When Paul Hoffman served as the Interior Department's deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, he gained infamy for penning a drastic overhaul of the Park Service's Management Policies. Fortunately, those revisions were discarded in the final version.
    Well, Paul some time ago was removed from that role in the Interior Department and shuttled off to a side office (though there's still some suspicion that he's somehow still manipulating the Park Service's position on snowmobiling in Yellowstone). However, his proposed successor brings his own baggage to the job, baggage that does not necessarily bode well for the national parks.
    Lyle Laverty's latest role has been as director of the Colorado state parks system. In that role he has boosted visitation. But he's also implemented some changes that, if carried over to the national park system, arguably could further remove the system from some segments of the population. For starters, he's a big proponent of using visitor fees to fund the parks, as you can learn from reading this post from the Wild Wilderness blog.
    You can learn more about Laverty's background by reading this story in the Denver Post.