By Mark Scott
Buffalo, NY – The conservation movement in this country began with Theodore Roosevelt 100 years ago. This Sunday, one of the nation's leading experts on conservation and forest management will be in Buffalo to discuss Roosevelt's legacy and the state of the conservation movement today.
Theodore Roosevelt and George W. Bush have one thing in common -- their party affiliation. Bush is and Roosevelt was Republican. But for Char Miller, a professor of history at Trinity College in San Antonio, Texas, the similarities end there.
While Roosevelt is given credit for starting the conservation movement, Miller says Bush is "relentlessly hostile" to conservationism. He says Roosevelt and his fellow conservationists would be disappointed that their legacy is under attack.
"They believed deeply that the federal government had an absolutely vital role in the management of the land and the management of resources for human beings as well as wildlife," Miller said. "That's another part of Teddy's legacy that has basically diappeared from the current administration."
Miller says Roosevelt's greatest environmental accomplishment was his creation of the National Forest Service. He'll speak at the Buffalo Museum of Science Sunday afternoon at 2:00 as part of a lecture series sponsored by the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site.