Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument should definitely be transferred to the National Park Service. The BLM is an agency oriented to livestock grazing, mining, oil and gas, and other resource exploitation, not land preservation.

The current Monument has weak protection, with hundreds of miles of roads and ORV trails. The BLM has allowed illegal ATV use for years. When the BLM recently tried to stop illegal off-road driving up the Pariah River, it degenerated into a "freedom ride" by a bunch of off-road extremists. See http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2009/05/raucous-offroad-rally...

Unlike national parks, the Monument allows livestock grazing, which causes significant ecological damage. The weak Monument protection also allows oil and gas drilling and mining.

This area would be far better protected under National Park Service administration.

Here are a few other potential new national parks and existing national park expansions that I would like to see happen.

NEW

- Adobe Town-Red Desert (BLM lands), Wyoming
- Allegheny National Forest, Pennsylvania
- Berkshire Highlands (state lands), Massachusetts
- Bioluminescent Bay-Vieques National Wildlife Refuge, Puerto Rico
- Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota
- Blackwater Canyon-Monongahela National Forest, West Virgnia
- Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (now U.S. Forest Service), Minnesota
- Calumet River (various landownerships), Illinois
- Carrizo Plain National Monument (BLM lands), California
- Castle Nugent Farms (private conservation lands), St. Croix/Virgin Islands
- Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forests, Wisconsin
- Chesapeake Bay, multiple states
- Cimarron National Grassland, Kansas
- Comanche National Grassland, Colorado
- Cross Timbers, Oklahoma, Texas
- El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico
- Finger Lakes National Forest, New York
- Gaviota Coast, California
- Gila National Forest, New Mexico
- Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (now BLM), Utah
- Green Mountain National Forest, Vermont
- Hells Canyon, Oregon and Idaho
- Hiawatha National Forest, Michigan
- Hoosier National Forest, Indiana
- Klamath and Siskiyou National Forests, Caifornia and Oregon
- Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area (now U.S. Forest Service), Kentucky, Tennessee
- Loess Hills (now mostly private), Iowa
- Maine Woods (now mostly corporate timberlands), Maine
- Menominee River, Michigan
- Mount Hood National Forest, Oregon
- Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument (now U.S. Forest Service), Washington
- Ottawa National Forest, Michigan
- Otero Mesa (now BLM lands), New Mexico
- Owyhee Canyonlands (BLM lands), Idaho and Oregon
- Roan Plateau (BLM lands), Colorado
- Rota Island, Confederation of Micronesia
- San Rafael Swell (now BLM), Utah
- Sawtooth National Recreation Area (now U.S. Forest Service), Idaho
- Shawnee National Forest, Illinois
- Sheyenne National Grassland, North Dakota
- Sonoran Desert (now under several federal land agencies), Arizona
- Tavaputs Plateau (now BLM), Utah
- Tejon Ranch, California
- Tequesta Coast, Florida
- Wayne National Forest, Ohio
- White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire

EXPANSIONS

- Big Thicket National Preserve, Texas
- Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina and Virginia
- Canyonlands National Park, Utah
- Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico
- Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah
- Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, New Jersey and Pennsylvania
- Dinosaur National Monument (upgrade and expansion), Colorado and Utah
- Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (upgrade and expansion), Utah
- Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
- Kalaupapa National Historical Park, Hawaii
- Lake Mead National Recreation Area (add Gold Butte, now under BLM), Nevada
- Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky
- New River Gorge National River, West Virginia
- North Cascades National Park, Washington
- Ocmulgee National Monument, Georgia
- Oregon Caves National Monument, Oregon
- Pinnacles National Monument, California
- Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, California
- Sequoia National Park (add Giant Sequoia National Monument, now under U.S. Forest Service), California
- Timucuan National Ecological Preserve, Florida
- Virgin Islands National Park, Virgin Islands

NPCA, along with local community leaders, conservation organizations and tourism related businesses are working to elevate Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument to a national park. It may come as a surprise to some, but Mount St. Helens is not part of the park system. Rather its a forest service unit. While the Forest Service does its best to manage the volcano; budgets, visitation and visitor services have all declined in the past several years.

Mount St. Helens is on par with other iconic national parks such as Mount Rainier, Olympic and Lassen. Adding the volcano to the park system would improve it visibility, bring new management resources and better insure the long term sustainablity of the natural environment and gateway communities.

Please visit the following link to learn more about the effort to make Mount St. Helens America's next national park: http://www.npca.org/northwest/mount_st_helens.html

Surprise Canyon, Castle Mountains, the Bowling Alley, and Ibex Hills are just of a few of the National Park quality lands in the California Desert that deserve additional protections. Currently these areas are all managed by BLM, and these areas are managed under their "multiple use" mission. I believe the BLM does a good job managing huge swaths of land with limited available resources; however, I also believe that the most sensitive, scenic, and biologically diverse lands deserve to be protected in perpetuity to retain their essential characteristics. Adding areas like the ones mentioned above to the National Park Service, which are migration corridors, desert tortoise habitat, and riparian habitat that possess significant scenic and natural values benefits us all.

Oops. Forgot a few additions.

- Angeles National Forest, California
- Cleveland National Forest, California
- Los Padres National Forest, California

Hi Kurt -

I appreciate your open response to my concerns! I do think a discussion of management priorities would be interesting. There certainly are questions about the land management approaches of each of the federal agencies you mentioned, and I'm not very educated about them. I'm sure that discussion happens a lot within the agencies, and discussion of expanding the area managed by the NPS naturally gives rise to defining the goals of such management.

I agree with what seems to be a consensus that preservation is a goal. I'm not sure that livestock grazing, logging, and other uses have to be more detrimental to that goal than the building roads and visitor facilities approach of the NPS - though I also recognize that as practiced by the BLM and Forest Service, those activities have been very detrimental. And I share your concerns about mineral (and energy!) development.

I would love to see the north shore of Moloka'i added to Kalaupapa NHP. The sea cliffs are a stunning sight and provide rare native habitat for threatened or endangered Hawaiian plants and animals. The 24,000 acres include the pristine stream valleys of Pelekunu and Wailau and their watersheds, along with the upper watershed of the Halawa Stream. This area also contains cultural significance. There has been human occupation from as early as 1000 A.D. and many places still need to be surveyed for prehistoric Hawaiian archeology. This location has already been determined and area of national significance when it was designated as the North Shore Cliffs National Natural Landmark. The park service can provide the resources and skills to protect the north shore for our children and grandchildren to enjoy.

I AGREE 100% I've been retired 20+ yrs and have camped with a travel trailer all across the US many times and have found the same conditions --- I will add that National forests satisfy my wants without all the rules and over development that national parks must have. And I do enjoy the BLM lands !!