It seems not a week goes by without some issue being identified as a threat to the national parks. One week it might be funding woes, another week pollution, another diversity concerns, and then, of course, there's climate change.
So, from the following list, which do you think poses the greatest threat to our national parks? And if your concern is not on the list, please tell us what it is.
* Funding issues. It's been often reported that the National Park Service has a maintenance backlog of about $9 billion. And, of course, there's the issue of annual funding in general for the Park Service. Is Congress spending too little on the parks, or is the Park Service not as fiscally fit as it could be?
* Pollution. Whether it's ground-level ozone at Acadia or Great Smoky Mountains national parks, air quality in general at places such as Shenandoah and Sequoia national parks, or heavy metals and acid rain deposition in the Sierra, Rockies, or Appalachian parks there are plenty of pollution issues that can be cited across the National Park System.
* Diversity. This is a two-pronged issue, as there are concerns over both a lack of diversity in park visitors and within the NPS ranks.
* Climate change. Is this, as Park Service Director Jon Jarvis has said, "fundamentally the greatest threat to the integrity of our national parks that we have ever experienced"?
* Visitation. This also is a two-pronged issue, as some worry that the parks are not being seen by enough visitors, while others argue that places such as the Yosemite Valley, the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, and Old Faithful in Yellowstone are overrun with visitors in the summer months.
* Inholdings. There are many cases across the National Park System where pockets of private property exist within the borders of a national park. And earlier this year there were news stories about a developer who was buying up parcels to build multi-million-dollar homes on them. Is the Park Service's inability, due to lack of funding, to buy these parcels harming the integrity of the parks?
* Motorized recreation. How great a threat are snowmobiles, personal watercraft, and off-road vehicles to national parks?
Comments
Let's begin with all the oil, gas, mining leases granted right on the doorstep of several National Parks during the Bush/Cheney administration. At least one high ranking Republican (Boehner or McConnell) has already mentioned preservation money as something that can be cut from the budget. Very, very little discussion concerning preservation of wilderness areas, endangered species, National Parks and Monuments ever takes place when Republicans are in power. How can we forget "Drill, Baby, Drill", the song of the McCain/Palin
campaign!!!!
Every taxpaying citizen owns the National Parks, but sadly, huge chunks of the parks are CLOSED to the PUBLIC. Elitist biologists deem some areas to be too important for the public to see. NPS staff are the only ones who ever witness some of the most amazing aspects of the parks. Unless a particular area is truly unsafe for visitors or untrained persons, they should be open. We do not need laws to protect us from ourselves. If a visitor gets lost in some remote corner of a park, it isn't a problem worth closing an area because we are PAYING for RANGERS to find them. National Parks are open to the public, and it is no concern whether white, black, blue, or orange people visit them. The issue, more importantly, is that all those orange, black, blue, and white people are able to see the park once they arrive. They should never find a closed gate in a park that they OWN.
I resent people blaming Republicans. I am a Republican (Conservative). I love and support the National Parks. The only danger is when nature is put ahead of the best interests of humans. I do NOT mean that people are free to do whatever they want in and with National Parks. Of course there have to be rules & regulations. I firmly believe that too many vehicles are a danger to parks and that the ones who bus people in from outside the park are on the right track. Yes, it is inconvenient, but I believe necessary. I strongly defend the National Park System and hold parks dear to my heart, but to blame any group for their problems is ignorant!
See this page from the National Parks Traveller:
/2010/10/reader-participation-day-which-works-harder-national-parks-republican-or-democratic-congress7114
Although it specifically calls out certain Republicans as both supporting the parks and certain others for not supporting the parks, there are no examples of Democrats not supporting the parks. It probably has less to do with actual programs than it does with support of individuals of Congress. Republicans can't live on the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt forever.
"On its face, this seems like an easy question to answer. After all, former U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo, a Republican from California, didn't appear to be a big fan of national parks, and at one point supposedly joked about selling off units of the National Park System or at least opening them up to mining.
"And then there was former U.S. Rep. Jim Hansen, a Republican from Utah, who wouldn't have minded if Great Basin National Park were jettisoned from the system."
I find it very troubling that anyone would suggest that a political party is a danger to National Parks. No one is going to shut them down, open them to extractive industries, or anything else. Regardless of what they say in a campaign, it is poltically impossible to shut down our national treasures the way it is described by partisan fear-mongers. People keep mentioning Great Smoky Mountains NP as an example of a park in danger. Who is endangering it? Democrats from Ohio and Michgan who have already ruined their own wild areas. If you want to protect a park from hemlock wooly adelgids, gypsy moths, or bedbugs, the only option is to keep out firewood, pets, and even people from other areas of the country.
Habitat fragmentation.
I see that anon at 11:03 is following the normal liberal rhetoric.He complains about oil and gas leases near parks but provides no evidence they endanger the parks in any way. Further he identifies "one high ranking member" to condemn the entire party. Anon at 12:33 does the same. One person at one point "jokes" about selling the parks and he is ready to condemn the entire Republican party. And of course there is the "Drill Baby Drill"
but again the attack dogs can't link that statement to any actual risk to the park system.
Wow. The diversity in opinions here is as diverse as our parks themselves.
pkrnger -- re: your thinking outside the box, that was an awesome comment and spot on.
Arguments like this have been going on ever since the Hayden party toured Yellowstone and will certainly continue until Yosemite has been leveled by erosion. Perhaps the only hope we have is that, in the end, the collective wisdom of our democratic system will prevail. Even though we Americans seem constantly to be tearing at one another's throats, when the dust finally settles we somehow manage to find at least a reasonable solution. Not always perfectly perfect, but at least sort of reasonable.
Pogo, Walt Kelly's little possum said it best, "We have met the enemy, and he is US."