People You Should Know: Major John F. Lacey

Major Lacey was the first member of Congress who made the cause of the wild birds and beasts particularly his own.

- William T. Hornaday, from Major John F Lacey Memorial Volume (p. 12)

Major John F. Lacey

Major John F. Lacey is a name that should resonate with Iowans who care about nature and wildlife. A veteran of the Civil War and Republican congressman from Iowa, Lacey helped shepherd through several important pieces of legislation protecting our natural resources and migratory birds, including the Lacey Act of 1900 (which is still in effect today). The largest state park in Iowa, Lacey-Keosauqua State Park, was renamed to honor Lacey in 1926. With his vision and foresight he helped preserve some of our most valued species for generations to come, and laid a foundation for conservation that is still strong over a century later.

We have given an awful exhibition of slaughter and destruction which may serve as a warning to all mankind. Let us now give an example of wise conservation of what remains of the gifts of nature.

- John F. Lacey. "Interstate Commerce in Game and Birds in Violation of State Law; Let Us Save the Birds." Speech to House of Representatives. 30 April 1900. Published in Major John F. Lacey Memorial Volume (1915) (p. 147)

The Lacey Act of 1900  was the first federal law to protect wildlife by prohibiting trade in animals or plants that were taken illegally. Originally intended to protect game from poaching and overharvesting when state laws were circumvented, it has also been used to help prevent the spread of non-native species (such as starlings and house sparrows, which had already been recognized as pests by Lacey's time) and the smuggling of wildlife and illegally harvested plants or timber. It is a foundation of the regulation and preservation of our natural resources still regularly invoked today. 

The love of birds is something that ought to be taught in every school.

- John F. Lacey. "Interstate Commerce in Game and Birds in Violation of State Law; Let Us Save the Birds." Speech to House of Representatives. 30 April 1900. Published in Major John F. Lacey Memorial Volume (1915) (p. 145)

Lacey recognized the benefits provided by birds and other wildlife not only in our simple enjoyment of them, but also in their service in helping control insect pests in orchards and fields. He acknowledged a mutually beneficial relationship between birds and humans: 

The man who cultivates the birds will have the birds take care of him. They will care for his farm. They will destroy the insect pests, and the man who protects them will be successful wherever he may farm in the United States of America.

- John F. Lacey. "Interstate Commerce in Game and Birds in Violation of State Law; Let Us Save the Birds." Speech to House of Representatives. 30 April 1900. Published in Major John F. Lacey Memorial Volume (1915) (p. 149)

Over a century ago Lacey eloquently spoke about issues that are relevant still. On the subject of forestry, Lacey said in 1905

Only a government lives long enough to plant trees extensively. The brevity of human life deters the individual from a project yielding such slow returns.

- John F. Lacey. "Forestry." Address before the Iowa Federation of Women's Clubs. 12 May 1905. Published in Major John F. Lacey Memorial Volume (1915) (p. 86)

Most things can be handled best by individuals and the private sector, but some problems (such as management of air, water, and wildlife that is not bound by state or private property lines) require a large-scale, long-term investment beyond the scope of any individual entity.

On conservation and stewardship Lacey remarked

Americans have been the spendthrifts of the centuries. It is high time to call a halt and save something of our national resources for those who are to come after us.

- John F. Lacey. "Forestry." Address before the Iowa Federation of Women's Clubs. 12 May 1905. Published in Major John F. Lacey Memorial Volume (1915) (p. 81)

We owe much to our predecessors who had the foresight to protect and conserve our wildlife and wild places, and we must carry on their work so future generations may reap the same rewards from which we have already benefited.  

We can look to Major John F. Lacey as a statesman who recognized the value of our natural world in a time of rapid change, and who vigorously promoted the protection and conservation of these valuable resources for future generations. His comments on the stuttering yet consistent progress of our nation are as compelling now as they were when originally uttered in 1895:

There has never been a period in any country when there was not a large class of pessimists who constantly held up to view the worst side of everything. Like crooked mirrors they distort everything they reflect. To hear them speak you would believe that this nation was already going over the falls. Every evil is magnified and the good is wholly overlooked....In spite of all these gloomy forebodings, the world has steadily gone forward and upward. There is a constant ebb and flow in progress; things mental, moral, and material, like the waves, sweep forward, fall back, and again advance, always rising a little higher than before.

- John F. Lacey. "At Northwest Iowa Veteran Reunion." 20 June 1895. Published in Major John F. Lacey Memorial Volume (1915) (p. 245)

Sources for quotations/additional reading:

• Major John F. Lacey Memorial Volume 
• The Lacey Act: America's Premier Weapon in the Fight against Unlawful Wildlife Trafficking 
•  Lacey Act Fact Sheet