of president on the history of the

conservation movement. the book is title willederness warrior. >> why did want to start this discussion at this training center? >> this is where biologies are trained. it's the head qurter for u.s. fish and wild life. here on the side, all the pictures of caraboo in alaska. what interests me is writing the book like willederness warrior is roosevelt is really the father of u.s. fish and

wild life. it's roosevelt that realized that the federal government has an obligation to save speesies, birds, animals, plants and trees. the president has an obligation to make sure we put aside those >> i was really interested in him. i had a program called magic bus. i brought kids across the country.

he wrote this incredible book. one i particularly like called the willederness hunter. >> i started realizing that from the civil war and world

war one, roosevelt use the white house to promote conservation and nature the support to save birds. the eventual creation of fish and wild life, it's changed america. this summer, if anybody opens the atlas, you see all that green. you are look at roosevelt monday ue meants. he put aside 240 acres of wild america. now as people are talking about environmental ix and green movements. roosevelt is becoming the key figure. the only politician of the day to under darwin and birds migration patterns one of the

things you see throughout this center are stuffed animals. >> tax determiney >> he was asthma and was sickly. his first document we have is about birds. the last article he wrote about

his death at age 60 is about birds. he was one of the world's experts on coloration and varation, on inventorying what we had. he created these bird reservations. 51 that are now the heart and soul of u.s. fish and wild life. those watching don't realize it all began with the 51 conservation areas. >> tell us where you are located? >> about 90 minutes from washington. it's a beautiful campus. it's the archive where i did research. they have the papers not just of early conservation nivets i

went to the places roosevelt saved. i would go to various bird places.wg they have local archives. one in michigan and arizona. i went to puerto rico to seat key national forest he saved. it's our only rain forest in our entire system i would go to these places and interview them and get local dock you meantation too

>> looking behind you, there's a large picture above the fireplace. >> that's from 1903. roosevelt becomes president in 1901 because the previous president was asazz nated. he had created the first gain club. it was the first wild life protection of the big game group. in 1903, he gets on a train. then he gos to grand canyon. then he gos to yo skemity.

here's the president of the united states. they camp out and spend three days under the wild. roosevelt felt like the red woods were our cathedrals. they slept in a snow storm without a tent. they would try to outdo each other. muir was more of a bought any of the. they had a friendly competition. roosevelt thought muir was one of our great figures. they had some differences. he felt like only in extreme cases should you kill an animal.

>> one year by a camp fire, he says, when are you going to give up that boyist hunting thing of yours of course he didn't, he went on to africa it gets back to your question. before dna and-ft banding of animals. he couldn't have one blue bird. you had to have a wide selection of them to study in the laboratory. the first people going west

wanted geological survey. where is the mineral rights, the copper, coal, zinc. he was interested in a buy owe logical survey. he's applying between 1901 and 1909 what we areas custodians in our country.

new mexico was a territory, arizona was a territory. he could use the power of the executive office >> how old was he when he was president? >> he died when he was 60 years. he was at that point our youngest american president. later, there's always a trick. john f. ken di was the youngest elected. there's a psychiatrist that wrote a book he argued that he

had a form of manic depression where he couldn't turn his mind or energy off. he would hike sometimes 40-50 miless >> if he entered a room, he took it over.

he have found a lot of relief from nature. i go on nature hike was my kids. i'm living in austin. we go to a place called the wild bay son a lot. my parents were high school teachers. we had a trailer and used to go around the country and camp. i am like t.r. for my love of animals. we just had a kid of ra queues born under my daughter's bedroom. i like to have wild life around me.

the bad lands there helped me understand that. there's a woman named twila shaffer. many people go on vacations in the summer to south dakota. some of t.r.'s parks are there. not far over the border, he saved as our first national

monument. if you go north to north dakota is theodore roosevelt national park. you are going to see buffalo in the wild, antelope. it's one of these great places in america. summers in montana, you are getting a lot of forest fires now. the whole skywmñ is just lit up hope any the obama administration will do more to protect the missouri river. it's prayerry lands.

so often, we haven't trezz you'red. these areas, i feel more happy in. better than the coast. >> had you been working on this wuke? >> i was. i have a pangs and have been collecting. roosevelts papers i had in harvard. library of congress has his papers on micro feachfeesh what has happened is people are looking in his correspondence for issues of panama canal.

t.r., when he trained in san antonio had to have animals around him. he had a cougar cub, a gold eagle and a dog. to train his men, he had three animals with him all the time. he would write letters about the cougar biting a man's foot. in the white house, he had a pony in the elevator and a pet badger that he would feed potatos. he didn't have a dog. he had six dogs around him. all night long, a little dog skip would sit on his lap.

>> he inter receipted this love for animals. his uncle wrote a lot of books on canada, ontario , florida, wild florida, which was big to them. it become part of a family tradition to be a conservation any of the. >> how did you get this publisher to put this outright now? >> they don't like to promote publishers multivolumes i realized we have never written a real conservation of the country. t.r. was the perfect person to do it.

i could have cut my book down. i would have had to not write about the forest in arizona or not write about the bird refuges in florida. have you to start cutting some of the places he had saved. i didn't want to do that. the major statements for people to understand. it's not just a washington story. there were foot soldiers. t.r. was networking. it's a book of t.r. and a conservation any of the around him. there are men who had a smithsonian institute. they bread buffalo at the bronx zoo. he was the founder of the bronx

zoo. i didn't want them to be relevant gated anymore just to a specialist. it's a circle of these people around him. how many of these other places did you spend time in? >> almost all. all the national parks are vivelted. this has been my hobby visiting roosevelt's places. when was very exciting for me. pine gnat is a cabin in the wild. roosevelt as president saw the last alive passenger pigon.

there used to be 100 million. roosevelt wrote the last ob serveation of one in the wild. pine knot shows the real t.r. people don't want to think of roosevelt's conservation as a policy as much as a passion.

>> he got romantic excitement from seige speesies5m÷ in the wild. this place is paid for by the taxpayer. >> that's one of the reasons i wanted you to come. you look in the fass i have yick coast. you see them on the map. he saved those. he was very interested in wild life photography. he would come to the white house and show him pictures of wild oregon. he went to portland and met him once. these states particularly in

the west and florida. he then was shocked to find a congress ready to mine it roosevelt says, i so declare it a national monday ue meant. we are not really into the

federal government grabbing an area and closing it off. he is zermed to use the executive power to save wild america. >> are you afraid maybe you would open this place up to others and they would take it away? >> you can't pick up a magazine without reading about green

power or the environmental movementáold every green forests. it wasn't just localized. he was evolved in a sentence of seeing the problems of hyper industrialation. he wanted the world to act. >> this place wouldn't be here without robert c. bird.

i don't think he would. his sense of grand your for example many of our rangers from the west were rough riders he was doing law enforcement saying we are going to protect our heir looms.

mmp e search a verdea we are going to police them. we are training people how to be conservation any of thes all those years later they would be celebrating. nine years ago, he leaves the white house.

his last week he put the monday ue meant he saved it as the last minute while he was in africa.,ú half fired over alaska lands argument he started and fired pincho. roosevelt gets in daring to turn back even a portion of the legacy.