Republicans once championed wilderness protection. They should do it again | Opinion

When Congress adjourned before Christmas, an opportunity to pass the Wild Olympics initiative slipped away from us, our grandchildren and our grandchildren’s grandchildren.

Wild Olympics is a Congressional bill that reclassifies over 125,000 acres of Olympic National Forest as wilderness and protects 19 rivers that rush from Olympic peaks. These federal forest acres and the rivers running through them abut the Olympic National Park and existing wilderness land.

Protecting these acres and rivers continues what Republican President Theodore Roosevelt began 113 years ago when he created the Mount Olympus National Monument. His Democratic successor President Wilson halved that monument. Theodore’s cousin, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, also a Democrat, restored the monument’s original acreage, added to it and had the area designated a national park.

In the 1970s, Washington’s Republican Governor Dan Evans and Democratic Senator Henry Jackson added coastline to the park. During the Reagan administration, Congress transferred acres of national forest land surrounding the Olympic National Park to wilderness, but some old-growth forests, carbon-sequestering habitat, scenic areas, migratory corridors, salmon streams and wild rivers were left out.

Last month, Congress could have passed Wild Olympics, correcting those omissions, but time ran out, and it didn’t.

This new Congress should seize the momentum behind the Wild Olympics bill, and quickly pass it.

Sadly, some people might be surprised a Republican supports expanding wilderness protection and understandably question whether the new Republican House will support expanding wilderness land. Both sentiments reveal how far the Republican party has strayed from its roots.

When I was growing up on the toes and knees of the Olympic Mountains, Republicans strongly embraced the environmental agenda even more than many Democrats. National Republicans supported the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. Republicans created the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency and created national marine sanctuaries, such as the one off our Olympic Peninsula’s coast. Republicans worked internationally to reduce acid rain and reverse a thinning ozone layer. Theodore Roosevelt’s example of doing what will benefit generations unborn and the Republicans’ environmental leadership of the 1970s shaped my political psyche.

In the 1980s, Washington Republican congressmen Sid Morrison and Joel Pritchard worked alongside their Democratic colleagues to expand wilderness in Washington state, as did Republican Congressman Dave Reichert only a decade ago. Republicans understood conservatives preserve.

Unfortunately, today, too many who identify as Republicans embrace policies that favor short-term jobs and a few quick bucks. That’s not conservative. The bedrock schist of conservatism is preserving what cannot be replaced, such as the Olympic Peninsula’s forests and rivers.

The federal acres that Wild Olympics bill would designate as wilderness do not contain any viable timber under current U.S. Forest Service safeguards and land management practices, so no existing timber jobs would be lost. The new wilderness acres would not limit any existing truck or snowmobile access. At the same time, since the Wild Olympics bill would preserve habitat and free-flowing rivers, it would enhance recreational opportunities such as hunting, fishing, camping and hiking while boosting outdoor-related businesses and jobs.

That builds a compelling case to pass this legislation. But if we are to save the West for those who will be here 113 years from now, we cannot base every land-use decision on how it affects us today. Instead, we must be guided by the values Theodore Roosevelt championed — values that express an understanding our dominion over the earth is a responsibility, not a license.

In living those values, we’ll pivot away from a vulgar age of ego and hubris, and humble ourselves before both Creator and creation. If we embrace this humility and honor our responsibility, kids in 2136 will know, as I did growing up in Hoodsport in the 1960s, a reverence for forests that rise to snow chutes reaching to frosty crags. They’ll feel awe for rivers that crash frenzied with the fuel of storms and snowmelt; will connect with the flora and fauna that provide us with food, fresh air, a nurturing climate and abundant sweet water.

Right now, Congressional Republicans and Democrats need to pass the Wild Olympics bill.

Going forward, all of us need to embrace a relationship with the West’s remaining open space that is grounded in humility, wonder and responsibility to steward for those who follow.

Doing so would transcend the need for future one-off legislative victories.

Bill Bryant, who served on the Seattle Port Commission from 2008-16, ran against Jay Inslee as the Republican nominee in Washington’s 2016 governor’s race.