Which Presidents Have Eco-Cred?

An environmental history quiz, custom-tailored to Presidents' Day!

By Noah Schlager

February 21, 2022

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Presidents on the side of a car outside a Miami campaign event in 2020. | AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell

A previous version of this story originally published on February 11, 2016.

Presidents' Day is used by schools as an excuse to make students memorize obscure presidential facts. Remember having to learn names like Chester A. Arthur and Martin Van Buren? Or that John Quincy Adams was gifted an alligator by Marquis de Lafayette? We here at Sierra like to think of Presidents' Day as a chance to reflect on the environmental legacies of our commanders in chief. Take our quiz to find out how well-versed you are in the eco-cred of the country's leaders. 

1. Which president signed the first piece of legislation to preserve Yosemite Valley and the sequoia groves of California?

a.  Abraham Lincoln
b. Ulysses S. Grant
c. William Howard Taft 
d. Harry S. Truman

2. Which of these presidents established the EPA?

a. Theodore Roosevelt
b. Richard Nixon
c. Woodrow Wilson
d. John F. Kennedy

3. Which president restored protections to Bears Ears, Grand Staircase–Escalante and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monuments nearly four years after his predecessor unlawfully contracted them? 

a. Andrew Jackson
b. Donald Trump
c. Joe Biden
d. Barack Obama

4. Who was the first president to put solar panels onto the White House?

a. Ronald Reagan
b. Bill Clinton
c. Jimmy Carter
d. Barack Obama

5. Which president became known as the “conservationist president,” establishing over 230 million acres of public lands during his presidency?

a. Franklin D. Roosevelt
b. Theodore Roosevelt
c. Woodrow Wilson
d. William McKinley

6. Which president created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which put about 3 million people to work on conservation and natural-resource-related projects?

a. Herbert Hoover
b. Franklin D. Roosevelt
c. Lyndon B. Johnson
d. Harry S. Truman

7. Who was the president who signed legislation to make Yellowstone America’s first national park?

a. Theodore Roosevelt
b. Ulysses S. Grant
c. Abraham Lincoln
d. Chester A. Arthur

8. Which of these presidents signed over 300 conservation measures into law, including the Wilderness Act, Pesticide Control Act, and Land and Water Conservation Fund Act?

a. Dwight D. Eisenhower
b. Gerald Ford
c. Richard Nixon
d. Lyndon B. Johnson

9. Which president expanded the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument to create the world’s largest marine protected area?

a. George W. Bush
b. Barack Obama
c. Bill Clinton
d. Ronald Reagan

      

 Answers

1. a-Abraham Lincoln

2. b-Richard Nixon

3. c-Joe Biden

4. c-Jimmy Carter

5. b-Theodore Roosevelt

6. b-Franklin D. Roosevelt

7. b-Ulysses S. Grant

8. d-Lyndon B. Johnson

9. b-Barack Obama (though George W. Bush established the monument)