representatives to give recommendations to help prevent the depletion of Niagara Falls which led to an act that controlled and regulated the waters of the Niagara River that ultimately helped preserve the falls. This is an example of one of the many contributions congress made in the movement to conserve natural resources in the United States, therefore while a great deal of conservation was achieved by Theodore Roosevelt a great deal was also achieved by
congress.
Before Roosevelt came into office there were attempts by Congress at preserving and protecting natural resources, but there was not a lot of help from the presidents themselves. Congress passed all sorts of acts ranging from the protection of fish and birds to passing laws to try and correct the dwindling of trees across America. The only president that contributed to conservation before Roosevelt was President Benjamin Harrison. Although Benjamin Harrison’s contributions were not nearly as vast as Theodore Roosevelt’s he still had his fair share of proclamations. Harrison is responsible for issuing the Forest Reserve Act which enabled future presidents to set aside federal land that could not be owned by the public. In addition, Harrison declared a Presidential Proclamation which set aside land in Wyoming as the nation’s first forest reservation. This reservation marked the beginning of what would eventually become the National Forest System. In additions, while Carl Schurz was only Secretary of the Interior he took an interest in conservation issues and wished to create forest reserves and Federal forest services.
Roosevelt was not alone in his endeavor to preserve nature’s beauty. There were many American activists who sought to protect natural resources, but did not have the voice or authority to do so. This Congress and Roosevelt working together many Americans began to for societies that worked to also protect National Parks, Monuments, and historic places. These societies and foundations are what helped bridge the gap between Roosevelt and skeptic Americans who were unsure of Roosevelt’s many acts to preserve and protect natural resources. With these organizations working hand in hand with Roosevelt and Congress we were able to have all of the parks and monuments we do today.