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Wilderness Theme Parks?

Submitted by Kurt Repanshek on April 2, 2007 - 12:53pm

Now, I'm not sure how far the president's National Parks Centennial Initiative is going to advance, what with the seeming aversion some in Congress have to the current proposal.
And what with the lack of any official platform that would guide what exactly constitutes a "signature project" or what exactly private dollars will be allowed to fund, you do have to wonder just a little bit about what Dirk and Mary have in mind for this endeavor.
One person (besides me) who is wondering a little is Joe Howry, editor of the Ventura County Star. In an editorial the other day he expressed some concerns that the initiative might not be in the best interests of the park system.
My fear is that the more money made available for the parks will lead to turning them into wilderness theme parks, complete with fancy resort hotels, fast-food chains and the total sanitizing of anything that could be remotely dangerous, he wrote.
You can read the rest of his thoughts here.

Comments

Submitted by Matt (not verified) on April 3, 2007 - 7:49pm.
Nice touch with the congresspeople's addresses there. When I was on a fee-demo forest with the USFS, people used to love to complain to me on how the fees were unfair or illegal. I didn't (and don't) care either way, but I would always ask if they had ever spoken to their congressman or congresswoman about it and 99% of the time I would get a blank stare. If more people would become involved, well, I'm not sure things would change much but at least it would give our reps something to think about. Keep up the good fight!
Submitted by Random Walker (not verified) on April 5, 2007 - 9:37am.
Have never fully understood this need to sanitize Nature (do not want to?) Now the Zoo's they build are down right frightening to me... "We all strive for safety, prosperity, comfort, long life, and dullness. The deer strives with his supple legs, the cowman with trap and poison, the statesman with pen, the most of us with machines, votes, and dollars, but it all comes to the same thing: peace in our time. A measure of success in this is all well enough, and perhaps is a requisite to objective thinking, but too much safety seems to yield only danger in the long run. Perhaps this is behind Thoreau’s dictum: in wildness is the salvation of the world. Perhaps this is the hidden meaning in the howl of the wolf, long known among mountains, but seldom perceived among men." Aldo Leopold “Thinking Like a Mountain”