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Opinion Columns

Op-Ed | The National Park Service For Too Long Has Been Without A Permanent Director

Since 2017 dawned, the National Park Service has been without a permanent director. The lack of leadership at the top of the agency is unprecedented and damaging. There is no one to speak for our national parks, there is no internal leadership. How long this condition will last I do not know, but it has to end. The National Park Service needs a director.

Op-Ed | A Monumental Task!

Over the years, in visits to national monuments, this question seldom occurred to me. Walking the lava at Craters of the Moon NM, canoeing the Missouri River in the Upper Missouri River Breaks, kayaking and hiking Glacier Bay while it was still a monument and before it gained national park status, I gave little thought to where the monument boundaries were and why they were there.

Op-Ed | Holding True To President Roosevelt's Vision At Theodore Roosevelt National Park

In 1910, Theodore Roosevelt stated, "Of all the questions which can come before this nation…there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us." More than a century later, as we celebrate the 70th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, this comment rings true, though shrouded in irony.

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