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The Conservative Case for Wilderness

by REP Government Affairs Director David Jenkins
published in the Rutland (Vermont) Herald on August 2, 2006

If we as a nation are to preserve the essential elements of conservatism, we must also preserve wilderness.

Indeed, American conservatism owes its existence and its longevity as much to the vast wilderness landscape that greeted our forefathers as it does to European thinkers like Edmund Burke and Adam Smith.

The American wilderness experience forged the ethic of responsibility, hard work and faith that not only informs our conservatism, but also underpins our resilience as a people and as a nation.

Unfortunately, this connection is lost on too many political leaders who claim to be conservative yet vigorously oppose wilderness protection. Here in Vermont, Mark Shepard, a self-proclaimed conservative and Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, is a good example. In 2004, Shepard co-sponsored a resolution in Vermont's Senate to oppose new wilderness. The bill did not pass in the Senate, but was approved in the then-Republican-controlled Vermont House.

Such opposition to wilderness does not stem from conservative ideology or tradition, but most typically from a troubling combination of extreme libertarianism and the worship of material wealth.

Vermont has a history of sending true wilderness champions to Congress. Legendary Republican senators George Aiken and Robert Stafford top the list and stand in stark contrast to candidates like Shepard. Aiken was a strong backer of the 1964 Wilderness Act and chief sponsor of the Eastern Wilderness Areas Act of 1975.

What anti-wilderness conservatives don't realize is how critical wildness and wilderness are to the long-term maintenance of conservative values — freedom, self-reliance, personal responsibility, hard work, and faith.

It is in wilderness that freedom is found in its most fundamental form, and from wilderness springs the headwaters that sustain mankind's thirst for freedom.

Freedom is a pleasure to be rediscovered in wilderness. But it is not merely that. With the experience of freedom comes unwillingness to tolerate tyranny. People who accept the dictates of distant, faceless powers have forgotten the essential quality of individual freedom.

The willingness of people to rely on themselves and to accept personal responsibility for their actions is a core character trait essential to conservative ideology. Wilderness travel demands self-reliance and personal responsibility to an extent rarely found in modern society.

Those of us who venture into the wilderness quickly discover that making excuses and deflecting blame serve no useful purpose. The unforgiving nature of wilderness demands competence and prudence. Accepting the challenge of wilderness travel also means accepting the consequences of failure and shouldering that responsibility.

The willingness of individuals to engage in hard work and not shirk effort is an ethic not only fundamental to conservatism; it is also the heart of capitalism and the driving force behind our productivity as a nation. This ethic was forged in the American wilderness as our founders struggled to survive.

The effort expended to explore wilderness today — to travel by foot for many miles over wild and rugged terrain, forego modern comforts, and meet the elements with only what can be carried on one's back builds character, and connects present day Americans with the internal strength that made our forefathers the great people they were.

The belief in God, the acceptance of divine authority and the moral truth that stems from that authority through the scriptures have had, and continue to have, a profound influence on conservative thought.

If one subscribes to divine authority and believes that God created the earth, wilderness is the most pristine example of God's handiwork. Its intricate design and magnificent beauty provide testament to God's existence and glory.

Wilderness, by revealing the wonders of nature in their untrammeled state, is uniquely able to reinforce mankind's faith in God. Therefore, people of faith should be the most ardent defenders of America's remaining wilderness.

With less than 5 percent of the nation (half of that in Alaska) protected as wilderness, conservative columnist George Will pointed to one obvious problem with the opposition to wilderness from the motorized recreation community:

"Pristine wilderness is an acquired taste and is incompatible with the enjoyment of some popular tastes such as dirt bikes, snowmobiles and other off-road vehicles. But surely there is no shortage of space in America for persons whose play must involve internal-combustion engines."

Sacrificing the small amount of remaining wilderness for materialistic gain or convenience is not conservative. One of the primary dicta of conservative thought is to preserve what is worth saving.

Wilderness, a cornerstone of American conservatism, is worth saving.