A Conservation History of the United States

Humans have always had a connection to the lands, water, and wildlife of what is now the United States, from the traditional knowledge of the earliest Indigenous peoples to the modern era of legislative protections and species restoration. The timeline above serves as a condensed version of that history, breaking fish and wildlife conservation into ten distinct eras that interpret an evolving movement across hundreds of years in the modern age—and thousands of years before that.

Explore the timeline above by using your mouse to drag the timeline left and right, and by using the mouse track wheel to expand or contract the display.

When you click on an individual data point on the timeline, a text box will appear that contains additional information, including photos, links, and videos where applicable. Each data point is color-coded to match a subcategory of the timeline; these are listed below. Click these links to view the timeline for that era in linear text form and to access a downloadable PDF.