With President's Day tomorrow, I chose to post some information about a very influential President to us outdoors types, Theodore Roosevelt.
Apparently, while the holiday in February is still officially known as Washington's Birthday (at least according to the Office of Personnel Management), it has become popularly (and, perhaps in some cases at the state level, legally) known as "President's Day." This has made the third Monday in February a day for honoring both Washington and Lincoln, as well as all the other men who have served as president.
So lets continue.
Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest man to ever become President when he took office at the age of 42. He had only been Vice-President six months when President William McKinley was assassinated. (1)
In his youth, he shot wild game all around the world. In later years, as he became aware of dwindling animal populations and disappearing habitat, he launched the conservation movement. In contrast to earlier presidents, who did not oppose the policy of killing off the buffalo in order to cripple Indians, Roosevelt helped establish the first society to preserve the buffalo; and, working with Gifford Pinchot, he created the Forest Service to manage federal forest lands.
In 1908, Roosevelt called a National Conservation Congress, attended by most of the governors and some five hundred other political leaders. One consequence of this meeting was that forty-one states soon formed their own natural resource management agencies.
During Roosevelt's administration (1901-1909), federal land reserves increased from 45 million acres to 195 million acres, eighteen national monuments were created (including Niagra Falls and the Grand Canyon), five new national parks were established, and fifty-one wildlife refuges were added.
Millions of acres and countless millions of wild animals exist today because of Theodore Roosevelt's forsight and love of nature, which can be clearly traced to his lifelong passion for hunting. (2)
I would like to close with a quote from CNN's Paul Begala
"The most powerful environmentalists I know are hunters, because they see firsthand--it is not an abstraction for them. They actually spend time in the outdoors. They want to take their children to hunt and fish in the same place that their father took them." (3)
Teddy Roosevelt couldn't have said it better
See you 'round the campfire
(1) World Book Encyclopedia
(2) From "In Defense of Hunting" by James A. Swan
(3) From a 8/5/05 transcript "On The Media: Gun Shy" www.wnyc.org