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National Park Service Act
The National Park Service was created in the Organic Act of 1916. The new agency's mission as managers of national parks and monuments was clearly stated.
"....to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." -
Soil Conservation Act
The act, which established the Soil Conservation Service, sought to “control floods, prevent impairment of reservoirs and maintain the navigability of rivers and harbors, protect public health, public lands and relieve unemployment.” -
Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act
To regulate the marketing of economic poisons and devices, and for other purposes. -
Fish and Wildlife Act
Establishes a comprehensive national fish, shellfish, and wildlife resources policy with emphasis on the commercial fishing industry but also with a direction to administer the Act with regard to the inherent right of every citizen and resident to fish for pleasure, enjoyment, and betterment and to maintain and increase public opportunities for recreational use of fish and wildlife resources. -
Price-Anderson Act
Designed to ensure that adequate funds would be available to satisfy liability claims of members of the public for personal injury and property damage in the event of a nuclear accident involving a commercial nuclear power plant. -
Clean Air Act
Designed to control air pollution on a national level. -
Wilderness Act
Allowed congress to set aside federally owned land for preservation. -
Land and Water Conservation Act
Provides money to federal, state and local governments to purchase land, water and wetlands for the the benefit of all Americans. -
Water Quality Act
Stipulated states to provide water quality standards for interstate waters. -
Water Resources Planning Act
Set up to establish governing bodies that would overlook the creation and protection of water resource. -
Species Preservation Act
Providing a means for listing native animal species as endangered and giving them limited protection. -
Freedom of Information Act
A federal freedom of information law that allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States government. -
National Trails System Act
The Act created a series of National trails "to promote the preservation of, public access to, travel within, and enjoyment and appreciation of the open-air, outdoor areas and historic resources of the Nation. -
National Environmental Policy Act
Requires federal agencies to integrate environmental values into their decision making processes by considering the environmental impacts of their proposed actions and reasonable alternatives to those actions. -
Clean Water Act
The act established the goals of eliminating releases of high amounts of toxic substances into water, and ensured that surface waters would meet standards necessary for human sports and recreation. -
Marine Mammal Protection Act
Prohibits the taking of marine mammals, and enacts a moratorium on the import, export, and sale of any marine mammal, along with any marine mammal part or product within the United States. -
Endangered Species Act
An Act to provide for the conservation of endangered and threatened species of fish, wildlife, and plants, and for other purposes. -
Renewable Resources Planning Act
Authorizes long-range planning by the United States Forest Service to ensure the future supply of forest resources while maintaining a quality environment. -
Safe Drinking Water Act
The principal federal law in the United States intended to ensure safe drinking water for the public. -
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
A multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals. -
Federal Land Policy and Management Act
A United States federal law that governs the way in which the public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management are managed. -
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
An Act to provide technical and financial assistance for the development of management plans and facilities for the recovery of energy and other resources from discarded materials and for the safe disposal of discarded materials, and to regulate the management of hazardous waste. -
National Forest Management Act
To reform the Forest Service and ensure that the agency give due consideration to wildlife, water quality, and recreation as well as the logging, road building, grazing, and other activities associated with resource extraction. -
Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act
The law requires the assessment, planning, and monitoring of national forest resources with a periodic display for Congress
that will allow that body to select and direct the goods and services to be produced from the nation’s forests. -
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
Primary federal law that regulates the environmental effects of coal mining in the United States. -
Soil and Water Conservation Act
Soil and water conservation programs to aid landowners and users; also sets up conditions to continue evaluating the condition of US soil, water, and related resources -
Arctic Conservation Act
Protects native mammals, birds, and plants and their ecosystems. -
Energy Tax Act
The objective of this law was shift from oil and gas supply toward energy conservation. -
Low Level Radioactive Policy Act
Established the legal and regulatory framework governing the disposal of low-level radioactive waste in the United States. -
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act
Authorizes financial and technical assistance to the States for the development, revision, and implementation of conservation plans and programs for nongame fish and wildlife. -
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
Clean up uncontrolled releases of specified hazardous substances. -
International Environmental Protection Act
Authorized the president to assist countries in protecting and maintaining wildlife habitat and provides an active role in conservation by the Agency for International Development. -
Nuclear Waste Policy Act
Established both the Federal government's responsibility to provide a place for the permanent disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, and the generators' responsibility to bear the costs of permanent storage and disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, and the generators' responsibility to bear the costs of permanent disposal. -
Food Security Act
An Act to extend and revise agricultural price support and related programs, to provide for agricultural export, resource conservation, farm credit, and agricultural research and related programs, to continue food assistance to low-income persons, to ensure consumers an abundance of food and fiber at reasonable prices, and for other purposes. -
Emergency Wetlands Resources Act
Enacted to protect and promote conservation of the Nations wetlands and establish National Wildlife Refuges for waterfowl. -
Montreal Protocol
Designed to reduce the production and consumption of ozone depleting substances in order to reduce their abundance in the atmosphere, and thereby protect the earth’s fragile ozone Layer. -
Ocean Dumping Ban Act
Makes it unlawful for any person to dump or transport for the purpose of dumping sewage, sludge, or industrial waste into ocean waters. -
Madrid Protocol
An international treaty that allows a trademark owner to seek registration in any of the countries that have joined the Madrid Protocol by filing a single application, called an “international application.” -
Lacey Act
Provides that it is unlawful for any person to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase any fish or wildlife or plant taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of any law, treaty, or regulation of the United States or in violation of any Indian tribal law whether in interstate or foreign commerce. -
Pollution Prevention Act
Requires facilities to reduce pollution at its source. Reduction can be in volume or toxicity. -
Waste Reduction Act
The purpose of this Act is to reduce and prevent the production and disposal of waste in the province consistent with the principles of sustainable development and to this end. -
Environmental Education Act
To promote environmental education. -
California Desert Protection Act
The Act establishes the Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks and the Mojave National Preserve in the California desert. -
Food Quality Protection Act
It mandated a health-based standard for pesticides used in foods, provided special protections for babies and infants, streamlined the approval of safe pesticides, established incentives for the creation of safer pesticides, and required that pesticide registrations remain current. -
Kyoto Protocol
International treaty that sets binding obligations on industrialized countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
