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Douglas Brinkley’s The Wilderness Warrior celebrated Theodore Roosevelt’s spirit of outdoor exploration and bold vision to protect 234 million acres of wild America. Now, in Rightful Heritage, Brinkley turns his attention to the other indefatigable environmental leader—Teddy’s distant cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, chronicling his essential yet under-sung legacy as the founder of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and premier protector of America’s public lands. FDR built from scratch dozens of State Park systems and scenic roadways. Pristine landscapes such as the Great Smokies, the Everglades, Joshua Tree, the Olympics, Big Bend, Channel Islands, Mammoth Cave, and the slickrock wilderness of Utah were forever saved by his leadership.

Brinkley traces FDR’s love for the natural world from his youth exploring the Hudson River Valley and bird watching. As America’s president from 1933 to 1945, Roosevelt—consummate political strategist—established hundreds of federal migratory bird refuges and spearheaded the modern endangered species movement. He brilliantly positioned his conservation goals as economic policy to combat the severe unemployment of the Great Depression. During its nine-year existence, the CCC put nearly three million young men to work on conservation projects—including building trails in the national parks, pollution control, land restoration to combat the Dust Bowl, and planting over two billion trees.

Rightful Heritage is an epic chronicle that is both an irresistible portrait of FDR’s unrivaled passion and drive, and an indispensable analysis that skillfully illuminates the tension between business and nature—exploiting our natural resources and conserving them. Within the narrative are brilliant capsule biographies of such environmental warriors as Eleanor Roosevelt, Harold Ickes, and Rosalie Edge. Rightful Heritage is essential reading for everyone seeking to preserve our treasured landscapes as an American birthright.

FDR has long been a hero of mine. Seeing us through the Depression, leading us through most of World War II, I can’t think of any other president who had so much placed on his shoulders. That well may be why most books written about him don’t go into a great deal of depth regarding a third problem he inherited, the desecration of much of America’s environment. Forests had been indiscriminately chopped down, rivers polluted, species hunted to extinction. But here is presented all FDR did to heal America’s battered landscape. In bringing all this information to light, this book has manage to make me admire him even more. Just for that, it deserves five stars.

Along with having over a million trees planted, FDR established grasslands, hundreds of national parks and forests, desertscapes and wetlands, and wildlife refuges. He did more to protect America’s coastlines, marine sanctuaries, and barrier islands than all of his White House predecessors combined. His executive orders and presidential proclamations protects 700 species of birds, 220 species of mammals, 250 varieties of reptiles and amphibians, more than 1,000 types of fish, and an uncountable number of invertebrates and plants.

Still more, by creating the Civilian Conservation Corps, he created millions of jobs for those desperately in need of work. The CCC was responsible for miles of roads laid, the building of recreation rooms at state parks, libraries in remote counties, lookout towers, thousands of miles of telephone line strung, and historical sites restored.

FDR deserves such high marks for much: forests, wildlife protection, park management, both state and national, and soil conservation. But there were some missteps. The many dams he had built devastated numerous riverine ecosystems. But that was done in ignorance. I’m sure that, if he had known the damage that would be done, he never would have ordered them to be built.

On a more personal note, the CCC created two parks in the Phoenix area where I spent many happy moments:

South Mountain Park, which, at 16,000 acres, is the largest city park in the US.

Lookout Point, South Mtn Park