Conservation

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Environmental terms

Conservation is used to preserve, improve or renew natural resources for human, social, economic, and/or aesthetic reasons. Natural resources that are conserved include land, water, oil, natural gas and other traditional energy resources, forests, wildlife and plants, wilderness and fisheries.^[1]

Background[edit]

According to the Library of Congress, a movement favoring conservation legislation began in 1850. Proponents of conservation legislation argued for conserving natural resources for economic and aesthetic reasons.

The Library of Congress listed the following characteristics to describe the conservation movement:

1. The conservation movement emphasized the scientific and technological causes of environmental issues and supported the use of science and technology to conserve natural resources.
2. The conservation movement considered conservation to be an ethical and spiritual issue.
3. Conservationists argued that celebrating and enjoying wildlife required establishing recreational areas available to the public.^[2]

History[edit]

According to the website Teaching American History, the conservation movement in the United States was tied to the American Progressive movement of the early 20th century. Conservationists in the Progressive movement argued in favor of laws to limit further industrialization.^[3]

Legislation[edit]

List of legislation[edit]

The table below lists federal conservation laws and policies passed from 1850 to 1920.

Legislation descriptions[edit]

John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, and President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.

Forest Reserve Act (1891): The Forest Reserve Act was signed into law by President Benjamin Harrison. Policymakers in Congress argued about the effects of homesteading on land and forests in the Western United States. This led to the Forest Reserve Act and the creation of the National Forest System and U.S. Forest Service. President Theodore Roosevelt used the Forest Reserve Act to establish approximately 40 million acres of federal land reserves.^[4][5]

Land Revision Act (1891): The Land Revision Act gave authority to the president to "set aside and reserve...any part of the public lands wholly or partly covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not."^[6] The act stated, "[The President] shall, by public proclamation, declare the establishment of such reservations and their limits." The first forest reserves were set aside in 1891 and were administered by the Department of the Interior's General Land Office. President Benjamin Harrison established the Pecos River Forest Reserve in 1892 and the Grand Canyon Forest Reserve in 1893 as protected federal land.^[6][7]

Organic Act (1897): The Organic Act established guidelines for federal regulators in the U.S. Interior Department. The law permitted the Interior Department Secretary to make rules and regulations for reserved areas, permitted the General Land Office (GLO) to hire employees for administrative tasks, and to open reserves for public use. The purpose of the law was "to improve and protect the forest within the reservation...securing favorable conditions of water flows, and to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the use and necessities of citizens of the United States."^[8]

Rivers and Harbors Act (1899): The Rivers and Harbors Act made it a misdemeanor to discharge waste material into navigable waters or tributaries without a permit. The act also made it a misdemeanor to fill, excavate, or alter the course or condition of a port, harbor or channel without a permit. No dams could be constructed on navigable streams without a permit or license from Congress. As of February 2015, the River and Harbors Act was enforced by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at ports and harbors.^[9]

Yosemite Valley became federally protected as part of Yosemite National Park by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.

Lacey Act (1900): The act prohibited trading wildlife, fish and plants that were illegally possessed, taken, transported or sold and established civil and criminal penalties. The act authorized the Interior Secretary to aid and to restore game or birds in parts of the United States where they had become rare or extinct. The act was amended in 2008 to ban the trading of certain plants and plant products.^[10][11]

Right of Way Act (1901): The act permitted individuals to traverse a piece of land, forest reserve, or national park for economic purposes. Some cities in the Western United States acquired the rights to use certain segments of national park land for right of way purposes. The act also allowed cites and communities, in particular cities near Yosemite, Sequoia and General Grant National Parks in California, to build electrical and water transmission reservoirs, conduits and other equipment for mining.^[12]

Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

American Antiquities Act (1906): The act gave the President authority to issue presidential proclamations limiting the use of certain federal lands. The law was passed to address looting at antiquated and prehistoric lands in the Western United States. Iowa Congressman John F. Lacey, for whom the Lacey Act was named and who was chairman of the U.S. House Committee on the Public Lands, submitted a report to Congress about archaeological resources in the Southwestern United States and supported legislation to protect the resources from looting.^[13][14]

Weeks Act (1911): The law authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to regulate private lands near navigable streams in order to preserve nearby forest lands. The act set aside approixmately $200,000 ($4.9 million in 2014 dollars) in funding for states with forest protection agencies. The money went toward paying fire patrols and state officials for conservation efforts.^[15][16]

