Desert Land Act of 1877
· Gave cheap dry land to those who could irrigate it successfully within three years
Forest Reserve Act of 1891
· President is allowed to set aside forests as national parks and the like to preserve them
Carey Act of 1894
· Gave states some federal land if the state promised to water and populate it
Newlands Act of 1902
· Allows the federal government to use money from the sale of western land to fund irrigation projects
Pictures: http://tinyurl.com/6848wk6
A Quick and Clever Guide to Progressive’s Varied Views on Conservation
Alas! Two star-crossed lovers meet! I mean… the progressives were a generally happy family but had two different views about nature conversation. You could even say these views were feuding. Their names were Beauty and Use. Beauty was obsessed with herself. She wanted nature to exist simply because she felt that when she looked into nature’s dreamy eyes (which were not quite so dreamy as a progressive’s eyes) she looked into a mirror. She couldn’t help but bawl her eyes out every time she thought of nature being used for anything but a perfect mirror of her. Use, on the other hand, was a rather more practical fellow. He wanted to keep nature beautiful, of course, but he wasn’t overly concerned with that. Without destroying nature’s loveliness, he hypothesized cleverly, I can exploit its resources for my own good. And thus were the Progressives divided. Many sided with Beauty, many sided with Use, and this division eventually lead to the death of Romeo and Juliet. I mean, a split in the Progressive vote. The End.
Entertaining, and yet, is this really the story of two star-crossed lovers? Maybe it's more a case of opposites attract and, with the marriage of beauty and use, the standard Progressive take on conservation is born.
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