We all know that Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited park in the United States. In 2021, the Smokies had 14.1 million visitors. Maybe it was a pandemic response and wanting to be outside or just greater appreciation of the outdoors. The bottom line is that there was a 57 percent uptick in visitation in a decade. But the park doesn’t get more money because of increased visitation; that’s not how the National Park Service works.

Events of the past few years have drawn national attention to the critical need for staffing increases and reforms at federal law enforcement organizations such as the U.S. Capitol Police and, regrettably, the National Park Service’s own U.S. Park Police.

Ansel Adams, the venerated photographer of America’s national parks and wild lands famously remarked, “It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.” He would make the same observation today.

The final Record of Decision (ROD) on livestock operations management at Point Reyes National Seashore was released this week. Unfortunately, and as feared, it not only maintains the ongoing degradation of this national park unit by privately owned domestic livestock, but it expands the opportunities for a handful of ranchers to do even more damage to the public’s landscape with additional lands opened for grazing, as well as the planting of row crops.