The first time our government took environmental action was with the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation act of 1899. The act was initiated to preserve the integrity of our natural waterways. In the early 1900s President Theodore Roosevelt worked to conserve our natural treasures and created national parks. It was with Roosevelt that the public began to really think about the environment and the conservation of our surroundings. Although the early 1900s were a very important time for environmental law, the real period of environmental change in the United States took place in the seventies and the eighties. While Roosevelt could be considered the spokesperson for the early conservation era, Nixon’s presidential administration was the most prominent environmentally in the seventies and eighties. Under President Nixon the Environmental Protection Agency, or the EPA, was created. The EPA was founded to protect and preserve our nation and its inhabitants. You will learn more about the EPA later. Obama cited environmental concerns to be a major issue during his 2008