Some important figures made attempts towards preservation, such as Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. In 1832, Andrew Jackson signed legislation that set aside a section around Hot Springs, Arkansas for protection. Later, in 1864, Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress to grant Yosemite and Sequoia to California.
“I have seen persons of emotional temperament stand with tearful eyes, spellbound and dumb with awe, as they got their first view of the Valley from Inspiration Point, overwhelmed in the sudden presence of the unspeakable, stupendous grandeur.” -Galen Clark, first administrative "guardian" of the Yosemite Grant.
The Yosemite Grant signed by Abraham Lincoln on June 30, 1864, that granted Yosemite and Sequoia to California.
“Acquisitiveness and exploitation were the spirit of the times, with little regard for the ethics of conservation or the needs of the future. The reaction to the abuse of the Nation's natural resources during this period gave rise to America's forestry and conservation movement.” -The Beginning Era of Concern About Natural Resources, 1873-1905, The USDA Forest Service, The First Century, by Gerald W. Williams, Ph.D., July 2000
“Many easily forget the degree to which natural resources were taken for granted after Europeans colonized America. The forests were so vast, the game so plentiful, and the bays and rivers so packed with fish and shellfish that seizing what was wanted without a thought to future supply became a countrywide habit.” -Fall 2004 issue of The Maryland Natural Resource magazine
“Environmental historians conclude that earlier attitudes about forests began to change in the United States during the nineteenth century. New ideas about the value of forests became important as old ideas about wilderness began to change. Forests came to be appreciated as more than sources of raw materials and valuable wood products; they were seen also as places of great natural beauty and spiritual inspiration and, later in the century, as locations for recreation and rejuvenation of the body and spirit." -Environmental Ethics and Forestry, by Peter C. List, 2000, pg. 12
Trying to Save Land
In the 1890s, the general attitude on natural resources was exploitation without concern for the future, but eventually people began to realize there might be consequences affecting natural spaces.
Landscape architect Charles Eliot made an innovative proposal that a private association be created for the purpose of protecting and preserving regional scenic treasures through permanent trusteeship:
"As Boston's lovers of art united to found the Art Museum, so her lovers of nature should now rally to preserve for themselves and all the people as many as possible of the scenes of natural beauty which, by great good fortune, still exist near their doors." -[Letter published in Garden and Forest, March 5, 1890]
Early expeditions to the west helped raise awareness of the need to protect U.S. lands.
(Photograph by David Arnold)
“The development and industrialization of the country, and the consequential natural resource exploitation, led some people to realize our resources were finite.” -Clayne R. Jensen, Outdoor Recreation in America, pg. 24, 2006
-The Beginning Era of Concern About Natural Resources, 1873-1905, The USDA Forest Service, The First Century, by Gerald W. Williams, Ph.D., July 2000 “The growth of this nation by leaps and bounds . . . has been due to the rapid development, and alas . . . to the rapid destruction of our natural resources. Nature has supplied to us in the United States . . . more kinds of resources in a more lavish degree than has ever been the case at any other time or with any other people. Our position in the world has been attained by the extent and thoroughness of the control we have achieved over nature; but we are more, and not less, dependent upon what she furnishes than at any previous time of history since the days of primitive man.” -Theodore Roosevelt [H. Hagedorn, ed., The Works of Theodore Roosevelt. 20 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1927), v. 16, pp. 121-22]