Op-Ed | The Park Service Has Lost Its Conservation Compass
Recent National Park Service actions involving natural resources have some worrying that the agency has lost sight of its conservation mission.
- By NPT Staff - May 17th, 2021 1:45am
Op-Ed Columns
Op-Ed | A Refuge For All Americans
Who owns the national parks? The answer used to be decisive – all Americans, and for all time. Indeed our national parks, proclaimed Wallace Stegner, are “the best idea we ever had.” But some of our citizens regard the national parks as evidence of dispossession, places stained by the sins of a nation that is not their own and whose history they now repudiate.
- By NPT Staff - March 2nd, 2021 10:18am
Op-Ed | Confederate Memorials Serve A Role In National Parks
Removing statues and memorials honoring Confederate officers and troops from the Civil War would do a disservice to the role of interpreting history in national parks.
- By NPT Staff - February 26th, 2021 7:17pm
Op-Ed | Ambler Road A Threat to Alaska’s Wildlands
Does the Ambler Road represent a greater threat of long-term ecological damage to the wildlands and wildlife of the Brooks Range than drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge? George Wuerthner thinks so.
- By Kurt Repanshek - February 12th, 2021 2:00am
Op-Ed | Are Native Americans Lost From Yellowstone?
The following column was written by George Wuerthner and Lee Whittlesey in rebuttle to a recent Smithsonian Magazine article titled, "The Lost history of Yellowstone," which features the work and opinions of archaeologist Doug MacDonald. MacDonald is the author of Before Yellowstone: Native American Archaeology in the National Park.
- By NPT Staff - March 15th, 2021 5:39pm
Op-Ed | Will Parks Receive Full Maintenance Funding From GAOA?
Last month, the Interior Department made an announcement that could have implications for those of us who love parks: In 2020, federal energy disbursements fell by about $3.5 billion, a plunge of 31 percent compared to the previous year. Why should park enthusiasts care about energy revenues? Simply put, if energy revenues slide much further, the new program meant to restore dilapidated park infrastructure will go underfunded, making it even more difficult to address the already colossal backlog of deferred maintenance.
- By NPT Staff - January 21st, 2021 2:01pm
Op-Ed | Present Day Graffiti Vs. Historical Graffiti In National Parks – What’s The Difference?
Vandalism in its many forms, seems to be continuing unabated in the national parks. The Leave No Trace Seven Principals don’t appear to apply to those who wish to let others know they were there in the form of acrylic paint on 180-million year old sandstone and gouges into rock and living trees in places like Zion, Joshua Tree, Olympic, and Redwood national parks? Is modern graffiti on protected lands considered art and future history for archeologists, much like the ancient petroglyphs and pictographs now safeguarded within the boundaries of natural parks, national memorials, and other park units? Or is it a despoiling of protected National Park Service lands by a selfish few who apparently learned no respect for keeping the landscape unblemished for the enjoyment of present and future generations? Contributing editor and photographer Rebecca Latson offers her own thoughts on the subject.
Op-Ed | How Finding And Supporting Real News Is Like Voting
We’re awash this year in a sea of propaganda and misinformation. Fake news sites, false reports, news-like stories selected and spun not to make us smarter, but to make us hate, to steer us toward supporting someone else’s cause.
- By NPT Staff - November 3rd, 2020 10:34am
Op-Ed | Upper Green Area Should Be National Park, Not Feedlot
George Wuerthner argues that the Upper Green River Lakes area of the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming would serve the general public better as a national park, not a cattle feedlot.
- By NPT Staff - July 6th, 2020 2:00am
Conservation Could Create Jobs Post-Pandemic
A more effective way to stimulate the economy and protect the environment than relaxing environmental regulations is to pass legislation such as the Great American Outdoors Act, a bill the Senate passed on June 17.
- By NPT Staff - June 21st, 2020 1:45am
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The Essential RVing Guide
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