Conservation law

“ The coalition of sportsmen, zoologists and friends of wild life in general proved irresistible, just as a similar union of forces accomplished the Bayne law in New York in 1911. The victory is highly instructive, as great victories usually are. It proves once more that whenever the American people can be aroused from their normal apathy regarding wild life, any good conservation legislation can be enacted! The prime necessities to success are good measures, good management, a reasonable [Page 285] campaign fund, and tireless energy and persistence. ”

“ But it is deemed necessary that a law be enacted providing that the people may lawfully acquire the timber required for their domestic use and their local industries from the public lands under such regulations as will prevent the indiscriminate and irreparable destruction of forests, with its train of disastrous consequences. ”

“ Wetland conservation shall adhere to the principles of conservation first, strict management, systemic governance, science-based restoration, and proper utilization, so that wetlands are able to exert their multiple ecological functions such as water conservation, climate regulation, environmental improvement, and biodiversity conservation. ”

“ As to the latter, we may compare the law of mining and of water rights on the public domain, which developed along lines of discovery and reduction to possession under the conditions of 1849 and the federal legislation of 1866 and 1872, with recent legislation proceeding on ideas of conservation of natural resources. The former requires more consideration. For the argument that excludes some things from private ownership may seem to apply more and more to land and even to movables. ”

“ Naturally, too, it is the National Government that must take the initiative in regard to the conservation of the great forests, waterways, waterfalls, and the features in the national parks and reserves.
Carefully drawn laws, both State and National, covering the foregoing will no doubt aid the cause of Conservation. Too much must not be attempted. More good will result from a constant vigilance with regard to the passage of bad laws which give away the heritage of the community, than from attempts now to formulate a general conservation code. ”

“ An auto­matic reforestation system should be instituted by requiring forest concessionaire to plant five trees for every tree they cut. It is therefore recommended that any violation of the forest conservation laws committed by concessionaires or their agents should be made a cause for the revocation or suspension of their license, permit, or concession. ”

“ The idea should not be allowed to prevail that conservation is the tying up of the natural resources of the government or indefinite withholding from use. Real conservation involves wise, non-wasteful use in the present generation, with every possible means of preservation for succeeding generations. ”

“ To-day the feeling in Congress, toward the conservation of wild life and forests is admirable. Both houses are fully awake to the necessity of saving while there is yet something to be saved. The people of the United States may be assured that the national government is active and sympathetic in the prosecution of such conservation measures as it might justly be expected to promote. ”

“ And so while this Congress discusses and formulates policies for the Conservation of our natural resources, it should, at least, as representing the official, professional, commercial, and industrial life of the Nation, distinctly and emphatically advocate such regulation as will preserve those resources which are the embodiment of the thrift and industry of our people—the utilized resources—from unnecessary and wasteful destruction by fire. ”

“ In fact, there is no philosophical problem in justifying conservation. What we face is an institutional problem. There is both a public determination that natural resources should be conserved and a public apathy and bureaucratic resistance toward doing it. As concerned biologists, we should be combating this apathy by pointing out that conservation represents a rational allocation of public resources. ”

“ It would be repaid over again in the healing of sick soils, the renovation of old lands, the preservation undiminished in every acre of our arable area of those elements of fertility without which plant life languishes, and the wilderness and the desert in a few generations sweep away the traces of man’s unworthy occupation. It is well worth the hearty and undivided support of public-spirited men. For without just such Conservation the time will come when our country will be unable to support its own people ”

“ The men who are to conserve our lands and waters and minerals, and perpetuate our forests, are now running around in knickerbockers, or being rocked in the cradles of the Nation. They and their children and their children's children, down along the line of centuries, will carry out the vital precepts and principles of this great Conservation movement—this timely warning cry against careless National extravagance, this imperative codicil to the Declaration of Independence. ”

“ We have been deciding, and the decision is not yet fully made, whether the future shall suffer the long train of ills which everywhere has followed, and must always follow, the abuse of the forest, or whether by protecting the timberlands we shall assure the prosperity of all of the users of the wood, the water, and the forage which our forests supply. Nothing less than the whole agricultural and commercial welfare of the country is in the balance. No other conservation question compares with this in the vital intimacy of its touch on every portion of our national life. ”

“ The recognition of rights and duties respecting the waters leads to juster appreciation of other resources, which were of no account when the constitution was framed but have acquired value through the natural growth and orderly development of our population and industries; and to-day several of our forty-odd state conservation commissions hold that in legislative or other action looking toward wiser use and conservation of the natural resources the people are but protecting their own. ”

“ As President, I’m proud to have built upon America’s tradition of conservation. We’ve protected more than 265 million acres of public lands and waters – more than any administration in history. We’ve recovered endangered wildlife species and restored vulnerable ecosystems. ”

