Governments have been involved with environmental issues from almost the earliest times. In England royal forests like-the New Forest were protected for a variety of reasons including recreation (hunting), as an economic and strategic resource (timbe for the navy) and are now increasingly seen as rare habitats to be protected for the sake of the rare species within them as well. In the
United States the ‘unsettled’ lands of the west were viewed as federal
property to be allocated in the public interest.