The Gifford Pinchot's Conservation Movement

The conservation movement within the United States was the ending of an unlimited national resource era and the beginning of the creation of nature as capitalism. Between the years of 1850-1930 government opened up national parks and forest in hopes to balance out the effects of westward expansion and the depletion of America’s natural advantages. Within this movement there were many key officials such as Theodore Roosevelt who saw the benefits in protecting the United States natural sights. Historically the conservation movement changed the relationship between humans and nature, sought to protect American landscapes and created capitalism.
The primary source selected is a photo of Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir, important key figures …show more content…
This management protected the over use of supplies and the beauty of natural landscapes. Gifford Pinchot, who views of conservation thinking, wanted “a rational plan for organizing the nation’s use of its natural resources” ; Pinchot sought out the commercial uses for preserving land and the business of capitalizing on it. An example of Pinchot’s views is over the gain of proper management of trees, “the forest existed to serve the economic demands of the nation” which from this grew the idea cutting down trees at a proper time then replacement by new trees. This economic gain from conservation created positives and negatives. Positives consisted of the act of planting new trees in place of “mature, dead, and diseased trees” which created the thinking of nature as a controlled environment held by humans. Negatives consisted of the interdependency of the forest and how many animals and other plant life relied on each other to survive. With the widespread destruction of natural habitat and the cultivating of specific animals for the use of game hunting allowed for the destruction and the disappearance of a natural balance of …show more content…
Many families and people coming into parks expected to see the natural uninhabited land where big and small game animals roamed freely. The goal was “to create and presser e a wilderness experience where visitors could be sure to find, elk, bison, and other large animals” this goal met many challenges for the management of parks. One goal which Steinberg states is the pervious inhabitants of the land those being Native Americans or rural whites, “inclined to view the creatures more as a food source” as well as facing the human ideals of previous attitudes of land use. However the establishment of Yellowstone as a national park aided in the building of industry such as a railroad to the park and the attraction was precise and remarked by one observer as “played by the clock”