EDITORIAL: What would Teddy Roosevelt think of his party’s hostility to nature?

The politicians in the Wisconsin Legislature and the U.S. Congress who are carrying on a determined campaign to block, disable or kill vital conservation programs are not just harming the natural environment, they are betraying the sterling environmental protection legacy of their own political party.

Republicans are trashing the protections of America’s lands and waters that were fought for and enshrined in law by Republicans.

In Wisconsin, the death at the hands of Republican legislators of one of the most effective conservation programs in a state known for its conservation ethic took place on June 30. The program was named after Warren Knowles, Republican governor and conservationist, and Gaylord Nelson, Democratic governor and founder of Earth Day

For 37 years, the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund protected the state’s natural areas to keep them safe from development and accessible by outdoors-loving Wisconsinites.

The program expired last week when a funding cut-off by the Republican majority in the Legislature took effect in a spiteful response to a state Supreme Court decision ruling that the Joint Finance Committee’s secretive way of vetoing funding for conservation projects, particularly in the case of Ozaukee County’s Clay Bluffs Cedar Gorge Nature Preserve, was unconstitutional.

The fund’s co-namesake Warren Knowles worked to protect his state’s natural resources throughout his three terms as governor. His signature conservation achievement was his advocacy for the Outdoor Recreation Act Program, a precursor of the Stewardship Fund that for decades supported efforts by cities and villages to control pollution and preserve natural areas for public use.

In the U.S. Senate in April, the Republican majority voted to allow a Chilean billionaire to operate a copper mine in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness north of Wisconsin near the Canadian border. The GOP senators used the Congressional Review Act to bypass normal Senate protocols and overturn a public land order that prohibited mining in the Superior National Forest.

Mining experts who opposed the approval pointed out that mines of the type that will be operating upstream of the Boundary Waters inevitably release polluted liquid substances.

More environmental vandalism was soon to follow as Senate Republicans conspired to repeal the Roadless Rule by tacking a last-minute amendment onto a wildfire bill.

The Roadless Rule safeguards federal public lands by prohibiting road construction and other development in National Forests. The amendment that would cancel it was passed without a public hearing on a vote by all 11 Republican members of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. The nine Democrats on the committee all voted against it.

The natural areas protected by the Roadless Rule, which include the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin, include some of the finest remaining fish and wildlife habitat in the country.

The Senate effort to do away with the Roadless Rule is supported by a Republican cohort that has also been pushing for the sale of millions of acres of federally protected land for housing and other developments.

The lands that would be made vulnerable through these efforts are the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the Republican president and conservation icon who instilled the duty to preserve the country’s natural treasures as a noble American imperative.

Roosevelt established the National Forests, created the National Park System and the U.S. Forest Service, protected millions of acres of public land and designated 18 national monuments, including the Grand Canyon National Monument.

Republican presidents who followed him honored Roosevelt’s commitment.

Ronald Reagan signed more wilderness bills than any president and championed the first climate change bill. George H. W. Bush and Gerald Ford strongly supported federal anti-pollution initiatives. Richard Nixon created the Environment Protection Agency and signed the Clean Air Act, earning recognition by the Union of Concerned Scientists as the “greenest” U.S. president.

President Donald Trump frequently compares himself favorably to President Theodore Roosevelt. At one event, he said of Roosevelt and his conservation legacy, “I’m the same or almost as good.”

Meanwhile, it has been a fundamental policy of his administration to find ways to eliminate or bypass federal regulations that prevent mining and oil drilling on protected federal lands. Last year, it initiated its own effort to kill the Roadless Rule, but put it on hold after 99% of the responses in a public comment period opposed the repeal.

There is a message in that 99%: Republicans working against conservation and environmental protection are offending their own constituents. There has always been a strong element of support for conservation among Republican voters, especially hunting and fishing enthusiasts.

The frustration among conservation-minded Republicans is so great that organizations have been formed, with Republican voters and office holders as members, dedicated to the mission of bringing the party back to its environmental senses.

One of them, ConservAmerica, a national nonprofit headquartered in Sturgis, Mich., observes on its website: “Today, the sad remnants of our once-proud Republican Party ignore the idea of conservation and environmental protection, which were traditional hallmarks of the true conservatives who made up the Republican Party for well over a hundred years.”

Well said.