Rob Bishop has Different Values

Our nation’s parks, forests, wildlife refuges and other public lands are in peril, threatened by a powerful Congressman’s radical agenda. Congressman Rob Bishop wants to eliminate national monuments, sell off America’s public lands, scuttle the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), and gut critical resource protections. Bishop is waging a war against the public lands legacy of Theodore Roosevelt–and along with it, our natural and cultural heritage.

There is nothing conservative about Rob Bishop’s radical agenda. Genuine conservatives strive to be good stewards of our public lands. They understand the intrinsic value of these places, not just for us, but for future generations of Americans. These great conservative leaders disagree with Rob Bishop. Do you?

Abraham Lincoln

President Lincoln intervened to protect the land is now Yosemite National Park from commercial exploitation and development. He made Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias a public trust, which marked the first time the U.S. government protected land for public enjoyment. Rob Bishop, by contrast, railed against a recent private gift of 400 acres to the iconic park that had originally been included in the 1890 park plan.

Theodore Roosevelt

America’s greatest conservationist, TR is responsible for establishing 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, 4 national game preserves, 5 national parks, and 18 national monuments. He signed the Antiquities Act into law that gives presidents the authority to create national monuments.  Bishop has called the law “the most evil act ever invented” and is constantly working to undermine the Act and monument designations.

Ronald Reagan

During his two terms in office, President Reagan signed into law 38 bills that added more than 10.6 million acres to the National Wilderness Preservation System, including roughly 750,000 acres in Utah. Rob Bishop is a fervent opponent of wilderness protection. When speaking about America’s public lands, Reagan said “This is our patrimony. This is what we leave to our children. And our great moral responsibility is to leave it to them either as we found it or better than we found it.”

George W. Bush

In 2006 President Bush used his authority under the Antiquities Act to designate the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the Pacific. At the time it was by far the largest national monument ever established, protecting more than 140,000 square miles of ocean waters, islands, and atolls. Bishop has strongly criticized the designation. Bush was also a vocal proponent of LWCF, which Bishop is actively working to undermine.

William Howard Taft - Designated nine national monuments, including Mukuntuweap (now Zion National Park) and Rainbow Bridge in Utah.

Warren G. Harding - Designated seven national monuments, including Timpanogos Cave and Bryce Canyon in Utah.

Calvin Coolidge – Designated eleven national monuments.

Herbert Hoover – Designated nine national monuments, including Arches (now Arches National Park) in Utah.

Dwight D. Eisenhower - First protected what is now the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Bishop wants to remove those protections.

Richard M. Nixon - Signed the Federal Land Policy Management Act (FLPMA) into law that made preserving public lands in their natural condition and retaining federal ownership a priority. Bishop opposes both of those objectives.