| Chapter : | Introducing the Green Roosevelt |
the natural world in general, and about hunting versus preservation in particular, a topic he himself addresses in his introduction to A. G. Wallihan's Camera Shots at Big Game, wherein he writes, “More and more, as it becomes necessary to preserve the game, let us hope that the camera will largely supplant the rifle.”17
Still, hunting, more often than not, served as the impetus by which the young Roosevelt and his generation came into original, revelatory contact with the land. Pursuit of game, then, served as a means to a grander end—close, considered, compassionate, even circumspect contact with nature. Other collections have acknowledged as much, while still inexplicably featuring lengthy passages of Roosevelt as predator rather than nature-minded close-reader and appreciator. In fact, historical context suggests Roosevelt's hunting was as much about necessary fieldwork as about mere sport. As Schullery reminds, “Nature lovers often forget that two of the greatest figures in American nature study, Audubon and Leopold, were enthusiastic hunters.”18 All three found it necessary, at times, to stare down the barrel of a gun in order to collect specimens firsthand. Moreover, by participating in the full life cycle, the true ecology, of life in the wilderness, which necessarily encompassed predator and prey, the early American naturalist-writers willfully entered the food chain. By tracking an animal, by spending hours in careful consideration of its coloration, concealment, and character, the hunter-naturalist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century paved the way for, and in many instances joined forces with, latter-day birdwatchers, backpackers, mountaineers, and conservation-minded sportsmen.19 Indeed, Roosevelt's animal-centric vision leveled an important playing field, as in the eyes of many preservationists of his day, “animals and birds usually ranked below mountains and forests.”20 Roosevelt bucked that hierarchy, refusing to subscribe, as many then did, to a supposed “fundamental cleavage between animal-lovers and conservationists”; the very inseparability of these concerns became, in fact, a major plank in the platform of the Boone and Crockett Club TR founded with George Bird Grinnell. In fact, while the Boone and Crockett Club's constitution did promote sport, it also expressly encouraged “travel and exploration in the wild