The ultimate overlanding tour...
...Roosevelt was very impressed with Muir, and the experience re-enforced his conservationist stance. Over the rest of Roosevelt's administration, he set aside 148,000,000 acres of forest reserves and the number of national parks doubled.
Immediately after his camping trip with Roosevelt, Muir went on a world tour through Europe, Asia, and the Pacific. After that, in 1905, the Sierra Club fought for Yosemite Valley to go from being under state to federal control, and in 1906 the senate approved and allowed the valley to become part of Yosemite National Park. That same year, Muir's wife died. Also in 1906, Muir was able to convince Roosevelt to establish the Petrified Forest National Monument to protect the fossilized trees of Arizona. In 1908, a donated grove of redwood trees near San Francisco became Muir Woods National Monument.
Around 1907, Muir began to battle to save Hetch Hetchy, a beautiful valley in Yosemite National Park that San Francisco had set its sights on. The city wanted to petition congress to remove the valley's protection so that it could be turned into a water reservoir. Although there were other available places for San Francisco to build a reservoir, it was viewed as the cheapest option because it was already government-owned land. Congress favored the proposal while Roosevelt worked hard to destroy it. When President Taft came into office, Muir also guided him through the area and showed him Hetch Hetchy and demonstrated to the president why he loved the valley so much. Taft was also convinced and protected the valley during his term. However, with the election of Woodrow Wilson in 1912, both the senate and the president approved the bill to build a dam in Hetch Hetchy. The valley was completely destroyed and Muir was completely devastated by the results. Shortly afterward on Christmas Eve, 1914, John Muir died of pneumonia.
Two years later, in 1916, the National Parks Service was created to regulate the national parks. The Sierra Club also continued its work, even preventing dams from being built in the Grand Canyon in the 1960s. Today the club has over one million members. John Muir is remembered largely as a conservationist and as a bit of a naturalist philosopher, always wandering in the wilderness. While John Muir may have lost the battle to save Hetch Hetchy, he played the pre-eminent role in preserving Yosemite Valley and his scientific theory about glaciers forming the valley has been proven to be correct. Furthermore, his efforts towards conservation had major long-term effects in how our government views environmental protection and Muir ultimately helped to establish a tradition of advocating for the government to take responsibility for the preservation of important natural areas and for conserving its resources. https://www.nps.gov/thri/johnmuir.htm
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The Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937, most often referred to as the Pittman–Robertson Act for its sponsors, Nevada Senator Key Pittman and Virginia Congressman Absalom Willis Robertson, is an act that imposes an 11% tax on firearms, ammunition, and archery equipment and distributes the proceeds to state governments for wildlife projects.
The act was signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt on September 2, 1937, and became effective on July 1 of the following year. It has been amended many times, with several of the major amendments taking place during the 1970s and the most recent in 2000. Prior to the creation of the Pittman–Robertson Act, many species of wildlife were driven to or near extinction by commercial/market hunting pressure and/or habitat degradation from humans. The act created an excise tax that provides funds to each state to manage such animals and their habitats. Notable species that have come back from the brink since the implementation of this act include white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, and wood ducks.
The idea behind the act is that by creating more and better hunting experiences for people through habitat management and hunter education, more taxable items will be purchased, which would in turn provide more funding for management and improvement. The habitat improvement may also stimulate the ecotourism sector of the economy by creating jobs in areas where people tend to visit for hunting or aesthetic reasons.
One source shows hunters spending around $10 billion a year on everything they need for their hunting trips. A different source found that hunters spend between $2.8 and $5.2 billion a year on taxable merchandise. This generates between $177 and $324 million a year in P–R money.
Another source estimated that hunters contribute about $3.5 million a day to conservation by purchasing taxable items and hunting licenses. One study showed an extremely high return on investment for firearm manufacturers: 823% to 1588% depending on the year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittman%E ... ration_Act
Decline In Hunters Threatens How U.S. Pays For Conservation
MARCH 20, 20186:31 AM ET
HEARD ON ALL THINGS CONSIDERED
https://www.npr.org/2018/03/20/59300180 ... nservation
A new survey by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows that today, only about 5 percent of Americans, 16 years old and older, actually hunt. That's half of what it was 50 years ago and the decline is expected to accelerate over the next decade.
H-U-A or "Hooah!" = Heard Understood & Acknowledged. In context: "Roger that sir, HUA!"
