Theodore Roosevelt first traveled west to hunt and ranch in the Dakotas. He was deeply affected by the people, animals and the stunning vistas found in the untouched landscapes where he rode. During his time out West, Roosevelt witnessed the extermination of the American buffalo – an experience that changed him forever. He saw the death of these majestic beasts as a “veritable tragedy of the animal world” and wrote about it extensively in his book, “Hunting Trips of a Ranchman”:

It may truthfully be said that the sudden and complete extermination of the vast herds of the buffalo is without a parallel in historic times. No sight is more common on the plains than that of a bleached buffalo skull; and their countless numbers attest the abundance of the animal at a time not so very long past. On those portions where the herds made their last stand, the carcasses, dried in the clear, high air, or the mouldering skeletons, abound.

Last year, in crossing the country around the heads of the Big Sandy, O’Fallon Creek, Little Beaver, and Box Alder, these skeletons or dried carcasses were in sight from every hillock, often lying over the ground so thickly that several score could be seen at once. A ranchman who at the same time had made a journey of a thousand miles across Northern Montana, along the Milk River, told me that, to use his own expression, during the whole distance he was never out of sight of a dead buffalo, and never in sight of a live one.

Thus, though gone, the traces of the buffalo are still thick over the land. Their dried dung is found everywhere, and is in many places the only fuel afforded by the plains; their skulls, which last longer than any other part of the animal, are among the most familiar of objects to the plainsman; their bones are in many districts so plentiful that it has become a regular industry, followed by hundreds of men (christened “bone hunters” by the frontiersmen), to go out with wagons and collect them in great numbers for the sake of the phosphates they yield; and Bad Lands, plateaus, and prairies alike, are cut up in all directions by the deep ruts which were formerly buffalo trails.

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You grew up in Wisconsin. How did you end up out West working on conservation issues?

I grew up in the 1940s in central Wisconsin – a time and place devoid of any appreciable fish and wildlife resources. There were no deer, streams were polluted and the Great Lakes fishery had just collapsed. Boy Scouts led me to an early education about living and being outdoors, and something in that experience made me want to become engaged further in the natural world. In high school, I joined a fly-fishing club and found teachers who engaged me on my environmental interests. One suggested I attend Montana State University. I was offered a scholarship there, and so I headed West … and I’ve only been back once.

Your book, “Rifle in Hand: How Wild America Was Saved,” explores the role of hunters in the conservation of American wildlife. What message do you hope readers will take from this book?

I hope the book gets hunters and anglers back in step with the American conservation movement. We should be inspired by the likes of Theodore Roosevelt and George Bird Grinnell. T.R. had an epiphany after killing one of the last remaining American buffalo – an event that spurred the creation of the conservation movement. [Read more about T.R.’s response to the extinction of the American buffalo in Roosevelt Reflections.] T.R. realized that we were a nation without a conservation ethic, and he worked to change that, setting aside more than 230 million acres of wilderness.

How did you first hear about the TRCP?

I was involved with the organization when it was in the early stages and was called the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Alliance. I used to write the “Rough Rider” manuals.

What is one of the most important conservation issues facing sportsmen today?

The most dangerous threat is the return of aristocratic notions of who gets to hunt. Wildlife should be seen as a resource to be managed for the benefit of all the people.

What do you enjoy doing outdoors?

Oh, I do it all.

Carter Young with his first fish, caught at Great Oak Marina, Md. Photo by Lance Young. E-mail your photos to cduxbury@trcp.org or post them as fan photos on our Facebook fan page.

Q. How much did T.R. pay for the 155 acres at Cove Neck, N.Y., where he built Sagamore Hill? Submit your answer by posting it on the TRCP Facebook fan page or sending it to cduxbury@trcp.org for your chance to win a TRCP hat.

Congratulations to Eugene Kiedrowski who answered last month’s question correctly. The question was, in which of T.R.’s annual messages to Congress did he call for legislation to protect Alaska’s salmon fisheries from commercial greed?

The answer was his 1902 State of the Union address.