You’d never guess from the Bush administration’s abysmal environmental record that it was Republicans Theodore Roosevelt and Richard Nixon who most effectively used presidential power to protect our natural resources.

As Texas governor and now president, George W. Bush has been resolute against regulations that interfere with the petroleum and coal industries, who despoil and pollute the environment but provide significant financial support to the GOP.

In the latest and most visible chapter of a shameful story, the federal Bureau of Land Management has announced a Dec. 19 auction of more than 50,000 acres of federally owned oil-and-gas parcels located alongside or inside three national parks in Utah – Arches, Dinosaur and Canyonlands. The auction could lead to drilling within view of the parks’ majestic red-rock structures.

Imagine a government plan to lease land for a petroleum refinery at the entrance to Maine’s Acadia National Park, and you’ll have some idea why there is outrage among environmentalists about the proposed Utah auction.

In making its decision, BLM didn’t even notify the National Park Service, which found the announcement by its sister service “shocking and disturbing.”

BLM has a cozy relationship with oil, mining, timber and ranching interests to whom it leases public lands. A BLM official professed himself “puzzled” the Park Service was so upset over a routine public land sale, and the BLM state director for Utah said she saw nothing wrong with drilling near national parks.

Public furor caused the Secretary of the Interior to intervene to order a “compromise.” He required BLM to take the Park Service’s objections “seriously,” but he didn’t remove parcels from the block or defer the auction to allow for public comment or more careful review.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for BLM to consider objections of the Park Service or anyone else. When stealth doesn’t work, the Bush administration relies upon denial, circumlocution, glib reassurance or sham.

Teddy Roosevelt, never shy about controversy, would have blasted this mendacity. Roosevelt was an avid outdoorsman and naturalist as well as a former cattle rancher. He was also a progressive politician who believed that private gain had to give way when it conflicted with the public interest.

Roosevelt saw the wilderness as a precious resource, where Americans could test their skill and mettle against nature, reviving their spirit and building their character. At a time when the nation had explored, tamed and settled the Western frontier, Roosevelt wanted to preserve large virgin tracts for the enjoyment of future generations.

Between 1902 and 1909, Roosevelt established five national parks (doubling the existing number), 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reservations, four national game reserves, 18 national monuments (including the Grand Canyon) and added land to Yosemite Park, placing over 230 million acres under federal protection. In the process, he battled against congressional opposition from his own party and industry lobby groups.

Though Roosevelt used the term “conservation” instead of “environmentalism” and would have been unaware of ecology (a relatively new science which explores complex links between the survival of species and preservation of their environment), he nevertheless intuitively grasped the importance of keeping hunks of wilderness wild.

A century later, vistas like Yosemite and the Grand Canyon still inspire awe and comprise the crown jewels of America’s landscape – far more impressive than the marble and limestone monuments of Washington, D.C. or the skyscrapers of New York.

Although not generally associated with progressive causes, Richard Nixon was ahead of his time in 1970, when he created the Environmental Protection Agency, with broad jurisdiction to regulate hazardous waste, maintain and improve air and water quality, and preserve endangered species and habitats.

The Bush administration has done everything within its power to gut the EPA. It’s packed the agency with partisan appointees and industry lobbyists, cut enforcement actions against polluters, suppressed research on global warming, refused to enforce the Clean Air Act, relaxed wetland protections and put political pressure on scientists investigating links between cancer and chemicals used in food, cosmetics and other household substances.

These measures have had implications for public health and safety, such as exacerbating the risk of destructive climate change and causing marked increases in asthma and respiratory diseases. The spoliation of national parks, however, goes beyond practical considerations. It impinges upon America’s soul.

Perhaps President Bush should stop chopping brush on his Texas ranch long enough to visit America’s national parks. He might experience that sense of awe which caused Roosevelt to remark, “our people should see to it that they are preserved for our children and their children’s children forever, with their majestic beauty all unmarred.”

Elliott L. Epstein, a local attorney, is founder and board president of Museum L-A and an adjunct history instructor at Central Maine Community College. He can be reached at [email protected]