National Wildlife Federation

The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is the largest private, nonprofit conservation education and advocacy organization in the United States, with over six million members and supporters, and 51 state and territorial affiliated organizations (including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands).

History

On March 10, 1934, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace appointed political cartoonist Jay Norwood "Ding" Darling to be the chief of the U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey. Darling asked Congress repeatedly to fund environmental conservation work around the country, but Congress did not do so. Frustrated with the lack of funding to preserve and reestablish wildlife, Darling resigned from the position in late 1935. At Darling's request, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt convened the North American Wildlife Conference in Washington, D.C., with the goal of uniting individuals, organizations, and agencies interested in the restoration and conservation of wildlife resources. The North American Wildlife Conference took place between February 3 and February 7, 1936. With over 1,000 individuals in attendance, there were people from every U.S. state as well as one from Canada and one from Mexico.

At the conference, Darling spoke passionately about the contamination of the United States' environmental resources, which he said had resulted from years of neglect. Darling criticized people who considered themselves conservationists but whose actions were limited to hanging a bird feeder and subscribing to an outdoors magazine. Darling said that true action was required in order to reverse the damage that had already occurred.