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President Theodore Roosevelt (Republican) . . . who started the national parks programs back in the early 1900s -- is rolling over in his grave!
(President Theodore) Roosevelt initiated similar sweeping change in the West with his support of the National Reclamation Act (or Newlands Act) of 1902, which gave the federal government primary responsibility for dam construction and irrigation projects. A new federal agency, the Reclamation Service, brought scientific expertise and bureaucratic administration to this task, and by 1906 there were water projects underway in all the western states, establishing federal control of the use of this vital resource as well.
(President Theodore) Roosevelt also extended federal control over the scenic wonders of the West, using the 1906 Antiquities Act, which had been intended to preserve historic landmarks, to set aside 800,000 acres in Arizona as the Grand Canyon National Monument. All told, he created 16 national monuments, 51 wildlife refuges and five new National Parks, including Crater Lake in Oregon and the Anasazi ruins at Mesa Verde, Colorado, helping to pave the way for eventual recognition of such "national treasures" as natural resources requiring federal management to sustain their use by the West's growing tourist industry into the future.
. . . more at
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/i_r/roosevelt.htmAnd, today, neo-con Republicans u/ president George Walker Bush, are selling off our nation's federal public parks . . . truly UNREAL! What a hell of a legacy!
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