College of William and Mary professor Andrew Fisher talked about the first conservation effort in American history to protect forests from rampant logging and hydraulic mining. During the Progressive Era from 1901 through 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt worked with Gifford Pinchot -- the first Chief of the U.S. Forest Service -- to set aside more than a hundred and fifty million acres of land to be under federal government control. This land was designated for National Parks and responsible logging.