Conserving Scenery, Natural Historic Objects and the Wildlife Therein
Woodrow Wilson’s instructions are pretty succinct;
“to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”
In 1916 Woodrow Wilson put his signature to the National Park Service Organic Act. He wasn't thinking about natural foods, but the generations to come in America and what was necessary and valuable to save for them from the ravages of commerce. In that second decade of the century, commerce had only begun to ravage, but it was building up a head of steam. In the midst of the First World War, this president thought such things were important.
Woody essentially took what Teddy Roosevelt had created and tucked it neatly within the bosom of the Department of the Interior. The Woody-Teddy compact hardly addressed itself to the automobile, because roads and cars were both more primitive at the time than the mil…