After he became president, Teddy Roosevelt established 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, four national game preserves, five national parks, and eighteen national monuments. He preserved 230 million acres of public land for future generations. But while Teddy gets most of the credit for protecting public lands, the movement pre-dated him. President Grant signed the Yellowstone Act in 1872. The Act set aside over one million acres that would be preserved “from injury or spoilation,