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Setting Precedents in the Parks

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A dozen tents with alcohol were set up at the Charlestown Navy Yard to cater to a special event held there earlier this summer.

There's a passage in Director's Order 53, one of the many documents that guide National Park Service management decisions, that warns of proverbial icebergs ready to assail superintendents who truly believe their mission is to "conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."

The section really can't be missed, as it's right up front in the introduction to Director's Order 53, which governs special uses in the parks. Here's how it reads:

The approval or denial of requests to engage in special park uses is an important and continuing responsibility of superintendents. Superintendents should be aware that local decisions relating to permitting special park uses may have Service-wide implications, and set precedents that create difficulties for other superintendents. In such instances, the superintendent should consult with the regional or Service-wide specialist.

The key word in that paragraph, of course, is "precedents." If something is approved in one park, that approval very well could be used in a bid to open up another park to a similar use. And with the new breed of superintendents who are looking for ways to generate revenues to offset budget shortfalls, hosting special events just might be the key.

While there no doubt will be some special events that dovetail perfectly with a specific park's mission and history, there are others that seem highly questionable.

Already this summer there have been two special events that some have called into question: The Toyota Scion party at Alcatraz in Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and the McKesson bash at the Charlestown Navy Yard of the Boston National Historical Park. What some have found objectionable is that neither event meshed, culturally or historically, with their respective settings. Rather, the decisions to OK both events seem to be based simply on drawing crowds to the park units for after-hours affairs.

Will we see private parties on the boardwalk that wraps Old Faithful? I'm told not. But who knows? Whether the Alcatraz and Charlestown Navy Yard affairs were the only special-use events that have been at odds with their settings is not easy to ascertain, as the Park Service's Washington headquarters does not track special uses.

Indeed, in the case of the Alcatraz and Charlestown affairs, the Park Service's point person for special uses had no advance knowledge of the parties.

Were the Alcatraz and Charlestown parties big deals? Considered in a vacuum, probably not. But if they set precedents that will open other units of the national park system to similarly questionable uses, these bashes were very big deals.

Another concern is that while NPS Director Mary Bomar promised Congress that she would see that transparency is key in how her agency conducts business, that message does not seem to be trickling down to all units of the Park Service. While the folks at Golden Gate were more than willing to discuss how they handled the Toyota party, those at Boston National Historical Park largely have turned a deaf ear to questions about how they manage special uses in general and, more specifically, why they approved the McKesson party.

So far they refuse to discuss:

* The parameters of the contract with Amelia Occasions, a wedding and special events planner, and what it requires from Amelia in terms of payment for the use of the Navy Yard's Commandant's House or whether Amelia is responsible for maintenance of the house;

* How many special events they allow each year;

* How much revenue, if any, these events generate, and;

* Why the McKesson party, which required a dozen tents to dispense alcohol to roughly 3,500 invitees, was permitted when Director's Order 53 clearly states that special uses that are contrary to the purposes for which a park was established or which unreasonably impair the atmosphere of peace and tranquility maintained in wilderness, natural, historic, or commemorative locations within the park should not be allowed.

They have said, though, that the best way to preserve a historic building is to use it.

"And that is what we are doing and will continue to do in the Charlestown Navy Yard. If we used the wrong instrument or authority to permit the special event that was held in the Navy Yard on July 10, it was unintentional and we will fix it," BNHP spokesman Sean Hennessey told me in an email. "But we will continue to hold special events that expose new audiences to the stories and resources associated with the birth and growth of America, and we will continue to collaborate with arts and cultural organizations to interpret our resources in new and exciting ways."

While efforts to lure new audiences are laudable, there are some within the Park Service who question how these efforts are being carried out.

"My feeling is that this is out of control. I think the message from (Director) Bomar and others is see if you can make money," one ranger told me. "I think you can do these events without desecrating or bastardizing the resource or the image. But we're not."

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Comments

Kurt:

Excellent article. I can think of one other major example of just what you are talking about.

Rocky Mountain NP and Theodore Roosevelt NP both have an overpopulations of elk. Both are trying to survive public comment on how best to cutback on the overpopulation which is damaging the park.

Around 40-50 years ago there was a huge controversy on who had the "right" to conduct wildlife management activities in National Park Areas. After a decade of fights with various state wildlife agencies, individuals, and numerous studies it was generally accepted that the NPS could and should control their wildlife populations.

Recently we had the decision come under question when a NPS Regional Official suggested "the NPS will consider public hunting as a means to control wildlife". Immediately the media picked up on that statement and all hell broke loose. Now we have both Colorado and North Dakota legislators involved with trying to allow public hunting.

Yes it is very true - Unlike Las Vegas, What happens in One Park doesn't stay there! It affects all the parks.


