Conservation

Conservation emerged as a public policy during the first years of the twentieth century after Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States. Issues pertaining to conservation policy helped to propel Roosevelt to seek the presidency again in 1912, and it was candidate Roosevelt and the Progressive Party that sought to use conservation as an issue to attract public support.

These pages are about conservation during the Progressive Era of the early twentieth century, and how conservation became an issue in the 1912 presidential campaign.

• What was conservation?
• What were its origins?
• Who were the public figures most involved in conservation as a political issue in 1912?
• What were the conservation-related events that helped propel Roosevelt to break with Taft?