National Perspective: The Case for Conservation in Conservatism

PARSONS, West Virginia — Under a canopy of red and sugar maple, yellow poplar and sweet birch trees sits a colorful vernal riot of wildflowers like Canada violet, phlox and Solomon's seal -- and a case study of a modern collision of two of the hardiest ideological perennials on the political landscape of America: conservation and conservatism.

Here, in a mountainous enclave of one of the most loyal MAGA states — but within living memory one of the sturdiest redoubts of Democratic rule — sits the Fernow Experimental Forest, created in the embryo years of the New Deal and over a span of nine decades an outdoor laboratory for the examination of forest management techniques, wildlife, soil science and air quality.