Migratory Bird Treaty Act (1918): The act made it unlawful to pursue, take, hunt, capture, kill or sell federally protected birds. The act made no distinction between live and dead birds and prohibited the taking or selling of bird-related items like nests, feathers and eggs. The list of bird species protected under the act can be found here.^[17][18]

Individuals[edit]

John Muir

John Muir

John Muir founded the Sierra Club, an environmental organization, in 1891. The Sierra Club's stated mission is

In an 1889 article in Century magazine, Muir argued in favor of designating Yosemite Valley as a national park. He remained president of the Sierra Club until his death in 1914. President Theodore Roosevelt accompanied Muir on a camping trip before Roosevelt established Yosemite as a national park.^{[20][21][22][23]}

Henry David Thoreau Thoreau argued for federal ownership of mountain ranges, waterfalls, and other wilderness areas.^[24] Thoreau's book Walden argued in favor of closeness to and affinity for nature and conservation.^[24][25][26]

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt established 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reservations, 18 national monuments, five national parks and four national game preserves during his presidency. Roosevelt's designations totaled approximately 230 million acres of land. In 1907, Congress passed a resolution prohibiting Roosevelt from designating new national forests in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Roosevelt signed 38 executive orders establishing national forests areas totaling 16 million acres before he signed the resolution eliminating his authority to designate them.^[27][28]

Gifford Pinchot Gifford Pinchot was the first chief of the United States Forest Service. In 1910, the U.S. Forest Service under Pinchot established 172 million acres of national forest land.^[29][30]

Groups[edit]

The League of Conservation Voters (LVC) is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization founded in 1969 by David Brower of the Sierra Club. According to its website, the group "advocates for sound environmental laws and policies, holds elected officials accountable for their votes and actions, and elects pro-environment candidates who will champion our priority issues."^[31][32][33]

The Sierra Club is a 501(c)(4) founded by John Muir in 1892. The Sierra Club's motto is "Explore, Enjoy, and Protect the Planet."^{[34][35][36][37]}

The National Audubon Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit environmental and conservation organization founded in 1905. The first state-level Audubon Society began in Massachusetts in 1896.^[38]

The National Wildlife Federation is 501(c)(3) a nonprofit conservation advocacy organization founded in 1938. President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed a cartoonist, Ding Darling, to become chief of the United States Biological Survey. Darling later became the group's president.^[39]

The Wilderness Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1935 to support land conservation. Its founders included Bob Marshall, the chief of recreation and lands for the U.S. Forest Service, Aldo Leopold, a wildlife ecologist, and Robert Sterling Yard, a publicist for the National Park Service. Yard became the Wilderness Society's first secretary and edited the organization's magazine, The Living Wilderness. The group's stated mission is "to protect wilderness and inspire Americans to care for our wild places."^[40]

The Nature Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit conservation and environmental organization founded in 1951. Its stated mission is "to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends."^[41] In 1989, Congress authorized federal funding to the organization for conservation projects in South America and the Caribbean.^[41][42][43]

ConservAmerica is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization founded in 1995 as Republicans for Environmental Protection. The organization's stated mission is "to educate the public and elected officials on conservative approaches to today's environmental, energy, and conservation challenges."^[44]

Criticism[edit]

Critics of conservation laws argued that the laws imposed limits on economic development and harmed farmers, laborers and ranchers. These critics opposed laws prohibiting the cutting down of trees, the burning of wood to make way for agriculture, and the hunting of wildlife for food. These critics argued that these prohibitions excluded poorer, more rural Americans from activities to improve their economic well-being.^[45]

Some American Indians opposed designating areas as public land because the policies restricted land use by local American Indian residents for hunting, fishing or burning undergrowth in forests. Other critics of these designations argued that land speculators and more established land owners disproportionately profited from federally protected land and associated projects such as dams and irrigation systems.^[45][46]

Critics of the U.S. Forest Service's management of national forests argued that forests in Oregon and Washington were at greater risk for disease, insect infestations, and fires because of the agency's policies. Critics of federal wildlife management argued that some federal policies led to altered ecosystems and thus growing wildlife populations, such as increased deer populations in the Grand Canyon during the 1920s. These critics argued that more deer led to reduced food supply and subsequent mass starvation among other wildlife. Some critics opposed federal wildlife managers who fenced in elk and bison populations inside national parks, arguing that the animals faced decreased mobility, which caused the death of some animal populations during winter.^[45]

See also[edit]

• Glossary of environmental terms
• Environmental policy in the United States
• State environmental policy

Footnotes[edit]

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