The first major step toward reform was the General Revision Act of 1891. As noted earlier, this law repealed measures that had been an open invitation to land fraud, making it more difficult for corporations and wealthy individuals to steal timber and minerals. Prevention of theft scarcely constitutes conservation, but one section of the 1891 act, which empowered the president to set aside forest reserves, was a genuine conservation measure. Between 1891 and 1900, 50 million acres of valuable timberland were withdrawn from private entry, despite strong and growing opposition from interest groups in the western states. Inadequate appropriations made it impossible for the Division of Forestry to protect the reserves from forest fires and from depredations of timber thieves, but a start had been made.
When Theodore Roosevelt succeeded to the presidency in 1901, there was widespread concern, both in Congress and throughout the nation, over the problem of conservation. With imagination, charm, and fervor, Roosevelt sought legislation during both his terms to provide a consistent and far-reaching conservation program. By 1907, he could point to several major achievements:
1. National forests comprised 150 million acres, of which 75 million acres contained marketable timber. In 1901, a Bureau of Forestry was created, which became the United States Forest Service in 1905. Under Gifford Pinchot, Roosevelt’s able chief adviser in all matters pertaining to conservation, a program of scientific forestry was initiated. The national forests were to be more than just preserves; the “crop” of trees was to be continually harvested and sold such that ever-larger future crops were ensured.
2. Lands containing 75 million acres of mineral wealth were reserved from sale and settlement. Most of the lands containing metals were already privately owned, but the government retained large deposits of coal, phosphates, and oil.
3. There was explicit recognition of the future importance of waterpower sites. A policy of leasing government-owned sites to private firms for a stipulated period of years was established, while actual ownership was reserved for the government.
4. The principle was accepted that it was a proper function of the federal government to implement a program of public works for the purpose of controlling stream flows. The Reclamation Act of 1902 provided for the use of receipts from land sales in the arid states to finance the construction of reservoirs and irrigation works, with repayment to be made by settlers over a period of years. In reality, however, it was overwhelmingly taxpayers generally, rather than only western settlers, who paid for these water projects.
Although such achievements seem modest, it should be recalled that in the first decade of the twentieth century, many people bitterly opposed any interference with the private exploitation of the remaining public domain. Much of the growth of government expenditures in water control, dams, and irrigation systems awaited a second Roosevelt in the 1930s. But the precedents set by Theodore Roosevelt’s administration set the stage for the engineering marvels of the present era, which freed western agriculture from the shackles of dry-land farming of basic grains and livestock feeding—at considerable cost to the taxpayer. They also set a new direction, however haltingly, toward more conservation of natural space, minerals, forests, and water.
World History
