The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

In celebration of President’s Day, we’re taking a look at a few of our nation’s greenest presidents—from New York’s own Teddy Roosevelt to some surprising picks:

• America's 26th president and New Yorker Theodore Roosevelt was voted the greenest president by some of the leaders of our country’s largest environmental groups. He established the first national wildlife refuge in Florida, along with many forests nationally, 51 federal bird reservations, 18 national monuments and five national parks.
   
• Second on many lists may come as a bit of a surprise—Richard Nixon, who oversaw the creation of EPA, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Endangered Species Act. He appointed top conservationists like Russell Train to high positions within his administration.
   
• John F. Kennedy created the Cape Cod National Seashore, protecting over 43,000 acres of land.
   
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps – generating more than 2.5 million jobs and planting millions of trees.

Who will be the next green President? It might be President Barack Obama. He’s identified climate change as one of his administration’s top priorities—he’s already made great strides on raising mileage as a way to reduce carbon pollution and prompting clean alternative energy sources over the years.