Theodore Roosevelt on Conservation

On Wilderness and the American Spirit

All civilized Governments are now realizing that it is their duty here and there to preserve certain defined districts, with the wild things thereon, the destruction of which means the destruction of half the charm of wild nature.

— African Game Trails, 1910

For Roosevelt, wild country was part of the national character. Destroying the wild places, and the wild things that lived in them, meant destroying half the charm of nature itself—and something of the American spirit with it.

The nation behaves well if it treats its natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased and not impaired in value.

— Speech to the Colorado Live Stock Association, Denver, August 29, 1910

This concept of intergenerational responsibility was revolutionary for its time. Roosevelt insisted that preserving nature for future generations was not sentiment—it was moral obligation and practical necessity.

On Public Lands and the Common Good

Conservation means development as much as it does protection. I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us.

— “The New Nationalism,” speech at Osawatomie, Kansas, August 31, 1910

Roosevelt rejected the false choice between development and preservation. The nation could use its resources—but public lands, forests, and waters were held in trust, and no generation had the right to squander what belonged equally to the generations behind it.

I earnestly ask that you see to it that your resources by use are perpetuated for the use of the peoples yet unborn. Use them but in using, keep and preserve them. Keep the water; keep the forests; use your lands as you use your bays, your harbors, as you use the cities here, so that by the very fact of the use they will become more valuable as possessions.

— Address at the Capitol, Sacramento, California, May 19, 1903 · Theodore Roosevelt Center

His conservation principle was democratic and utilitarian at once. Not all land should be preserved untouched, but all should be managed for the long-term benefit of the American people as a whole.

On the Relationship Between Humanity and Nature

Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children’s children, and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American if he can travel at all should see.

— Remarks at the Grand Canyon, Arizona, May 6, 1903

Standing at the rim of the Grand Canyon, Roosevelt made the case that access to natural grandeur is not a luxury for the wealthy but an inheritance belonging to every American. Five years later he designated the canyon a national monument.

Preserve the forests by use; preserve them for the ranchman and the stockman, for the people of the territory, for the people of the region round about, preserve them for that use, but use them so that they will not be squandered, that they will not be wasted so that they will be a benefit to the Arizona of 1953 as well as the Arizona of 1903.

— Address at the Grand Canyon, Arizona, May 6, 1903 · Theodore Roosevelt Center

Roosevelt was no romantic preservationist. He believed in grazing, in timber harvesting, in hunting—but all conducted responsibly, so that use itself would carry the land intact to the next half-century.

On Wildlife Protection

During the seven and a half years closing on March 4, 1909, more was accomplished for the protection of wild life in the United States than during all the previous years, excepting only the creation of the Yellowstone National Park.

— An Autobiography, 1913

Roosevelt personally hunted and revered hunting as both sport and conservation tool. But he refused to allow species to be destroyed. As president he created dozens of federal bird reservations and game preserves—the beginnings of the national wildlife refuge system—and worked to restore herds that had been nearly wiped out.

Birds that are useless for the table and not harmful to the farm should always be preserved; and the more beautiful they are, the more carefully they should be preserved. They look a great deal better in the swamps and on the beaches and among the trees than they do on hats.

— The Outlook, September 16, 1911

A lifelong birder, Roosevelt aimed this jab at the plume trade, which was slaughtering egrets and terns to decorate fashionable hats. The strength of a civilization, he believed, showed in its treatment of the vulnerable and voiceless.

On Legacy and Future Generations

The ‘greatest good of the greatest number’ applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life, and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources, are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.

— A Book-Lover’s Holidays in the Open, 1916

Here is Roosevelt’s conservation philosophy in a single passage: the “greatest number” a democracy must serve includes the generations not yet born, and no present-day minority has the right to waste their inheritance.

The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our National life. We must maintain for our civilization the adequate material basis without which that civilization can not exist. We must show foresight, we must look ahead.

— Seventh Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1907

Roosevelt placed conservation at the center of national policy because he saw it as foundational. Everything else—economic prosperity, security, liberty—depended on having a living, fertile land to sustain it all.

On Forests and the Future

We have become great in a material sense because of the lavish use of our resources, and we have just reason to be proud of our growth. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, when the soils shall have been still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields, and obstructing navigation.

— “Conservation as a National Duty,” Conference of Governors, The White House, May 13, 1908

Roosevelt was asking questions in the early twentieth century that remain urgent more than a hundred years later. He understood that a nation could not indefinitely extract natural resources without consequence. Deforestation, resource depletion, soil degradation—these were not abstractions to him but practical threats to national survival.

On the National Parks and Public Access to Beauty

The geysers, the extraordinary hot springs, the lakes, the mountains, the canyons, and cataracts unite to make this region something not wholly to be paralleled elsewhere on the globe. It must be kept for the benefit and enjoyment of all of us; and I hope to see a steadily increasing number of our people take advantage of its attractions.

— Speech at the laying of the cornerstone of the gateway to Yellowstone National Park, Gardiner, Montana, April 24, 1903 · Theodore Roosevelt Center

Roosevelt’s commitment to public access to natural beauty was grounded in his conviction that a complete life required experience of natural grandeur. The wealthy could always travel to wild places and camp under the stars. The ordinary worker needed public lands set aside and protected—kept, as Roosevelt said at Yellowstone, for the benefit and enjoyment of all.

On Hunting and Conservation Working Together

As I grow older I do not lose my taste for hunting, and I think my fondness for the wilderness increases; but I certainly disbelieve more and more in butchery.

— Letter to Edward North Buxton, December 8, 1902 · Theodore Roosevelt Center

Roosevelt understood that hunting and conservation need not be in opposition. The hunter has the strongest interest in preserving wildlife—without healthy game populations there is no hunting future. Drawing the line between fair-chase hunting and butchery, he established wildlife refuges, worked to restore depleted species, and set conservation policies that sportsmen themselves helped champion.