Theodore Roosevelt was elected president in 1901, and he brought his passion for wildlife and the outdoors to the highest office in the land. Roosevelt, a founding member of the Boone and Crockett Club, was a long-time conservationist and knowledgeable about the needs of wildlife in America. So on March 14, 1903, Roosevelt established tiny Pelican Island as the nation's first wildlife refuge, making it the first time that federal lands had been set aside for the sake of protecting non-marketable wildlife (the brown pelican). According to Theodore Roosevelt, it was "a promise to America to preserve our wildlife heritage and prevent many species from extinction." Before leaving office in 1909, Theodore Roosevelt issued Executive Orders creating more than fifty national wildlife refuges throughout America, thus laying the foundation for a system of public lands that continue to exist for the sake of wildlife.