Wednesday, November 2, 2016
National Parks
Americas National Parks are one of the things that make the United States Great. Many of us have been to at least one National Park, if not more, but without Theodore Roosevelt, the national park system would not be what it is today. During his term, the number of national parks doubled. He created Crater Lake, Wind Cave, Sully's Hill, Mesa Verde and Platt. He created the first federal bird reserve, and he would go on to create 50 more. Roosevelt created the United States Forest Service to administer and protect public lands and wildlife, probably the 150 million acres he turned into national forests. Perhaps his greatest contribution that still affects us this day is Antiquities Act of 1906. That gave Roosevelt and the presidents after him the power to declare places such as historical sites and places of scientific interests into National Monuments. With the Antiquities Act, Roosevelt did not need congressional approval to create national monuments and created 19 nations monuments. Some examples are Muir Woods, the Grand Canyon and Mount Olympus. Roosevelt impacted our national park system so much that he is one of the faces on Mount Rushmore.
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Great summary of the positive effects of Roosevelt's conservation efforts! Adding on to your point about how Mount Rushmore sculpted his face onto the mountain, I think that Roosevelt definitely deserved that recognition because he was very determined to address and implement solutions to social problems that most people didn’t see as wrong or care about-such when he realized that people were cutting down too many trees because they thought there was an infinite supply of natural resources, Roosevelt helped to start the National Park System to protect public lands from being deforested. Even more significant about his efforts was that because they benefited the environment immensely during his presidency, his conservation programs still exist today and continue to provide positive environmental impacts in the country.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great summary about how National parks came about and I like Allison's comment as well because it really helps add on to the idea of National Park. It helps explain the reason behind Roosevelt's idea of National Parks.
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