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Listening, Listening, Listening

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Published Date

March 15, 2007

    OK, the releases are really starting to roll regarding the schedule of Park Service listening sessions intended to garner public input for how to celebrate the agency's centennial in 2016. Aside from this evening's sessions in Boston and St. Louis, here's the latest I've seen:
    * Next Wednesday, March 21, Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett will host a listening session at the Sheraton Denver West Hotel in Lakewood, Colorado, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
    * In San Francisco on Thursday, March 22nd, Ms. Scarlett and NPS Regional Director Jonathan Jarvis will be listening to the public from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Presidio Officers' Club. Perhaps someone should ask Ms. Scarlett, a former president of the privatization happy Reason Foundation, whether she believes the Presidio's business plan should be adopted by other parks.
    * Brian Waidmann, Dirk's chief of staff, will be in Miami on Thursday the 22nd for a listening session that also will draw Southeast Regional Director Pat Hooks and the superintendents of Everglades, Dry Tortugas, and Biscayne national parks, as well as the super from Big Cypress National Preserve.
    That meeting will be at the Miami-Dade Community College's Homestead Campus, from 7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. If you're wondering why Waidmann will be in Miami while Ms. Scarlett is across the country in San Francisco, it might have something to do with the power struggle that had the location for the initial listening session in Tennessee being punted back and forth between Gatlinburg and Knoxville.   
    For more locations, check out this site. Oh, wait, I almost forgot.

    The U.S. BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT issued a release the other day to announce there would be a listening session in Cody, Wyoming, on March 26 at the Cody Club from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
    Now, I have to admit it was odd getting this news from the BLM. On top of that, why hold the meeting in Cody?
    True, it is the eastern gateway to Yellowstone, but if you live in Jackson, West Yellowstone, Bozeman or Billings there's no way you're going to drive to Cody for a two-hour meeting at this time of year.
    Of course, there probably is no good central point, but Bozeman or Billings likely would be more accessible to folks and draw a larger crowd than Cody. Hopefully there will be some other meetings in the area.

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