Republican Presidents have long history of protecting the planet

By Kathryn Kyle, Park County Citizens for Sustainability member

Published in the Cody Enterprise, November 17, 2025

Before 2016, Republican Presidents traditionally championed environmental protection.

Teddy Roosevelt protected Yellowstone National Park from commercial exploitation, created 50 wildlife refuges, five national parks, 18 national monuments and 51 bird preserves. He founded the U.S. Forest Service to stop excessive logging and mining on federal lands.

Speaking to Congress in December 1907, he said, “To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them.”

Herbert Hoover increased the national park system by 40%, brought two million acres into the national forest system, and supported creation of Grand Teton National Park.

Dwight Eisenhower established the Arctic National Wildlife Range, protecting nine million acres of pristine wilderness. His programs helped farmers and ranchers improve water-supply management and conserve water and soil. In his 1961 farewell address he said, “[W]e ... must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage.”

Richard Nixon signed landmark environmental-protection laws (some of which were written by the late David Dominick of Cody): the National Environmental Policy Act creating the Environmental Protection Agency; the Clean Air, Safe Drinking Water, and Endangered Species Acts; and the Marine Mammal and Ocean Dumping Acts.

In his 1970 State of the Union address, he described environmental protection as too important to be politicized: “Restoring nature ... is a cause beyond party and beyond factions. It has become a common cause of all the people of this country... [and] of particular concern to young Americans, because they more than we will reap the grim consequences of our failure to act on programs which are needed now if we are to prevent disaster later.”

He said, “As we work to expand our supplies of energy, we should also recognize that we must balance those efforts with our concern to preserve our environment. In the past, as we have sought new energy sources, we have too often damaged or despoiled our land.”

Gerald Ford enacted the first automobile fuel-economy standards.

Ronald Reagan signed the Global Climate Protection Act of 1987 and ratified the Montreal Protocol protecting the ozone layer. He signed more wilderness bills than any other president.

Reagan, too, believed the environment was not a partisan issue. Signing a 1984 Council of Environmental Quality report he said: “If we’ve learned any lessons during the past few decades, perhaps the most important is that preservation of our environment is not a partisan challenge; it’s common sense. Our physical health, our social happiness, and our economic well-being will be sustained only by all of us working in partnership as thoughtful, effective stewards of our natural resources.”

George H.W. Bush promised to be “the environmental president.” He created six new marine sanctuaries to protect ocean wildlife, strengthened the Clean Air Act to solve the acid-rain problem, and signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which recognized human activity as a cause of global warming.

George W. Bush established four marine national monuments and helped end over-fishing in U.S. waters. He reduced air pollution by 12% from 2001-2007, and aimed to cut toxic-gas emissions from power plants by 70% over 15 years. He advocated for U.S. leadership in clean-energy development. In his 2008 State of the Union address he said, “The United States is committed to strengthening our energy security and confronting global climate change. And the best way to meet these goals is for America to continue leading the way toward the development of cleaner and more energy-efficient technology.”

Donald Trump, with other business leaders, signed a letter to President Barack Obama and Congress that was published in the New York Times on Dec. 6, 2009, as the Copenhagen climate talks began. It urged the government to pass legislation to “... ensure meaningful and effective measures to control climate change, an immediate challenge facing the United States and the world today... . Please don’t postpone the earth. If we fail to act now, it is scientifically irrefutable that there will be catastrophic and irreversible consequences for humanity and our planet.”

How did a clean and safe environment go from being common sense to political football? Did big money oil and political ambition combine to make that happen?

Most of us know that Earth is our only home. If you choose to, you can speak up, write or call your representatives, and vote for a clean, safe environment for all.