Last week the White House announced that as a part of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, President Barack Obama’s administration would be designating 87,500 acres of forestland in Maine’s North Woods, as a national monument. This week he was speaking in Honolulu at the World Conservation Congress. “No nation, not even one as powerful as the United States, is immune from a changing-climate,” he said. A big part of his push to protect so much of America’s environmental heritage is the result of this very fact.
“I have to say that Teddy Roosevelt gets credit for starting the National Park System, but when you include a big chunk of the Pacific Ocean, we have now actually done more acreage,” he said.
Obama is correct. No other President in the history of the United States has procured more land under the protection of our national park system.
Today's designation builds on the President's strong record of protecting our nation's natural resources. To date, he has permanently protected more than 265 million acres of America's public lands and waters -- more than any other president in history.
My hat is off to you, sir.