Outside reading reflection 1 Jon Russo

 This post is from reading chapter 5 from "First Along the River" by Benjamin Kline. Chapter 5 was about the realization as America turned into the 20th century that the resources that were once thought to be endless were not. After President McKinley's assassination in 1901 Theodore Roosevelt took over and focused efforts on conservation movements, along with preservation. National forests went from 42 million acres to 172 million acres preserved. After World War 1, attempting to meet with demands of new technology and production standards eventually led to the Great Depression in the 1930s. Pinchot and Muir were leading naturalists at the time with opposing views. Muir believed that preserving nature so every one can enjoy it was the most important thing. Pinchot believed that conserving nature was most important so it can be utilized to develop society. Eventually both took precedence in their own way , arguably conservation had more interest than preservation. This was proven when the Hetch Hetchy Damn was being discussed. Muir wanted the dam to not be built because it would ruin an area of Yosemite, the press deemed his words "verbal lingerie" and the building of the dam went forth utilizing the water for San Francisco.