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U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (left) and nature preservationist John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, on Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park. In the background: Upper and lower Yosemite Falls. |
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Posted by Kimmy Sophia Brown
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Anybody who loves nature appreciates the forethought of
anybody who has worked to preserve and protect it. Teddy Roosevelt, former
United States President and wilderness adventurer, helped establish many
National Parks, National Forests, Game Preserves, Federal Bird Reservations and
National Monuments in America.
The following is a quote from his book, A Booklover’s
Holiday in the Open, published in 1916.
“Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness
will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless
extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to
champion them by saying the ‘the game belongs to the people.’ So it does; and
not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The ‘greatest
good for the greatest number’ applies to the number within the womb of time,
compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty
to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an
unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn
generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger
movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially
democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.”
God bless Teddy!
