The Winchester Naturalist

On the Birth of American Conservation

The United States of America is a very special country — not just politically, militarily, or economically, but also environmentally. From sea to shining sea, this great nation contains almost every type of biome on Earth. From giant seasonal forests to the massive Great Lakes, the Rocky Mountains to the Everglades, and the Great Plains to the deserts of the Southwest, the U.S. has some of the richest biodiversity on Earth. The U.S. has also made great efforts to preserve its rich environments. We owe much of the preservation of our land to one man: Theodore Roosevelt.

The “Wilderness Warrior” served as the 26th President of the United States. He was famous for his strong-arm, “strenuous life” attitude. Roosevelt was a veteran of the Spanish–American War, where he famously led his men to victory at San Juan Hill in Cuba (for which he posthumously received the Medal of Honor in 2001). Roosevelt is also remembered for his trust-busting laws, food and drug laws, and strong-arming of big corporations. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906. The list of Roosevelt’s accomplishments goes on and on, and he has rightly been immortalized on the face of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

But perhaps Roosevelt’s greatest accomplishments came from his fighting for the natural world. His accomplishments in this field are numerous, from founding the National Parks to developing the Bronx Zoo. Even his many hunting trips were all conservation-focused in some form. Yet these important accomplishments are sometimes overlooked when considering such an exceptional man. I will be bringing many of these accomplishments to light as I argue that Teddy Roosevelt is the greatest naturalist in American History.

Roosevelt Sitting atop Glacier Point, Yosemite National Park