Environmental Amnesia : In attacking Mojave park, Congress forgets importance of conservation

The Republican Party has a long and noble tradition of conservation. The first national park, Yellowstone, was established in 1872 under the Republican Administration of Ulysses S. Grant, and progressive Republican business leaders of the Theodore Roosevelt mold helped found the National Park Service 79 years ago. More recently, the Nixon Administration worked to extend federal clean water and air laws and to bolster protection for endangered species.

But the current Republican Congress, driven by the anti-regulatory ardor of newcomers from the Mountain West, has mounted an attack on years of bipartisan environmental and parkland achievements. Admittedly, many regulations and laws need updating--but not gutting.

Fortunately, moderate Republicans--mostly from states east of the Mississippi--see political danger in what their Western colleagues are doing. In recent votes, they have blunted some jagged assaults on environmental laws. Last month 67 Republicans joined Democrats to defeat a measure to create a commission to recommend divestiture of certain Park Service units.

When Rep. James V. Hansen (R-Utah) attempted a legislative end run by inserting the defeated measure into the budget reconciliation package, that too was blocked. Republican moderates led by Rep. Sherwood Boehlert of New York are now mobilizing to protect the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Endangered Species Act.

For California, a major case in point is that of the Mojave National Preserve, approved as a national park last year by Congress. As the result of amendments promoted by Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), the interior appropriations bill removes Park Service funding for the preserve and returns control of the land to its former administrator, the federal Bureau of Land Management. President Clinton has threatened to veto the bill for this and other environmental reasons.

To establish a national park and then pull back the money to run it is a precedent unworthy of the party of Teddy Roosevelt. The appropriations bill awaits floor action by both houses. There is still time for Republican moderates to delete this and other odious provisions.