During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the environment was being treated terribly. Large forests were being cut down, entire species of animals were being slaughtered, and historic sites were being thrashed. Many naturalists and conservationists were desperately trying to preserve the place Americans call home. Among those naturalists was our nation's 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt deserves the Achievement in Rights Award for his work with national parks and monuments, forests, wildlife, and irrigation projects.
"Of all the questions which can some before this nation, short of the actual preservation of its existence in a great war, there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us, and training them... to inhabit the land and pass it on. Conservation is a great moral issue, for it involves the patriotic duty of insuring the safety and continuation of the nation"-Theodore Roosevelt