President Roosevelt and John Muir and the Reforms they Passed Clara Gomez & Gudalupe Rodriguez period 5

Theodore Roosevelt  He graduated from Harvard in 1880  When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, Roosevelt volunteered as commander of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry  Became the president when he was 43 years old  He use his office and its power to convince America of the need to change and to push through his reform proposals

Conservations  After he won reelection in 1904, Roosevelt felt more empowered to make significant changes in this domain  Roosevelt was the nation's first conservationist President  He helped pass laws that helped conserve the environment

Roosevelt was a Conservationist  Everywhere Roosevelt went, he preached the need to preserve woodlands as places of refuge and retreat  He believed the Western and frontier heritage had shaped American values, behavior and culture  The President wanted the US to change from exploiting natural resources to carefully managing them.  He added enormously to the national forests in the West, reserved lands for public use, and fostered great irrigation projects.

 In 1902, Roosevelt signed the Newlands Reclamation Bill  It used money from federal land sales to build reservoirs and irrigation works to promote agriculture in the arid West  In March, 1903, Roosevelt visited Pelican Island in Florida, a nesting ground for numerous shorebirds.  Roosevelt was well aware of the danger of massive extinction Reforms Roosevelt passed

Reforms  Roosevelt created Pelican Island Bird Reservation  It was a plan that permanently set aside the three-acre island as a wildlife sanctuary; and made Pelican Island the first National Wildlife Refuge.

Bureau of Forestry  In 1905, Roosevelt created the Bureau of Forestry  Roosevelt set aside 125 million acres of timberlands as federal reserves  This guaranteed the preservation of some natural resources for future generations

John Muir  John Muir was America ’ s most famous and influential naturalist and conservationist.  He was a writer who taught the importance of experiencing and protecting our natural heritage.  His writing contributed greatly to the creation of Yosemite, Mount Rainer, and the Grand Canyon National Parks.

The National Reclamation  President Roosevelt wanted the federal government to help western states build huge reservoirs to hold and to conserve the water.  The National Reclamation Act gave the federal government the power to decide where and how water would be distributed.  The purpose of the act was to control the precipitation in seventeen western states and use it to encourage families to move to the west.

Works Cited " About - The John Muir Exhibit - Sierra Club." Sierra Club Home Page: Explore, Enjoy and Protect the Planet. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Oct < Werner, Emma J.. United States history. California ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, Print. "Wilderness.net - Pelican Island Wilderness - General Information."Wilderness.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Oct