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does it suprise you? Nat Parks crumbling

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http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/mt_archives/000204.php

 

National Parks in Crisis Under Current Leadership, New Report Concludes

October 13, 2004

 

Writer Wallace Stegner once called the National Parks " the best idea America

ever had. " But under the current national administration, the parks are

imperiled

as never before.

 

Late last month the Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees -- a

group

that includes five former directors of the National Park Service and 95 former

Park

superintendents or assistant superintendents -- issued a report describing a

national

park system plagued by disrepair, deteriorating facilities, declining budgets,

diminished

staffing levels, and low morale.

 

The specifics provided by the report are deeply disturbing. According to the

report,

NPS Director Fran Mainella, a political appointee, has reinterpreted the 1866

Mining

Law that would re-open long abandoned trails and roads in National Parks. In

Mojave

National Preserve and Death Valley National Park (CA) alone, Mainella's action

could

open 3,000 miles of roads and alleged routes to old mining claims.

 

Despite 10 years of studies and overwhelming public opposition, Interior

Secretary

Gale Norton bowed to pressure from snowmobile manufacturers and re-opened

Yellowstone

National Park to snowmobiles, endangering America's last wild buffalo herd.

Likewise,

rules against off-road vehicles have been loosened at Padre Island National

Seashore

(TX) and Assateague National Seashore (MD). At Cape Hatteras National Seashore

(NC),

the park superintendent has been ordered to reopen areas previously closed to

protect

nesting seabirds.

 

The administration's rollback of clean air protections has had grave

consequences

for the parks, making the unhealthy air in many parks even worse. Because of a

nearby

coal-fired power plant, Great Smoky Mountains National Park (TN) had more ozone

alerts last year than Atlanta.

 

More than two dozen parks, including Shenandoah National Park (VA) and

Sequoia/Kings

Canyon National Park (CA) have degraded air quality and serious problems with

haze.

 

In the meantime, Secretary Norton has withdrawn the Interior Department's

opposition

to a new power plant near Yellowstone and reversed federal opposition to

coal-fired

plants outside the boundaries of Denali National Park in Alaska.

 

In 2000, then-candidate George Bush told USA Today, " I will ensure that the

federal government meets it responsibilities by devoting $5 billion to eliminate

the backlog in maintenance and improvements at our national parks. "

 

But under Norton, budgeting gimmicks are disguising severe shortages of funds

and

staff in the parks. In Everglades National Park (FL), of 210 permanent

positions,

48 are vacant. At Gettysburg National Military Park (PA), requests by 25 percent

of school groups are rejected for lack of funds.

 

According to the report, many senior NPS leaders say that the political

appointees

running Interior do not seek their professional expertise and advice. When

advice

is offered, it is largely ignored. Veteran NPS career leaders have told the

Coalition

that to an unprecedented degree, field park leaders are being pressured to " toe

the line " and to regurgitate political rhetoric provided in " talking points. "

A culture of fear, they say, now rules the agency.

 

Not surprisingly, a recent opinion survey found morale in the Park Service at a

new low. Three-quarters of the park professionals surveyed found special

interest

influence over the Park Service has gotten worse under Norton. Nearly 90 percent

are concerned that decisions are more influenced by politics than science or

professional

expertise. According to the report, frustration and pressure have caused an

exodus

of senior career NPS leaders.

 

The feelings of many were summarized by one professional who wrote on the

survey,

" I have been in the NPS for 25 years. Sadly, over the past two years I have

seen a once proud agency being driven into the ground by an administration that

has contempt of our work, our ethic and our pride as Park Service staff. "

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