Theodore Roosevelt's Descendants Join Boundary Waters Fight
We just got some of the most powerful and influential allies imaginable
“There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country.” - Theodore Roosevelt (August 6, 1912)
If even the descendants of America’s legendary “conservation president” begin speaking up against Republican attacks on public lands, you know the G.O.P. has become a mere shadow of what it once was.
And they did just that in a letter sent to the U.S. Senate on February 6, 2026, which was obtained by The New York Times.
In that letter, four direct descendants of Republican President Theodore Roosevelt—led by Theodore Roosevelt IV, Teddy’s great-grandson, a New York investment banker, and a lifelong Republican—spoke up against current attempts to allow sulfide-ore copper mining near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters. The letter was co-signed by Tweed Roosevelt (great-grandson), Kermit Roosevelt III (great-great-grandson), and Mark Roosevelt (great-grandson).
It’s worth noting that, together, those four descendants represent all three branches of Theodore Roosevelt’s family, descending directly from his three sons. (His fourth and youngest son died in World War I when he was 20 years old.)
“It was a remarkable rebuke of the Republican Party’s apparent retreat from the environmental ethos of Theodore Roosevelt, who protected around 230 million acres of public lands during his presidency,” the Times said.
Theodore Roosevelt IV went further, saying that “[i]t’s not just this administration—it’s the G.O.P. collectively that is not as concerned about conservation as it should be.” He, himself, went to Washington, D.C., last week to try to discourage Senators from voting for H.J. Res. 140.
“The purpose of this letter is to strongly recommend all Senators vote against H.J. Res. 40, to ask you to work with President Trump to seek ways to permanently protect the Boundary Waters, and to send a unified message that America is still a land that relentlessly protects its greatest wilderness terrain,” the four Roosevelts wrote.
They listed four reasons why using the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to “greenlight exposure of this national treasure to the highly toxic and destructive impacts of sulfide-ore copper mining” would be a grave mistake. Reasons that I and other conservation and public lands advocates have emphasized before as well.
(It’s honestly really encouraging to have people of this caliber joining the fight.)
They wrote:
It’s the Opposite of America First: The mining company in question is foreign owned, will use Chinese state-owned smelters, and will then sell the extracted metals on the open market.
It Removes the American Public from Public Land Decision-Making: A key priority of American public land policy has always been to have a strong bias toward obtaining robust public input. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have already weighed in on the Boundary Waters—and they overwhelmingly want it protected forever.
It Disregards Sound Science: A detailed Environmental Assessment has already documented the substantial risk copper mining poses to this highly valued ecosystem.
It Sets a Very Bad Precedent for Other Public Lands: Using the CRA in this fashion, which has never been done before, would put at risk other public land withdrawals across America to similarly irresponsible actions.
The letter goes on to say that “[f]rankly, TR would be appalled at H.J. Res. 140 and the misguided and harmful effort to revoke a sound and necessary mineral withdrawal in the headwaters of the Boundary Waters.”
And perhaps most powerfully, the Roosevelts describe Theodore’s affinity for Minnesota and the Boundary Waters region, saying that he—when he was as young as ten years old—was so excited about visiting Minnesota in a few years, he wrote “hip, hip, hurrahhhh!” in his diary.
They listed more connections Teddy had with Minnesota later in his life:
1883: Theodore Roosevelt signed his first cattle ranching contract in St. Paul.
1900: Theodore Roosevelt launched his Vice-Presidential campaign in Minnesota.
1901: Theodore Roosevelt gave his famous Big Stick speech at the Minnesota State Fair, which included the line “speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”
1902: Theodore Roosevelt created the Minnesota Forest Reserve, the first of its kind east of the Mississippi, which now is Chippewa National Forest.
1902: Theodore Roosevelt’s U.S. Land Office withdrew 500,000 acres from development in what’s now near or part of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
1909: Theodore Roosevelt established Superior National Forest, which now encompasses the Boundary Waters.
With this in mind, it’s not a stretch to say that Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation legacy is as much rooted in the Boundary Waters as it is in the Grand Canyon, Crater Lake, Devils Tower, Chaco Canyon, and literally 150 different national forests.
The Roosevelts’ letter’s ending proves the seriousness and urgency of the Boundary Waters fight:
The four of us below have never collectively co-signed a letter together, which should give an indication of how strongly we support voting no on this resolution—and then voting yes on permanent Boundary Waters protection.
It’s an incredibly hopeful sign that the Roosevelt family itself is now speaking up. Even they are watching this. I couldn’t really imagine a more powerful rejection of the direction and trajectory of the Republican Party’s conservation policies right now.
So, let this be a moment of great encouragement.
The direct descendants of Theodore Roosevelt just joined us in writing letters to Congress.
Think about that.
This is the time to put our foot on the gas. The Senate is in recess this week and the vote on H.J. Res. 140 is delayed until at least February 23. That means we have one week left to contact our Senators again—and again, and again.
What happens in the Senate next week could change how public lands and waters are managed for the rest of our lives (and beyond).
Please take a minute this week to contact your Senators and tell them to vote “no” on H.J. Res. 140.
Call your Senators via the Senate switchboard number: (202) 224-3121
Send a message directly via this form provided by Save The Boundary Waters
“Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying the ‘the game belongs to the people.’ So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The ‘greatest good for the greatest number’ applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.” - Theodore Roosevelt (1916)
Thanks for helping to protect our public lands and waters!
See you out there,
Bram
Image 1: Steve Piragis / Save The Boundary Waters
Image 2: Save The Boundary Waters