Where, oh where has GOP conservationist legacy gone?

These days I am only squeamishly still a Republican. There once were fundamental "truths" and remedies to problems agreed upon by both parties. Land, water and wildlife conservation, e.g., were viewed as basic to American physical, spiritual and psychological well-being.

If an official or private citizen took steps to protect wild places or waters, this was not razzed as "wacko tree-hugging" by an entire party. In fact, as the New York Times points out, these efforts "were in keeping with the GOP's tradition of environmental stewardship, stretching back to Teddy Roosevelt." Today one would never know Republicanism was ever anything but outright hostile to nature and its benefits.

The embrace of a rose-colored "fix" in deregulation and privatization is not merely irritating to green elephants who saw Richard Nixon preside over a newly-formed Environmental Protection Agency, Endangered Species Act, and Clean Water Act, but foolish.

My love for nature may exceed the mainstream, but many people's pursuit of happiness (and livelihood) depend on it. There's nothing like having four turkey poults file up to watch one paint; or the gravid doe dash two feet ahead across the trail. Neither Disney nor virtual reality can rival the random thrill in raw nature.

Fresh air and water are vital to life. Studies show that access to green space soothes stress and depression, boosting quality-of-life.

But if, as the Times spells out, "House Republicans have voted?302 times this year to hamstring the EPA and weaken protections for public lands and other environmental safeguards," Roosevelt's legacy and the work done by Republican conservationist Russell Train and "green" measures enacted under Nixon are dumpster-bound ? unless this extreme trend is checked.

According to Jessica Goad of the Think Progress blog, the GOP platform ponders the sale of "parts of the federal government's enormous land holdings" to private ranching, mining or forestry interests. Mitt Romney told The Reno Gazette-Journal that he doesn't know "the purpose of" public lands. Meanwhile, multimillionaires can buy huge tracts for themselves; the plebs can't.

During his House tenure, Paul Ryan voted against the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, which establishes new parks and adds wilderness acreage; against the bill codifying the National Landscape Conservation System; and to strip presidential power to name new national monuments under the 1906 Antiquities Act, which 16 of 19 presidents have employed. He supported a budget bill amendment that would virtually have annulled the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Ryan's budget slashes from U.S. parks and forests would likely prompt closures and cost jobs and untold ecotourism dollars; and it provides for selling millions of public acres.

These are not your grandfather's Republicans.

Federal lands are our birthright. Privatization would foment piecemeal dismemberment of the peculiarly American "grand-scapes" crucial not just to wildlife but to scenic vacations. Is a horizon with mining machinery and oil pumps, yet no vestige of the purple mountain majesty our pioneers met, what we want?

As promised, President Obama has forwarded key preserves like our fledgling Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge, which, with the potential 2014 Florida Land and Water Legacy Amendment to secure Florida Forever funding in the Constitution, could help save Florida as we know it.

If ever there was a role for public ownership, it is to protect open space.

Saving America's unique ecology and geologic marvels ? from southern marsh and pine mosaics to painted mesas in the Southwest ? is sound policy and inherently nonpartisan.

The Wall Street Journal notes, "One of the key differences between the Romney and Obama energy plans (is that) Mr. Romney has called for oil companies to have much greater access to federal lands and has advocated giving states the leading role in regulating new oil and gas output on federal lands within their borders." These are our lands, remember ? belonging to all Americans, not to states and not to Shell Oil.

This election, at the 50th anniversary of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, there truly are two "visions" for America the Beautiful ? sadly, my party's is too gray to bear.

Rebecca Eagan of Winter Park is a wildlife conservationist.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/orlandosentinel/news/opinion/~3/_f_k1u2nJek/story01.htm

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