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Traveler's View | Bears Ears And Grand Staircase-Escalante Are Today's Hetch Hetchy

Early in the 20th century there was a fight over the fate of the Hetch Hetchy Valley at Yosemite National Park. Would it remain an amazing, waterfall-rimmed valley that so very well complemented the Yosemite Valley, or would it be given over to a reservoir to meet San Francisco's utilitarian needs? The battle for wildness, of course, was lost at Hetch Hetchy. Today the battle is being repeated in Utah, where wildness and sacredness at Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments are being tossed aside not so much for utilitarianism as for profiteering.

Traveler's View: Politics Vs. Public Interest In National Parks

While the National Park Service Organic Act directs the National Park Service to be a guardian of the parks and the flora and fauna within them, politics don't always make that easy. Proof of that can be seen in Alaska, where the agency has done a complete reversal in trying to protect wolves, bears, coyotes and other predators from rampant hunting and trapping.

Traveler's View: Random Thoughts From, And About, National Parks

There really never is a dull moment when it comes to the National Park System. Not when there's a candidate for Congress saying Olympic National Park should be turned over to the state of Washington, when Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke praises the stabilization of a backcountry lodge in Glacier National Park but is mum on Grand Canyon National Park's leaky water system, and when the National Park Service looks the other way regarding its role not to interfere with natural processes.
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Traveler's View: Politics Has Taken Voice From The National Park Service

Politics has taken the voice away from the National Park Service. Instead of relying on the expertise of its biologists, archaeologists, botanists and others, the agency has deferred to partisans in the Interior Department with intentions not always in the best interests of the National Park Service Organic Act.

Traveler's View: Are You Really Working For The Good Of All Americans, Mr. Zinke?

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was so anxious to score a major infrastructure success project last fall that he drained a quarter of the National Park Service's construction budget to do that. Now we're left wondering what else is being drained of $12 million so a backcountry lodge in Glacier National Park can be rebuilt to serve a very, very select group of park visitors. At the same time, a program that reaches out to millions of fourth-grade students is hanging in the balance because the secretary sees it as a money loser.

Traveler's View: Economics Fail To Measure A National Park's Value

Did you hear the news? The more than 330 million people who visited the National Park System last year generated nearly $36 billion in economic activity. Good to know, but we're guessing folks don't visit a park to see how much they spend or how much a business makes. If that were the case, folks would be rooting for Burnett Oil Co. to strike it big in Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida.

Traveler's View: "Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee" Out Of Balance

If you're in the RV business, or want larger campgrounds, or perhaps more lodging concessions on public lands, you're likely thrilled with the makeup of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's "Made in America" Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee. If you prefer less infrastructure on public lands, well, you're probably in a funk over his appointments.

Traveler's View: Corporate Welfare At Caneel Bay In Virgin Islands National Park?

A private equity firm with global operations that include luxury hotels, ski resorts, and transportation interests such as shipping and railcars is on the brink of what appears to be a sweetheart deal to operate a luxury resort inside Virgin Islands National Park for just about the rest of the century.

Traveler's View: Is Secretary Zinke Determined To Make His Legacy The Redefinition Of Public Lands?

From dismantling national monuments to privatizing national park operations to skirting the National Environmental Policy Act to open parklands up to hunting and vanquishing wilderness. Is that on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's agenda? It doesn't take much of an imagination to think so.

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