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Conservation Commissions and Conferences under the Roosevelt Administration 1901-1909 Top1.) The Public Lands Commission was appointed by TR on October 22, 1903 to study public land policy and laws. The findings of the commission helped lead to new government regulations of the use of open range and federal lands. 2.) The Inland Waterways Commission was appointed by TR on March 14, 1907 to study the river systems of the United States, the development of water power, flood control, and land reclamation. 3.) The Conference of Governors, called by Roosevelt to consider the problems of conservation, met at the White House May 13-15, 1908, attended by the governors of the states and territories, the members of the Supreme Court and the Cabinet, scientists, and various national leaders. The governors adopted a declaration supporting conservation, and the conference led to the appointment of 38 state conservation commissions. This 1908 meeting was the beginning of the annual governors' conferences. 4.) The National Conservation Commission, appointed by TR on June 8, 1908 as a result of the Conference of Governors, prepared the first inventory of the natural resources of the United States. The commission was divided into four sections, water, forests, lands, and minerals, each section having a chairman, and with Gifford Pinchot as chairman of the executive committee. 5.) The Country Life Commission was appointed by TR in August, 1908, with Liberty Hyde Bailey, director of the College of Agriculture at Cornell, as chairman, to study the status of rural life. When Congress refused to appropriate funds to print the commission's historic report, the Chamber of Commerce of Spokane, Washington, published the report. 6.) The Joint Conservation Congress met in December, 1908, to receive the three-volume report of the National Conservation Commission. The congress was attended by 20 governors, representatives of 22 state conservation commissions, and leaders from various national organzations. 7.) The North American Conservation Conference convened at Roosevelt's invitation in the White House on February 18, 1909, and after a session of five days adopted a declaration of principles. The congress called for an international conservation conference, an idea which TR endorsed; but no such meeting was held. TR decided to call this continental conference after the successes of the Conference of Governors and the Joint Conservation Congress. In his call for the conference, TR said: "It is evident that natural resources are not limited by the boundary lines which separate nations, and that the need for conserving them upon this continent is as wide as the area upon which they exist." Roosevelt made much innovative use of study commissions. He appointed a total of six, including the four on conservation. These were volunteer commissions, "carried on without a cent of pay to the men themselves, and wholly without cost to the Government," as TR stressed. In reaction to the flood of legislative and policy recommendations resulting from the commissions, Congress in 1909 forbade the President to appoint any further commissions without Congressional authorization. Roosevelt's other work for conservation as President inluded the withdrawal of coal, mineral, oil, phosphate, and water-power site lands from private exploitation.
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We
continuously add links to conservation lands. If you know about a website
we should consider for linking, please contact the webmaster at trinfo@cs.com Note: The status, borders, names, and other details about the projects and areas mentioned in these lists have changed over the years. For instance, some National monuments are now parts of National Parks, while the borders and names of National Forests have been changed in some cases. Compiled
and edited from research done by the National Geographic Society and
The Theodore Roosevelt Association staff.
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