Nathaniel P. Reed, a lifelong Republican who helped shape the U.S. Endangered Species Act, died in Quebec this month after a fishing accident. He was 84.

Reed, a Floridian, notably worked with former Florida Republican Gov. Claude Kirk to prevent construction of a super-sized airport that would have wiped out a large part of the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp.

Later, as an assistant secretary in the Interior Department under Republican Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald Ford, Reed helped preserve more than 100 million acres of parks and wildlife refuges in Alaska. He also helped shape the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act.

“Please let everyone know that he was a fighter at his core, that he felt allowing despoliation of the environment to be a real and…