Conservationists are hoping the changing political climate won’t mean that decades of work to protect natural beauty and habitat will be undone. The same bipartisan approach to preserving public lands and wildlife refuges is needed now after the presidential election, says Collin O’Mara, CEO of the National Wildlife Federation.
“The gains that we’ve made in this country because of things like the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act are the envy of the world. Americans have seen health outcomes go up at the same time we’ve seen the GDP go up. We’ve proven that we can have a strong environment and a healthy economy at the same time.”
According to O’Mara, investments in proactive conservation done at the state level, done in collaborative ways through local partnerships, can help protect the more than 88,000 wildlife species that are in trouble across America. He thinks Democrats and Republicans should be on the same page about conservation.
