Throughout the history of the United States things have constantly been changing and with new technologies being used sometimes the advancement of the country has come at the cost of neglecting environmental issues. The environmental issues would often be put on the back burner and just looked past but a young environmental president by the name of Teddy Roosevelt began to change things. During his presidency and political career Roosevelt brought many environmental issues to the spotlight make very positive change for the environment as well as sparking a new found interest for United States citizen to start making change to protect this earth that we live on. Roosevelt and the other environmentalist were the stepping stones that bring us to the many changes in conservation laws and environmental protection that took place from 1920-1955. During this time period of 1920-1955 many great acts along with environmental groups were formed allowing conservation laws and environmental protection to take enormous leaps in a positive direction. While fighting many hard battles these conservationist and preservation groups would sometimes have to take one step back in order to take two steps forward, but it is those forward steps that lead to the awareness of how important protecting the environment is and set the building blocks for National Parks, forested lands, wildlife protection and so on. In order to take a closer look at these changes we shall take a closer look at the progression through time of different policies,groups and acts that were passed each decade.
The roaring 1920s, a thriving era marked with a period of sustained economic prosperity along with a shift in culture as industry began to grow and the use of things such as automobiles, telephones and electricity became more common, was filled with many different environmental changes that are pivotal when analyzing the history of conservations laws and environmental changes. June 10, 1920 the US Federal Power act is passed which authorizes the construction of massive scale hydroelectric projects such as the hoover dam(would later be constructed from 1931-1936). In 1921 the US Supreme court allows New Jersey to dump sewage into the New York harbor. This supreme court ruling would begin to bring attention to the subject of water pollution and its relation to the fisheries. In addition investigations began of oil pollution in harbors and they would show that pollution and industrial waste was threatening different varieties of migratory fish with extinction. This would go on to inspire the Fish Harbor pollution survey in 1922. This survey was ran by the corps of engineers harbor-masters by requesting reports on the conditions of the harbors. Later that summer the National Coast anti Pollution League was formed and stopped the dumping of NJ oil into oceans and harbors. To add to oil regulation later in 1924 the oil pollution act finally passed prohibiting oil discharge from oil refineries and vessels within the 3 mile limit. Towards the end of the decade in 1928 air pollution began to be focused on as well by the public health service who had concerns with the quality of life in NYC.
At the end of the 1920s there was a drastic decline and crash of the economy and this takes us to the 1930s or the period known as the great depression. This time was filled with drought combined with farming methods that cause large scale erosion led to huge dust storms. This would become known as the dust bowl and would go on to affect many families who would have to abandon their farms in hope to find a new food source along with a place to survive. In an attempt to conserve soil and prevent more erosion the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act was passed in 1936. This act ultimately met its goal by reducing soil erosion by 65%. In 1934 the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act was passed protecting fish and wildlife from being wiped out from a water resource development project. This act had the US Fish and wildlife Service get involved and evaluate these projects determining if they would adversely affect the wildlife if they were completed. A year later in 1935 a very important organization was formed called the Wilderness society. The wilderness Society is dedicated to protecting america's wilderness and is still active today with over 500,000 members and supporters. This society is so key in environmental history because it would go on to help establish the National Wilderness Preservation System. The Wilderness society helped pass dozens of wilderness bills and plays a huge role in establishing national parks, national forests, and national wildlife refuges. Similar to the Wilderness society the National Wildlife Federation was formed in 1936 and there focus is on connecting people to nature, reversing global warming and protecting/restoring critical wildlife habitats. In 1948, a similar group called the International Union for Conservation of Nature was founded and they focused on environmental issues on the world wide scale. This takes us to the 1950s when the nature conservancy was founded and huge leaps forward were made towards land and water preservation. As we look back we can clearly see the development of environmental agencies and their impact on the world around them. Once a topic overlooked environmental issues would begin to become more mainstream grabbing the attention of the people who would come together and look to fix the problem and make a change to better off the world we live in by protecting it and attempting to preserve its beauty. Through many battles, struggles and compromises it was the perseverance of these environmental groups that created great advancements in environmental law and continue to make improvements to this day.

Works Cited:
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McKibben, Bill, and Albert Gore. American Earth: environmental writing since Thoreau. New York, NY: Literary Classics of the United States :, 2008. Print.
"Nature Conservancy | Protecting Nature, Preserving Life." Nature Conservancy | Protecting Nature, Preserving Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2013. .
"Roaring 1920s | Environmental history timeline." Bluehost.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2013. .