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.

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.

With a rudderless helm, overcrowded parks, and insufficient resources, these are trying times for the National Park System, the National Park Service, and park visitors.

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.