Land Conservation was a major concern of Theodore Roosevelt's. He, therefore, took steps to preserving the natural landscape.
The first step was the Desert
Land Act of 1877 (before TR time). This act sold land to any purchaser that could turn an arid backwater into a less-arid backwater in three years.
More successful was the Forest Reserve Act of 1891, which authorized the president to set aside public forests as national parks and other reserves. Some 46 million acres of trees were saved from the lumber yard thanks to this Act.
States were granted federal land so that it could be irrigated and settled via the Carey Act of 1894.
The Newlands Act of 1902 authorized Washington to collect money from the sale of public lands in the western states and use the money for the development of irrigation projects.
There was a split among the Progressives about how they viewed the land. There were the ones who wished to save the land so as to use it as a resource for long-term projects (dams, etc.) and there were the ones who wished to save the land because of its beauty (preservationists). In general, the preservationists lost many a fight.
I really like how you included links to relevant sites!
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