Frank, you could not have stated the case any better. The sooner the parks are administered by non-governmental entities the better. I'll also answer your question: it's the parks that we love, not the dysfunctional self-perpetuating bureaucracy that pretends to be in charge of them. The days of the green and gray should be fast be coming to an end because there's a brighter vision for these lands just over the horizon. I have every reason to feel great optimism that a completely new era of management and stewardship will emerge from the old and outdated methods of top down incompetence emanating from Washington, DC.

I await the coming evolution of the national parks with great anticipation.


There are parks, that put an application form for special events on their website.

Redwood NP -> Plan Your Visit -> Fees & Reservations:

http://www.nps.gov/redw/planyourvisit/upload/wedding%20permit%2006.pdf
(contrary to the file name this is not only about weddings but also athletic and other events)


I have read several references to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) with the idea that somehow they could do better than the National Park Service. Do you compare their possible success with the abundance of NGO's operating in Iraq?

OK, let's get specific.... Who are these NGO's that could move into the parks and do it better? Do you have an organization/ company in mind? Where would the managers, maintenance specialists, cultural and resource managers, architects, landscape architects, planners, Law Enforcement, Interpreters, administrators that are working in the parks come from?

IMHO, the problems we all bemoan usually derive from folks without adequate background in the natural sciences or history or training in resources management. The NPS has been recruiting people from career fields far removed from park operations, and this lack of understanding is beginning to show up.


The NPS (like all other federal agencies and bureaus) takes its marching orders from the top. The precedent is being set by the administration, not the NPS. They are simply doing as they are told - the same thing everyone else here would do if they were in that position. When the adminstration changes over and new politically appointed leadership makes its way to the NPS, USFS, BLM, etc. is when things (hopefully) may change.

The NPS has it a lot better than the USFS, though - at least the Park Service doesn't have to answer to Mark Rey!


Continuing the thread...

The discontent in this country is humongous. Never before in my 75 years have I witnessed anger, disgust, and disdain for just about everything. What Frank and Beamis are suggesting is on the minds of many of the taxpayers: "the answer is Private Enterprise". Judging from the talking heads in the media and their many polls, the public is disenchanted with the President (me too), the legislature, the justice system, health care, education system, national security...... hell, you name it and the US citizens hate it. Not without cause, that's for sure.

Two questions:

1. If NGO's ran 391 parks, wouldn't they have to have a bureaucracy to insure all park areas abide by the same policies and keep the individual parks within a cohesive system?

2. What evidence shows that privatizing any part of government operations makes it better. Pvt enterprise seems only to be good at making huge salaries for the CEO's. There certainly isn't much evidence that they are in it for the public good.

Of course, this is just my opinion, and I could be wrong, as Dennis Miller likes to say!


I've been going through a rough personal spell, but as I sit in my brother's home waiting to go to a funeral home, I can't help mentioning that this is turning into a re-run of a past conversation, one where I don't see where the force of my criticisms against libertarianism were actually answered. So, for those going down the lines of the so called free enterprise that gives us the wonders of automobiles, digital cameras, washing machines, and a number of other things that the privileged now consume and have identified as freedom and progress (let's throw in skewering laptops as well - for us who have them), look at this thread /2007/07/you-want-how-much-campsite .

Jim Macdonald
The Magic of Yellowstone
Yellowstone Newspaper
Jim's Eclectic World


Frank,

Hopefully, my discussion wasn't about labels. My argument was that free enterprise actually does produce coercive realities, that there are a lot of people coerced into new realities by the free trade of others, that we are all connected by the acts of each other.

I agree with Beamis about the evils of government, would probably even go much further than Beamis on the ineptitude and evils of government. What I don't agree with is that private enterprise is actually an alternative. He derides this as "clear as mud." Well, I kind of like that, but I would argue to the bitter end that I am being coherent; my premise has been that the presumed rights of governments and the presumed rights of private property are actually based in the same fallacies. If we will allow ourselves to consider the force of that argument, a new world opens up to us - one that's muddy, one where we still suffer, where we still die, where people still hurt each other, but one that's better than these hopelessly abstract notions of things that don't exist.

I don't want to see McDonald's subsidized to market chicken nuggets in Latin America or in Yellowstone National Park; I also don't want to see the Park Police arrest homeless people in DC's city parks. I also don't want to see tenants forced out in the streets because someone decided to convert their home into a shopping mall. At the very least, we can work for a society where our voices and participation can happen, and where free associations really do exist. That those free associations have been equated with market capitalism is one of the most amazing sleights of hand that has ever happened. Somehow, the quasi-governmental corporations have been embraced as actual alternatives to government.

Okay, that's enough from me for a couple days.

Jim Macdonald
The Magic of Yellowstone
Yellowstone Newspaper
Jim's Eclectic World


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