Gabe Atkinson

Final Draft
March 6, 2020

The great movement for sustainability that is currently taking America by storm, is
something that has been brewing in the heart of Americans for almost two centuries. The
conservation movement propelled itself into the political spotlight in the late 1890’s and early
1900’s by appearing in political debates. The issues were of private land owners wanting to do
whatever they wanted on their land, with future President Theodore Roosevelt pushing the
position that the land should be protected by the United States government in order to protect
certain species and certain areas of land that were on the edge of being destroyed.1 From here the
seeds of conservationism were being sown in the American people and were sure to resurface
again.
Numerous books are written and constituted of a top down approach by the national
government, much in the style of Theodore Roosevelt, where the federal government helped
protect the land. One of Theodore Roosevelt’s plans was to create a National Park system that
helps protect the United State’s wildlife areas for the future. In the year 1906, he signed this
policy into law and 150 national forests were created.2 These national parks grew into a massive
governmental effort to protect and preserve this land and can be seen today, as 8.5% of the
United States is dedicated to preserving wildlife. From here however, we can see some problems
beginning to emerge from the massive amount of conservationism in United States politics.
The decade is the 1960’s and conservation is back again, only to be pondered deeply and
more intensely than ever before. Many of these policies against hunting and timber cutting have
put pressure on Native Americans and immigrants to find new ways to live and are making them
adapt to a culture that they aren’t familiar with or simply cannot survive in.3 We can see a bigger
push to be more sustainable personally, but the true effort of protecting the land around us and
the United States at large is something to be addressed not only personally but also politically.
On the personal side, some examples of helping the United States herself thrive might be
to go to the nearest national park and help clean up. Bring a few bags to pick up garbage with,
and don’t leave until you’ve filled them and had an amazing amount of time spent in nature. You
can also donate to these parks and give them enough traffic to show that they are being
recognized and respected. If you do go and camp or stay for a day, be very careful with your
garbage and the areas that you explore. Cutting trails is a personal pet peeve of mine (even on
switchbacks!!) so please, take the long way. In addition to this, please take only photographs,
with the only exception being hitchhiker seed pods. These areas can be absolutely stunning and
in places that you would never expect, for example there’s a national park outside Las Vegas that
has some of the most gorgeous rocks you’ve ever seen.

1Redekop, B. (2014). Embodying the Story: The Conservation Leadership of Theodore Roosevelt.
Leadership. Published online Aug. 7, 2014
2 W. Todd Benson, President Theodore Roosevelt's Conservations Legacy (2003)
3 W. Todd Benson, President Theodore Roosevelt's Conservations Legacy (2003)
 Politically, this movement has a long way to go. We have to find and then vote for people
that have the environment in mind, and who have the power to protect our land. Going back to
the point about Native Americans and immigrants, think of political candidates who can stand for
both of these aspects of America. There is a balancing act to be done here and we must be able to
strike this balance, lest we lose our beautiful forests, but also beautiful people. Having lived in
Alaska for two years, the Native people have beautiful rituals and a way of life that is so
incredibly graceful that would be a tragedy to decimate in order to promote a policy destined to
“save America’s environment.” Many of these people survive off subsistence hunting and must
be taken into account in order to help create an environment that is mutually beneficial for
everyone.
We live in a beautiful country with an incredibly diverse range of land that we should
strive to defend at all cost. From being responsible and visiting these areas, to helping elect
people that will defend these areas, we have to come together and respect the Earth and defend
her.