America’s primary environmental goal should be a cleaner, healthier, and safer environment for current and future generations. Yet, governing environmental laws have strayed far from intended purposes, and their implementations are imposing immense costs on Americans with few benefits in return. Too often they impose mandates, empower and enlarge ineffective bureaucracies, and cripple the efforts of free people to more effectively steward America’s environment and natural resources. The Heritage Foundation’s Environmental Conservation: Eight Principles of the American Conservation Ethic offers specific reforms for today’s challenges and principles to guide future policy decisions.