In this essay I will discuss why I think Theodore, or “Teddy” as his friends and family called him, Roosevelt went from just a little boy collecting birds for a museum piece to a man trying to look at the bigger picture of where he lives and trying to help it. I will include a foretelling on why it is believed that Teddy might have been the world’s greatest hero of all time. The reason being is that no matter how many obstacles came his way he kept pushing and fighting for that greater goal. What was his greater goal? To save a planet from dying. Aside from him collecting and documenting birds, Teddy was also an avid hunter. He would go hunting with groups of men one time or another. However his greatest achievement has to be when he finally became president in 1901 and decided to make many changes that would greatly help the world’s environment.

In the Northern Dakota Badlands, as they were called, they were cut substantially when the 1869 Transcontinental railroads tore out big chunks of land that the bison and buffalo freely roamed. Because the workers and just regular merchants thought that these animals were in their way, they slaughtered them and had there hide used in trade.  Twenty years in that same area passed by and the people were still selling the magestic creatures, making them almost extinct. In 1872 Roosevelt’s family as well as him took a trip to Egypt and Syria where Teddy being a born naturalist and lover of scientific nature collected then personally stuffed exotic birds to add to his collection. Although he was not for killing of the animals for personal pleasure, the hunt and game club at the time made it seem that “to make accurate observations on the physical characteristics of unfamiliar animals”(America’s experience ; 2016) killing was acceptable. Even when he attended Harvard he brought his collection of exotic birds with him.

Teddy being a man of nature from the very beginning, knew and saw what was happening in the woods was not supposed to happen. Teddy amongst all others saw this to be true, that “the wilderness could only handle so much exploitation” (America’s experience ; 2016). Knowing first hand that the Bisson and the Buffalo were getting murdered ruthlessly for personal gain by merchants, he knew as an avid naturalist that protecting wildlife and natural recourses should be his main priority. Not only the hunters were making the situation worse, miners and timber cutters also helped kill the planet. Knowing that the planet was also going into shreds the more forward-thinking sportsmen took action and decided that they needed to organize and conserve the game and its habits. By becoming president in 1901 that gave Teddy the ultimate power in trying to make a difference in the world. At this point Teddy could make any law’s that he saw necessary, and could try to do as many things as possible before his presidency term ended. Like protecting the wildlife and public lands by creating the United States Forest Service (USFS), establish one hundred and fifty natural forests, fifty one federal bird reserves,(which would later become the nationals wildlife refuge managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service), four national game preserves, six national parks, and eighteen national monuments by enabling the 1906 American Antiquities Act. “Roosevelt believed that Nature existed to benefit mankind. In a conserved wilderness, timber could be harvested,[hunting could be allowed], and water could be taken to irrigate farmland. All of these benefits could be lost if the wilderness were destroyed.” (America’s experience ; 2016)

In doing this Teddy thought that by conserving those lands then it would conserve the properties in which they lie upon. Within these national parks Roosevelt sought to it that there were twenty three out of the thirty five sites that needed to be managed by the National Park service. Without Teddy’s dedication to maintaining the United States and trying to make it a better tool for us in the longer run, the U.S. probably would have consumed all of the natural resources in those lands until they were dry. However where it is most dry in the Grand Canyon, the U.S. Congress saw to it that they didn’t want that land to be protected, and when congress said no to the president, he just made it a national monument. Aside from the congress saying no to having the Grand Canyon as a protected piece of land, the Congress was also displeased when the people complained about the sixty three million acres of land that the president moved from public land into the national forests.

After one hundred years of him being out of office his imprint on the U. S. will still be remembered. America is constantly naming new buildings and building new monuments in his honor. The reason being is because he did incredible things to help us and now it is paying off. This president will always go down in history with a strong set of shoulders and an opened mind on the things that could happen in the future. I feel like choosing Teddy for this topic was the right choice, he did all of the right things during his presidency. I leave these topics with a saying of his own, it has a lot of meaning and still, he kept his eyes open.

“It is also vandalism wantonly to destroy or to permit the destruction of what is beautiful in nature, whether it be a cliff, a forest, or a species of mammal or bird. Here in the United States we turn our rivers and streams into sewers and dumping-grounds, we pollute the air, we destroy forests, and exterminate fishes, birds and mammals — not to speak of vulgarizing charming landscapes with hideous advertisements. But at last it looks as if our people were awakening.”