Thomas Jefferson. Theodore Roosevelt. Franklin Roosevelt. Lyndon Johnson. Richard Nixon. Jimmy Carter. All presided over major federal initiatives affecting the land we live in/on. Some argue that Nixon was not at heart an environmentalist, but the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency all happened on his watch.

My personal favorite is Teddy Roosevelt. He consistently lobbied Congress for wilderness protection, used the Forest Reserve Act of 1891 to set aside 150 million acres of timberland as public domains, and was instrumental in the creation of the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park System and the Agriculture Extension Service. And he popularized the ideas of resource stewardship and respect for nature.

Read about the rest on Mother Nature Network