ANN ARBOR—The Theodore Roosevelt Professorship in Ecosystem Management was recently established at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment. This position was made possible through a $1.2 million commitment from U-M graduates William L. and Sally B. Searle.

Believed to be the first such chair in the country, the position will “advance knowledge and policy in an area of great importance not only to the donors but to many others by establishing linkage between the public and private sectors in this country and internationally,” said Daniel A. Mazmanian, dean of the School

“There are three important aspects about this chair. The chair is supported by an endowment making it permanent and lasting in perpetuity. This topic is one which challenges us to work on a large geographic scale and to imagine our role, humanity’s role, in the context of all other life forms. And at the donor’s suggestion, this chair bears the name of, and brings all of the weight of, one of the truly pivotal figures in conservation and protection of natural resources in this country.”

The Searles’ intent in naming the professorship after President Roosevelt reflects the bold, effective, and path- setting leadership Roosevelt offered in the conservation field during his lifetime, Mazmanian noted. President Roosevelt made conservation a central policy issue of his administration, creating national parks, wildlife and bird refuges, and the national Forest Service. He appointed an Inland Waterways Commission to investigate the condition of the nation’s navigable waterways and to recommend measures for their protection and improvement. Roosevelt advocated for the sustainable use of the nation’s natural resources, the protection and management of wild game, and the preservation of wild spaces. In 1908 he called the governors of all the states to the White House conference on Conservation, now regarded as the beginning of a true national conservation movement. Roosevelt emphasized conservation as an element of democracy: the resources of the public domain were to be used for the benefit of all the people.

President Roosevelt’s granddaughter Anna Curtenius Roosevelt, present for the formal establishment of the professorship, said that if her grandfather were alive today, he would look upon the pollution of our water and air “as soiling our nest.”

The Searles have a strong connection with the open country and flora and fauna of the American West where for the past 20 years they have co-owned and managed a land and cattle business. William Searle, an outdoorsman, is keenly interested in the relationship between living things and cares deeply that the world’s remaining wild and natural areas be managed with intelligence and a sense of the future. The Searles have gained firsthand familiarity with many of the issues that currently face legislators, policy makers, scientists, government agencies, owners, managers, and the citizenry regarding land management.

University of Michigan