A Natural Tribute to Roosevelt : National Parks: Urban island commemorates environmental achievements of late President.

This 88-acre oasis in the middle of the Potomac River is a wild vignette in the nation’s capital.

It honors the memory of President Theodore Roosevelt, a staunch supporter of the environment. In his view, “The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased and not impaired in value.”

Located across from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the half-mile-long, quarter-mile-wide island is a dense forest of trees, vines and plants alive with birds and small animals.

On a recent sunny day, National Park Service Ranger Philip Jenny stood in the middle of the island next to a towering 17-foot bronze statue of Roosevelt.

“How many of you know what river goes around this island?” National Park Service ranger Philip Jenny asked the 52 kindergartners gathered around him.

“The Potomac River,” responded the students from the Lux Manor Elementary School in Rockville, Md. They had been looking forward to the field trip for weeks, said teachers Louise Rosen, 40, and Marcia Rehm, 50. For most, it was their first visit to an island, added Rehm.

Jenny, 51, grew up in Laramie, Wyo., and has been with the National Park Service for 24 years. He’s worked on Theodore Roosevelt Island for 15 years, the only full-time ranger stationed here.

He works out of a tiny A-frame station near the massive Roosevelt Memorial. Dedicated in 1967, the bronze statue of the 26th President overlooks an oval terrace encircled by a moat that is crossed by a foot bridge. Flanking the statue are four 21-foot-high granite tablets inscribed with quotes from the President’s speeches, including: “There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy, and its charm.”

When a 42-year-old Roosevelt became President in 1901, much of America’s natural resources had been devastated. The land was over-cut, over-plowed, over-grazed and over-mined. More than four-fifths of the nation’s prime forest had been harvested. Many native wildlife species had vanished and more than a third of the bird population had been destroyed.

“We have admitted the right of the individual to injure the future of the republic for his present profit. The time has come for a change. I hate a man who would skin the land,” Roosevelt said.

Under his leadership more than 234 million acres were set aside for conservation. The U.S. Forest Service was created as were five national parks and 55 bird and wildlife refugees. Also enacted during his tenure was the Antiquities Act to preserve cultural and historical landmarks.

In 1931, looking for an appropriate site to honor him, the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Assn. purchased this undeveloped island for $360,000 and gave it to the federal government. It has been administered by the National Park Service ever since.

Federal funds were authorized in 1960 to erect a memorial to Roosevelt. It was dedicated seven years later on his birthday, Oct. 27. A foot bridge from the Virginia side of the Potomac River was built in 1980, enabling access to the island previously reached only by boat.

Theodore Roosevelt Island is at the northern end of the 18.5-mile Mt. Vernon Trail that begins at George Washington’s home and parallels the George Washington Memorial Parkway.

Because it is off the beaten path and tricky to get to, the island is overlooked by most visitors to the nation’s capital. Jenny notes that only about 60,000 people cross the foot bridge to the island each year.

But joggers and hikers love the island’s 2 1/2 miles of trails. And many who work in office buildings in Roslyn, Va., across the river, walk over the foot bridge with their brown bag lunches to enjoy the pristine wilderness.

“It’s another world under the canopy of trees and vines and the serenade of hundreds of birds,” said jogger David Lasher, 26, a research director for the Wednesday Group House of Representatives Republican Caucus. “You could not ask for a better running path in an urban setting.”