Been in the genes or something because you look at the travel that Teddy Roosevelt did in the amazon area, that trip i believe believe almost killed him didnt it . Heres an interesting fact for you to remember, theater roosevelt would get terribly seasick. He would vomit if he got on water. He had a bad stomach. He liked seen ahead of him, his favorite landscapes were flatland and prairie, now not only is expresident did he go to the amazon and do this incredible journey and he went to africa and spent a year recording Natural History of africa, i do not know if you realize that he came to your state and lived for a while in arizona hiking through the grand canyon he had saved. He then went and lived with native americas and wrote an article, he participated in a rattlesnake handling ceremony on his way from arizona into utah to see rainbow bridge. That is how committed he was, as x the president he wrote a very distinguished scientific piece on the tortoises of florida. Franklin roosevelt wanted to go to galapagos because a distant relative had written one of the best books about the galapagos predarwin. So the family had a real connection with the galapagos and fdr and harold hick us were trying to make the galapagos a World Heritage park or jointly run between ecuador and the United States. Fdr also wanted to have the big bend jointly run between the United States and texas, and glacier jointly run with canada. These did not happen because by coming up the state department with complications but roosevelt, he was are ready system seen that echo systems dont know borders. They they cross over the river on both sides. If youre going to protect you have to refrain from artificial barriers. Right before he died, the big issue that roosevelt was pushing was conservation is the basis of world peace. With the old forster and his father for it was old man near death, pincher and fdr post the altar at the time were to save the United Nations were going to create a global standard of conservation, they were pushing to go that far, when fdr died, that movement whitman nowhere be cause trumans people came in and they were much more less idealistic. Less conservation conscious. Less wanting to please the big corporations. In that kind of Global Environmental movement squelched. We could certainly use it right now. It is a pity that he did not get to live an extra year to get that done. What would they be thinking right now, the roosevelt that they could see todays conservation policies . I could tell you in if theater roosevelt were alive, or fdr, they would have brushed out the slate of candidates like dandruff. [laughter] these guys, roosevelt or giants, these guys because they put Public Service first, they were about aboumaking america really truly the special place to live. But theater roosevelt, keep in in mind that when he went to africa, William Howard taft fired gifford his forster that stayed on because he blew the whistle that they were coal mining in that National Forest in alaska, that was the roosevelt reserve. Pinchot got fired because they were letting cut companies out of seattle dude no money blown up the mountains in alaska because taft thought the conservation had gone too far. After tr came back and got the last laugh, he created the Bullmoose Party in 1912, split the Republican Party into and came in second and taft finished third. The most successful thirdparty movement in American History was the Bullmoose Party. Incidentally, but Franklin Roosevelt once he got polio a big thing was not to seem like a weakling and what he could do was build his upper body strength. He look like a bigtime wrestler if you looked at his upper body because of all the late weightlifting he would do. On the high seas sport fishing, he had Terrible Health problems, today there might be something for him form but he had terrible sinusitis, all of the time which he would not have when he was at sea. With a little bit of sun, his polio condition and his health would go upward. He spent like one out of every four days of his president on water, he would go all over because he felt so alive and also they call it blue mind night nowadays, but if you live near water features it is supposed to help clear your mind and you are able to think clearly, its why so many people are attracted to living on coastal areas and the like, he had that. He loved the ocean, salt spray, he would use the ocean sprays now when they have sinus trouble just because that salt opens up the sinuses. Lets start lining up for questions. I know you have a ton of questions for professor brinkley. While we are getting ready for a first question i want to ask you about the civilian conservation corps, talk a little about that. Occasionally we hear that can be reinvented or reenergized, cranked up may be to help and clean up some of our National Parks. Some of your thoughts on that please. It was next ordinary success that civilian conservation corps and we could use Something Like that today. It is difficult because back then even unemployed men looking for money they had to give their whole paycheck to their parents, even if you were 20 years old. Money had to go back to your family, you are only allowed to keep a little of it for personal expenses. It wasnt public welfare, it was was hard work with the money going back home. One would get a sense of selfworth, they would get up, they would wear uniforms, they would work these