[Mb-civic] Bush has National Parks in crisis

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

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BUSHGREENWATCH
Tracking the Bush Administration's Environmental Misdeeds
http://www.bushgreenwatch.org
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October 13, 2004

NATIONAL PARKS IN CRISIS UNDER CURRENT LEADERSHIP, NEW 
REPORT
CONCLUDES 

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In the meantime, Secretary Norton has withdrawn the Interior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." 

### 

SOURCES: 
"A Call To Action: Saving Our National Park System," Coalition
of Concerned National Park Service Retirees,
http://ga3.org/ct/v71g7oM1MQVW/.

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