Liberals dont believe in liberalism. Friedman called himself a liberal, and for his time he was right. Conservative has nothing to do with conservation. Although I'll point out that hunters, overwhelmingly conservative, are among the biggest advocates of preserving forests and wildlife. And also the biggest financial contributors to those projects.
The fact is, whether liberal or conservative, the poor may or may not care about the environment and/or conservation, but their first priority is to put food on the table, have access to shelter from the elements, and enjoy some quality of life. Everything else will take a back seat to that.
But whether liberal or conservative, the affluent will demand clean water, clean air, uncontaminated soil, and will have the leisure and wherewithal to care about plants, animals, and aesthetic beauty.
It seems the American liberal concept of conservation is more and more government mandates, regulation, and control. They trust government to have everybody's best interests at heart more than they trust the people, and they trust government to utilize resources more efficiently and effectively than the people will manage them outside of government.
And the American conservatives concept of conservation is to increase affluence so more people will care and provide incentives to improve their environment and preserve the best that the planet can offer. There is no better managers of the rangelands and forests than those whose livelihood depend upon them. And the landowner is likely to be thrilled at the presence of a rare bird, critter, or plant on his property and is likely to nurture it. But if the government is given power to take away that landowner's propety rights because of the presence of a rare something, that is a powerful incentive to get rid of it quickly before some government authority discovers it is there.
The Founders put the faith in the people, with their rights secured, to govern themselves more effectively and efficiently than a central a government ever could. That is conservatism in a nutshell.
Take away the conservatives and you return the USA to a monarchy or other authoritarian government that assigns the rights to the people and issues them whatever privileges or possessions they will be allowed to have.