You may or may not have noticed, but we’re kind of right smack-dab in the middle of some sort of political something-or-other, what with the partisanship and nasty ads and the like. So I thought it might be nice to take a step back from that kind of politics, and instead bring you a survey of some of the greenest presidents this country has ever had, courtesy of The Daily Green. The nice thing about this list is that it includes presidents from both sides of the aisle, as conservation isn’t actually a partisan issue. So, let’s get to getting to!

1. Teddy Roosevelt: This man had chutzpah, to say the least, and a Conservative in the true sense of the word. He wanted to conserve money, the American way of life, and importantly for this post, the environment. When not running around with the Rough Riders and being generally brash, The Daily Green notes that

‘TR’ consistently lobbied Congress for wilderness protection, used the Forest Reserve Act of 1891 to set aside 150 million acres of timberland as public domains, and oversaw creation of the U.S. Forest Service. Roosevelt also created 50 wildlife refuges and five national parks.

5. Richard Nixon: People tend to forget, under the shadow of Watergate, that at one point Richard Nixon was an extremely popular president who opened China, put an end to the Vietnam War, and eased the tensions of the Cold War through treaties with the Soviet Union. And environmentally, he didn’t really get kicked around.

Nixon signed the bills that established the Environmental Protection Agency and the landmark Clean Air Act. Going further, in 1972 Nixon signed the Coastal Zone Management Act; the Ocean Dumping Act; the Marine Mammal Protection Act; the Federal Insecticide, Fungide, Rodenticide Act; and the Toxic Substances Control Act. Nixon’s term also saw passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973 and the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974.

7. Abraham Lincoln: Yes, apparently Lincoln had time to do some conservation when not dealing with, you know, the Civil War. Aside from establishing the Department of Agriculture, The Daily Green tells us

Lincoln established California’s spectacular Yosemite Valley and its Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias as a public trust, marking the first time land was set aside specifically for public enjoyment (and laying the groundwork for the national parks system).

I don’t want to steal all The Daily Green’s thunder, so please takepart and visit them to see the rest of the list. There are seven more to read about!