They attached an amendment to the Agricultural Appropriations Bill which would have effectively destroyed the president's power to create new forest reserves. Roosevelt's response befitted a Rough Rider who had charged the rifles and cannons on San Juan Hill. He instructed Gifford Pinchot to provide him with a list of the lands for inclusion in reserves before the deadline for his signature on the Agricultural Appropriations Bill. He signed an order incorporating 16 million of acres of new lands into forest reserves two days before the deadline. During our discussion, I pointed out the significance of Pelican Island in understanding Theodore Roosevelt's views on land protection.
Pelican Island is a speck of land in Florida's Indian River, on the Atlantic Coast.
Feather hunters had been slaughtering the birds. The flocks were teetering on the brink when Audubon ranger Paul Kroegel made a personal plea to TR to save this precious land. Midway Island during this time was also experiencing a plague of poaching of sea birds. Roosevelt did not wring his hands and let the wildlife perish. He sent in the Marines.