On
Wilderness Act's 45th Anniversary, Remember Reagan's Conservation
Achievements
September 1, 2009
September 3 is the 45th
anniversary of enactment of the Wilderness Act.
It's time for Republicans to rediscover their heritage as wilderness
leaders. They’ve been missing for too long.
The
Wilderness Act, which passed Congress in 1964 with strong bipartisan
majorities, would not have become law without Republican leadership.
Congressman John Saylor, the Pennsylvania Republican who co-sponsored
the Wilderness Act, acted from his conviction that stewardship is at
the core of true conservatism and of patriotism.
American
conservatism owes its existence to wilderness. America's identity as a
liberty loving, enterprising nation was shaped by our forebears'
exposure to raw nature. They found freedom in its purest form in the
wilderness. They learned from their wilderness experiences
self-reliance, personal responsibility, strength of character, and
piety, which are prerequisites for defending freedom.
As
Congressman Saylor warned in a House floor speech, failure to preserve
wilderness would cost Americans the virtues that wilderness teaches:
"Shall we, exploiting all our resources, reduce also every last bit of
our wilderness to roadsides of easy convenience, and ourselves soften
into an easy-going people deteriorating in luxury and ripening for the
hardy conquerors of another century?"
Unfortunately, many
Republican candidates and lawmakers today oppose wilderness protection.
They falsely equate conservation with liberalism and the 1960s
counterculture. They would do well to remember wise words that Ronald
Reagan spoke 25 years ago:
"What is a conservative after all but
one who conserves, one who is committed to protecting and holding close
the things by which we live... And we want to protect and conserve the
land on which we live—our countryside, our rivers and mountains, our
plains and meadows and forests. This is our patrimony. This is what we
leave to our children. And our great moral responsibility is to leave
it to them either as we found it or better than we found it."
Reagan
put his good words into action. He signed into law dozens of wilderness
bills that protected more than 10 million acres of wild mountains,
forests, deserts, and bottomlands for future generations to enjoy.
Republican leaders should follow Reagan's example and become wilderness
champions again.
WILDERNESS
AREAS DESIGNATED DURING REAGAN ADMINISTRATION