hard jobs on roads and on for street all day in remote areas. I dont know if we created leisure ideas in american life. Young people want time off, i have i have to go to this or that, i dont know if you could militarize conservation in that sense in todays generation. There are programs doing like the civilian conservation corps but it has not taken on the imagination of the public but i think its a great idea to get young people involved with the state parks, have schools adopt state parks, were talking about nature Deficit Disorder but people, kids do not know what the mountain ranges, they dont know the name of a tree, the name of their bushes near them, we need to teach Natural History and high school or middle school so kids start learning to create a new generation of conservationists. What fdr did by training all of those young men, the principles of conservation they became conservationists who led the 60s Environmental Movement. There is a direct link to what fdr did into the environmental Environmental Movement of the 1960s, Rachel Carson was writing pamphlets on the sea for fdrs wildlife, i write about her in her book and later she writes silent spring, its its all going out of these new deal programs, the modern of our Mental Movement is really modern and bored out of the new deal. Because even places like maryland is where they started saying how do we bring animals back into the wild, how do we so they would raise beaver and they realize that beavers were needed for echo systems. Leopold and his almanac delivered the famous Wildlife ConservationCommittee Reports fdr. He hired leopold and ding darling, the great cartoonist and thomas back and they came up with an amazing Wildlife Conservation plan which said we have to go by millions of acres and eat them over to the species. We did that. Part of my book, i think it is a victory for america that we got 550 wildlife refugees but the downside is people always wanting to dismantle it. They want to say it is not right and then we do not fund them. We treat our heirlooms terribly. Im hoping on the centennial of the park service we stand up and say we love our National Parks, lets take care of them because it is a fraction of our tax dollars goes into these wonderful Natural Resources that we all get to share. We on these. We on the grand canyon and big bend. They are the envy of the world believe me. Are grand Canyon International park system. First question. I hear the Koch Brothers and their friends have assembled this almost 1,000,000,000 dollars to elect candidates who want to completely do away with all rules and regulations regarding the fossil fuels, fracking and all of this. It is really a scary thought. Im wondering, does the other side of this, the people who are environmentalists, do they have funds and today have lobbyists, to the hip people that work to protect our land and to do these things . As you all know and we are in 2016 election it is a battle and people want to continue to save these places. The National Parks and not debated as much because Congress Passed them, it is a lots of these wilderness areas are National Forest were trump, or ted cruz, or any republicans come in and want to immediately gouge those landscapes. They want a sagebrush rebellion. They want to go in the Keystone Pipeline became a metaphor for the kind of conservative movement believed to open up all these places that the federal government is controlling. Dont kid yourself, the Environmental Movement groups are strong, whether it is a National Park association or National Park foundation, audubon, sierra, the wilderness society, one can rattle off a hundred of them. They do their job. They bring consciousness. Unfortunately it has become a little bit too partisan like democrats, people want to vote for Hillary Clintons are environmentalists and republicans are not. Theodore roosevelt was republican, john lacey was republican. Ronald reagan who we do not think of as an outdoor person he signed 51 wilderness or 50 some wilderness areas. Thats how far now, you think one of these guys running now are going to sign wilderness bills . The Republican Party has gone very extreme right and part of it is at the federal governments locking up these lands. This is what fdr came in strong when he did because we had to grow the grasslands because the dustbowl happened because of bad cattle ranching and just killed all the grassland. All the chapter was just going and to keep Water Supplies going and keep places force it. Thank you sir. So you have such an amazing grasp of the lives of these two men if you could speak to either one of them today what would you ask them . I would like to ask them what we can do to get out of the political gridlock we have americans turning on americans and it saddens me when we are a constant war with each other. I do not think it or neighborhoods neighborhoods its that bad but our politics have gotten so terribly dysfunctional. I would also want to see who fdr would appoint to the Supreme Court to fill justice scalia. He appointed the great Supreme Court justice on conservation, fdr did, William O DouglasWilliam O Douglas of washington. Fdr wanted douglas to be president. Douglas was ahead of his time on issues pertaining to the environment and as it pertained to the American West in particular. You are a president ial historian and i will get to your question but you brought up the election of 2016. Some