The Greening of the White House

Some US presidents and First Ladies who have championed environmental causes and the preservation of US lands and monuments include:

+Theodore Roosevelt - Established the National Park System

+John F. Kennedy - After reading Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, appointed his science advisor, Dr. Jerome B. Wiesner, to study the risks of pesticide use in the USA. The resulting study, "The Use of Pesticides", issued in May, 1963, called for limitations in the use of some pesticides and was the first step toward the eventual ban of DDT use in the United States.

+Lyndon Baines Johnson -Sponsored the America the Beautiful Inititive, which included The White House Conference on Natural Beauty and the Highway Beautification Act

+Lady Bird Johnson, First Lady of Lyndon Baines Johnson - Was a major player in the 1965 Highway Beautification campaign and championed the preservation of America's wildflowers.

+Richard M. Nixon established the Environmental Protection Act.

+Gerald Ford continued the legacy of presidental support for environmental issues. Ford signed the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1976, a law designed to control the proliferation of lethal, manufactured chemical substances in the USA.

KS/STA