Though
from different political parties, cousins Franklin Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt
had a lot in common besides their last name. Both of them fought greedy industrialists
and both of them were environmentalists. As President, Franklin not only built
upon but greatly expanded the environmental policies instituted by his cousin
Theodore. He focused on forestry, national parks, water conservation, land management,
wildlife preservation and the general conservation of natural resources. With
his wife Eleanor as a strong public advocate, he created the Civilan Conservation
Corps during the Depression, which gave work to young men in preventing soil erosion,
planting trees, and building firebreaks and wilderness trails. Although Franklin
Roosevelt was faced with two of the most difficult crises in American history,
the Depression and World War II, he believed that conserving the environment was
tied to "liberty" for the community as well as the individual, one of the most
basic of American principles. And so, through all of those dangerous years, he
presided over what has since become known as "the Golden Age of Conservation".
Biography
© Larry Auld