of your thoughts ray quickly, have you ever seen anything like we are seeing today . Is there historical precedents for this . The point of history is to remind ourselves that our own times are not uniquely oppressive. You have to go lecture on the civil war and you are looking at battle of bull run and the confederates in the confederates one bull run and lincoln stuck in the white house. Thousands thousands dead and the killing fields of virginia and maryland. The scorched earth of the south in civil war. It is hard to think donald trump showing you that his stakes are real. It becomes very childish in those ways. With that said, meaning we have had it worse, one has to admit this is a surreal, bizarre and im afraid embarrassing moment for our country where instead of his Public Service of the roosevelts, we are getting a bulgarianism of just the worst aspects of American Culture coming to the forefront. It is due to many reasons, talk radio,. 1,000,000,000 reasons why why this is going on. I find it troubling when the press has about 15 Approval Rating in congress has a 10 . Its like people dont Like Congress i dont know who that 10 is who think they are doing that joe that conservation thing went up to protect the arctic and had a thing with the congressman when i was testifying with congressman young from alaska. He is a real conservative right wing guy who just drill baby drill of the arctic. I went back to my university and i thought i bet texas has a lot to big oil people and i just have been a bear same fight with this congressman. I heard from conservatives, you earned a spur, i dont agree with you with the issue but im sure glad you told the congressman off. People just despise the dysfunction in washington d. C. Right now that they will go with the Bernie Sanders who deals different or trump who is different just to send a loud message of dissatisfaction home. I grew up on a farm in north dakota, only only 2 miles away was a National Wildlife preserve with all sorts of animals. I remember riding a bus to school in the winter and there was snow fences built by the ccc. Into the 60s they were still admire. My concern is sustaining our parks. With the population population growing every year in america, how do we sustain them and keep them beautiful . Great question. In my book i had to pull out so much happened in north dakota and i did of the wildlife refugees i did a map of the wildlife refugees that i had to pull north dakota out separately because every 2 miles mike the federal government came in and called it limited interest conservation programming just control that, that is the great bird breeding grounds right there in those. Potholes of north dakota. We have got to continue to just love the National Parks, get involved with be a friend of one of the parks, stay engaged a vote a vote for people in the senate, in congress and the white house that are going to prioritize. The deferred maintenance of our national, forget the parks, places like independence hall, it is pathetic, we are not taking care of our historic structures. This is the first sign of National Decay and decline when you cannot take care of your countrys historic places. We have leaking rooms, mold, yet when people try to trim the budget down for the parks so lets hope we can get a sense of robust budgets and keep talking about that is what we need. Love the National Parks and be loud about it. They are our heirlooms. You point out in your books that fdr was an avid reader of maps, another hobby that he have and i am interested if you pointed this out, he was a very fervent stamp collector. Every step tells a story story and many of those stories have to do with conservation. Did you investigate that, how stamp collecting helped him with his thirst for geography . If we didnt know better i would think that you are a plants. [laughter] it is a very major part of my book. He actually designed stamps. He would design them for the parks. He designed them for the glacier National Parks where he would do drawings on little pencils and say i want to stand for the National Park and made to look like this. He started a series of stamps for all of the National Parks to bring consciousness to them. He did this stamp series because he declared 1934 the year of the National Park. Thats when he went to hawaii and up to glacier and did a live radio broadcast from glacier National Park. That had never been done before, alive president from middle of a glaciers are fairly remote today to send a loud message that theres nothing so american as our National Parks. I have been collecting u. S. Stamps for 50 years. I i had to read your book. Thank you. [applause]. Helen davis from atlanta, georgia. How are you doing. She did an incredible book on the ccc which is an extraordinary guidebook that she did with her husband and is he here . My husband, read davis. The davises and have done our country great service. Remember they used to be the wpa guide that fdr would do all the places in america. Nobody had done at ccc guidebook of any note, they took on that task. Thank you. [applause]. I have a comment about the previous question. That is that the ten stamps that were done in 1934 to promote the parks, those were photographed, five of which by george grant, he was the first chief photographer of the National Park service. To will by ansell adams and three were by commercial photographers. George grant is one of the unkn