@Montana State with climate protection advocate Theodore Roosevelt IV

BOZEMAN - Theodore Roosevelt IV, a great-grandson of former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and an advocate for climate protection and the U.S. National Park Service, will speak at Montana State University this fall as part of the MSU Library's annual Trout and Salmonid Lecture Series.

Roosevelt will have a conversation on stage with MSU history professor Mark Fiege about his life, the current state of America's waters and fishing climates, and the role of national parks in these ecological and recreational environments during "A Night with Theodore Roosevelt IV," set for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9, in the Hager Auditorium at MSU's Museum of the Rockies. A reception will follow.

The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited, and the event is currently full. Guests should plan to arrive by 6:45 p.m., and those who have RSVP'd will be seated first. Remaining guests will be seated in the auditorium on a first-come, first-served basis. The Museum of the Rockies will also have seating for 30 additional guests to watch a simulcast of the talk. All are welcome to stay for the reception. In addition, the event will be recorded and then posted later to the library's YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/msulibrary. Questions may be directed to Ann Vinciguerra, events and communications manager at the MSU Library, at 406-994-3119 or [email protected].

Before his visit, Roosevelt emailed with MSU News about his views on conservation, the impact education has had on his life, and his great-grandfather's legacy.

MSU News: You grew up outside of Philadelphia on a 1,200-acre dairy farm. What are some of your fondest memories of your years there?

Roosevelt: The farm provided me with endless opportunities to observe wildlife and see nature firsthand. I enjoyed catching frogs, snakes, turtles, salamanders, crawfish and learning where birds made their nests and hatched their eggs. My parents generally tolerated my enthusiasm for the out-of-doors. Once early in the morning I caught a box turtle and proudly put it on the dining room table where my mother was having breakfast. She was a Victorian and said, "how nice, but we don't dine with turtles." As a result of the deep and early exposure to nature it was an easy jump to appreciate the importance of conservation and protecting the environment.

The farm and that part of Pennsylvania, which was then quite rural, introduced me to the world of hunting. My parents and many of our neighbors were good hunters who hunted for the table as much as sport. Early on I learned how much better a wild duck tastes than a fatty domestic one. Because both parents were skilled wing shots, we ate pheasant, dove, ducks and geese. Today I often tease my friends who grew up in cities that they are deprived of some of the best food this country has without having ever eaten wild game.

After I left active duty in the Navy, I joined the State Department as a Foreign Service officer and was assigned to Upper Volta - now Burkina Faso. Before long I started hunting big game in West Africa. Years later I had the privilege of hunting elk, mule deer and antelope in Montana.

You are a great-grandson of former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who is perhaps the most pioneering conservation president in U.S. history. You are also known as a prominent conservationist. What does the term "conservation" mean to you, and what has shaped your views of conservation?

Conservation for me has a moral obligation as well as a wholly practical one. Today we are stewards for our children's children. This obligation arises because we all benefit from the immense bequest of public lands that prior generations of Americans gave us. No other nation has such an amazing diversity of wildlife and wilderness areas as we do. The U.S. uniquely maintains extensive public lands owned collectively by its citizens. Not preserving these public lands for future generations would be a criminal dereliction on our part.

Conservation is also practical in that it is clearly in our immediate interest to protect our natural resources. For example, our national forests collect, particularly in the west, a huge amount of groundwater that feeds into our aquifers. If we do not manage our national forests sensibly and for the long term, we will lose essential water used for irrigation and the headwaters of many of our most important rivers. Imagine a Montana where trout fishing throughout the state has been reduced by 75% because of poor conservation.

Of what part of your great-grandfather's legacy are you most proud?

The Old Lion had an extraordinary ability to communicate with the American public and mobilize it for a good cause. His willingness to take on the big lumber and mining companies to protect the environment are good examples of this. I have immense admiration for how he and Gifford Pinchot drew the boundaries for many of our national forests on their hands and knees before signing an agricultural bill that would strip his authority to create new national forests.

I also believe that his decision to sue in the Supreme Court the Northern Securities Company to prevent it from combining the Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railroads would result in a restraint of trade. This was the first use of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and was an important step in curbing the Gilded Age bias favoring monopolies and arrangements that would restrain interstate trade.

What led you to investment banking?

Investment banking, in its essence, helps the nation allocate its savings held by institutional investors and individuals into companies raising money in our capital markets. Today we are living through a major energy transition. As you all know, the demand for electricity, driven by data centers and AI, will increase at rates that we have not seen for the past half century. Helping to finance new forms of energy fission, fusion, geothermal, wind and solar is both challenging and intellectually rewarding.

When did you first visit Montana? What are your memories of that visit?

I first came to Montana after graduating from high school and had a summer job in Wyoming with the Bureau of Land Management. One weekend a friend and I drove to Montana from Yellowstone National Park. We went horseback riding and I vowed to return someday, but too many years passed before I did. For a while I owned a ranch in the foothills of the Big Snowy Mountains, which I deeply regret selling.

During your talk at MSU, you'll be addressing the current state of our waters and fishing climates, as well as the role of national parks in these ecological and recreational environments. What role do you see the national parks playing in these environments?

As you all probably know, I think that global warming and using the newly forbidden word "climate change" is an existential challenge for the USA. Almost every other country recognizes that they must do what they can to meet this challenge, and outside the U.S., climate change is generally not viewed as a partisan issue. It is inexcusable that the U.S. is failing its moral obligation to lead on this challenge.

How has education influenced the course of your life?

Education has provided me with totally unexpected benefits. In high school I took a physics course where I learned a lot about nuclear fission, which serves me well today in my financial career. In college I majored in American History, which has been immensely helpful to me today in understanding the rural-urban divide that is so damaging to our democracy. Education does not stop when you get out of college or grad school. Reading provides me with much new intellectual capital, which is enormously helpful to my business career and helps me provide hopefully good advice to NGOs on whose boards I serve.

What are three conservation-related books you recommend?

• Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring"
• Bernard DeVoto's "The Western Paradox"
• Douglas Brinkley's "The Wilderness Warrior"

What advice would you give to university students who care about the environment and conservation?

My generation has failed our democracy by allowing the rural-urban divide to continue and in providing the necessary leadership to address the challenge of climate change. I urge MSU graduates to engage in these issues. Be involved, speak out and find the areas in which to serve where you will find the most joy and be the most effective.