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Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone becomes the nation's first national park. -
Pelican Island
The nation's first wildlife refuge is formed when President Theodore Roosevelt protects Pelican Island, FL, from hunters decimating the island's bird population. Nearly 70 years later, the area is designated a Wilderness (in 1970), becoming the smallest designated Wilderness in the system (5 acres). -
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service is established within the Department of Agriculture to manage forest
reserves. -
The Weeks Act
The Weeks Act appropriates $9 million dollars to purchase 6 million acres of land in the eastern United States for the purpose of establishing national forests. -
The National Park Organic Act
The National Park Organic Act creates the National Park Service and establishes the National Park System in order to conserve scenery, wildlife, and "historic objects" for future generations. -
The Multiple Use and Sustained Yield Act
The Multiple Use and Sustained Yield Act redefined the purpose of the national forests to include not only timber and watershed concerns, but also recreation, wildlife, fishing, hunting, and soil concerns. -
The Clean Air Act
The Clean Air Act is a United States federal law enacted by the United States Congress to control air pollution on a national level. It requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop and enforce regulations to protect the general public from exposure to airborne contaminants that are known to be hazardous to human health. -
The Wilderness Act
The Wilderness Act of 1964 was written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society. It created the legal definition of wilderness in the United States, and protected some 9 million acres (36,000 km²) of federal land. The result of a long effort to protect federal wilderness, the Wilderness Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 3, 1964. -
The Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Commonly abbreviated as the CWA, the act established the goals of eliminating releases of high amounts of toxic substances into water, eliminating additional water pollution by 1985, and ensuring that surface waters would meet standards necessary for human sports and recreation by 1983 -
The Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation."