“ It rises far above all matters of temporary individual business advantage, and becomes a great question of national preservation. We all have the unquestionable right to a reasonable use of natural resources during our lifetime, we all may use, and should use, the good things that were put here for our use, for in the last analysis this question of conservation is the question of national preservation and national efficiency. ”

“ Conservation for disuse, in this case, becomes an absurdity. Even as to mineral resources, which cannot be replaced when once withdrawn, Conservation calls only for economical use, not for neglect or insufficient use. The argument is that we have quite as good a right to the enjoyment of the gifts of Nature as our successors have, but not a right so much better than theirs as to render a wanton waste of our patrimony justifiable, or even pardonable. ”

“ It has recognized and been in absolute sympathy with the principles fundamental to Conservation work, namely, that conservative use and, where practicable, the intelligent maintenance and restoration of natural resources are indispensable to the continued prosperity of State and Nation and of inter-nations; that State boundaries or National boundaries do not confine and limit natural resources ”

“ So long as you stand for having the appropriations for preserving the Nation’s forests from three to twenty times less per acre than the lumberman is spending on his contiguous holdings, or for any congressional attack upon the integrity of the national forest system, your Conservation preachments are going to the wrong address or are not properly spelled in words that look like votes.
There is even greater need of definitions that apply to the situation of our States. Many have done nothing. ”

“ Each participating coastal state, after consultation with local governmental entities and other interested stakeholders, shall identify priority conservation needs within the State, the values to be protected by inclusion of lands in the program, and the threats to those values that should be avoided. ”

“ And the question of conservation is a great deal bigger than the question of saving our forests and our mineral resources and our waters; it is as big as the life and happiness and strength and elasticity and hope of our people. ”

“ Thus conservation seeks, Mr. Van Hise once said, "the greatest good to the greatest number, and for the longest time." The dawn of the conservation idea stimulated a reaction against the careless administration of natural resources. Toward the end of the 19th century, there was an increasing amount of legislation encouraging the legitimate use of natural resources on the one hand, and repressing monopoly on the other. After the opening of the twentieth century interest in conservation increased. ”

“ The land laws need complete revision to secure proper conservation on the one hand of land that ought to be kept in public use and, on the other hand, prompt disposition of those lands which ought to be disposed in private ownership or turned over to private use by properly guarded leases. ”

“ There is the great policy of conservation, for example; and I do not conceive of conservation in any narrow sense. There are forests to conserve, there are great water powers to conserve, there are mines whose wealth should be deemed exhaustible, not inexhaustible, and whose resources should be safeguarded and preserved for future generations. But there is much more. There are the lives and energies of the people to be physically safeguarded. ”

“ If the device of using the public lands to graft Government onto Conservation had not been invented by some civic genius, we would have had 90 percent of conservation to 10 percent of controversy. But when the landlord seeks to be the governor, especially in America, we get 90 percent plus of controversy and 10 percent minus of conservation. ”

“ But I attempted to cover the whole field of Conservation in an address at our first Congress, and will not repeat but, in conclusion, will touch upon that form of Conservation which all will concede to be of supreme importance—the Conservation of the most precious asset of the State: its men, women, and children. If the life and health of citizens is sacrificed, by vicious measures or by simple neglect, no saving of any other of our possessions will at all avail us. ”

“ However important it may be for the lumberman, the miner, the wagon-maker, the railroad man, the house-builder,—for every industry,—that conservation should obtain, when all is said and done, conservation goes back in its directest application to one body in this country, and that is to the children. ”

“ Conservation activities must repair errors of the past which have left denuded forest lands and empty game covers and waters; they must afford and direct the present use of the forests and the streams; they must safeguard the future supply, if they would meet the requirements of a conservation which shall raise the standards of life and lower the cost of living. ”

“ Outside interests may have rights that must be taken into consideration. However, local interests are more likely than any others to be concerned about genuine conservation and must take priority when decisions are being made. ”

“ Conservation has captured the Nation. Its progress during the last twelve months is amazing. Official opposition to the conservation movement, whatever damage it has done or still threatens to the public interest, has vastly strengthened the grasp of conservation upon the minds and consciences of our people. ”

“ We hear much about States' rights, as though the problems of Conservation have brought to life again an old doctrine, as though in some way the Conservationist is endeavoring to take something away from the States. The very opposite is true. There is no effort on the part of the Conservationist to interfere with any duty that the State ought to and can perform. ”

“ It therefore appears to be the part of wisdom for the people to defer scientific forestry on State lands while the present attitude of the legislative mind continues, and to preserve their forests intact until the prospect of deriving a revenue from them is better. ”

“ Failure to make use of our natural resources which are going to waste is the antithesis of Conservation. I believe that all non-forested lands adapted for agricultural purposes should be opened to settlement and homesteaders allowed to file upon them. Within the national forest reserves are vast areas with not a stick of timber on them, and on which timber can never be made to grow profitably. ”