Goals in Conservation Policy

Abstract

The movement to conserve the national resources of the United States is not new. It had its beginnings in the latter half of the last century. Those farsighted individuals who observed the fast dwindling forest resources of the country began the movement. At first major attention was given to the conservation of the forests of the United States. This movement gathered momentum when Gifford Pinchot and President Theodore Roosevelt became active participants in it. Under the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt the movement broadened to include resources other than forests. The National Conservation Commission was appointed in 1908 and made its report in 1909. The task of this commission was to make an inventory of the existing national resources, to estimate the proportion of them that had been utilized or exhausted and to estimate the time that these resources would last at the existing and probable future rates of use. To some degree the public became conservation conscious under the dynamic leadership of Theodore Roosevelt. However, the movement lost momentum when he passed from power. Interest in conservation lagged from 1909 until recent years. The later conservation movement had a somewhat different birth from the earlier movement. During the recent depression soil conservation work was undertaken as a worth-while project for the unemployed. When the Supreme Court of the United States declared certain vital portions of the Agricultural Adjustment Act unconstitutional, many of those concerned with agricultural welfare in the United States sought ways and means of continuing some kind of a federally sponsored agricultural program. The present agricultural conservation legislation was attached to the law providing for soil conservation work and the agricultural conservation program was the result. The earlier movement made some impression on public consciousness for a time but it was soon out of the public mind. Other affairs seemed much more important than conserving natural resources. One logically wonders if the present movement toward conservation will meet a similar fate and pass from the public consciousness with time. The answer lies in the goals or objectives that are the basis of the policies underlying the programs put into effect. If these objectives, as understood by the public, are such that they endure it is to be expected that the present conservation movement