Recent comments

Mammoth Cave is in south-central Kentucky, near Bowling Green. Also, it is a National Park - I don't recall any lava tubes.

i 'm not with the shutting down of orv but limit it to clubs and club trail permit rides and then fine the entire club if rules are broken the club is fined or have a gunner from the state park system and by the way i want his or hers job.
get real we spend moneys on a lot more trivial things in the park system and permits could offset cost
there is a way if you look, if no one is there is it worth it all ?
if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there is there a noise !!!!!!!
ps: clubs are beng pushed out of the park system.
why divide and concuer do they want to fight one big voice or many little voices

Great video, Jeremy! As a fellow Yellowstoner and old interpretive photographer, I have to say that it's a fine piece of work and makes me feel like I'm right there.....in actual peace and quiet!!
How did you guys get out there....was it before all the vehicles were called out of the park for the winter...or did you have to go out on a snowmobile of your own?

Thanks again for the video!
Mary

Snowmobiles in Florida? What's next, swamp buggies in Alaska?

Kurt/Jeremy: Happy Holidays, and thanks for all you do keep the latest NPS news and discussion flowing. This site must take up a huge amount of your time, and I am very grateful you do it. I wanted to pass along an idea, which is to ask folks to post their New Years Resolutions as it pertains to the NPS. For example, I resolve to visit 10 new NPS units in 2008, or I resolve to pester my senator to make sure there is ample funding for park rangers. Just a thought.

Keep up the great work, and I hope you both have a great 2008!

One needs to understand that Cape Hatteras was established as the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreation Area. This has never been officially changed and stands to this day. Note *Recreational*.

Vehicular driving on the beach predates the establishment of this park and ORV access is a vital component to what attract many of the visiting public: fishing, wind boarding, shell picking, bird watching, etc, etc.

Seasonally there are large areas closed to ORV access for pedestrian safety and bird and turtle protection and there are many areas that closed year round.

The beach is not "ruined" as ORVs are confined to a narrow corridor of sand along the seashore and, with each storm, the evidence of ORVs is wiped clean.

And I will you assure you the areas with ORV access are "cleaner" than those w/o since it's common practice for ORV users to clean-up the area during their stay.

CHNSRA was established for recreational multi-use and to preserve the beauty of the northern Outer Banks. Under the management of Super. Murray he has done a wonderful job of balancing use and resource protection. Reasonable and responsible access along with scientifically-supported closures for resource protection is what the majority of ORV users want.

Zero birds or turtles were harmed under the 2007 plan as has been the case for several years and the lawsuit, given that there is an active interim ORV plan in place, is frivolous & I predict these 3 groups will have their arses handed to them

How gorgeous! I'd love to be there right now, watching the Bison, hearing the geysers, listening to the gentle flow of water and the peaceful surround. Glad you edited out the snowmobiles. Now, can you get them out of the park altogether? I can dream, can't I?

I envision scenarios of armed campground users "protecting their families, in car campgrounds in particular" who end up taking potshots at passersby on their way to the restrooms in the middle of the night. Fearing that "Folks are quite vulnerable in their tents from all kinds of derelicts," they might shoot at anything that moves. Well-intentioned but trigger-happy campers seem to pose more of a threat than "all kinds of derelicts."

Probably the best point of all Merryland...here here! I guess anyone of us would be shocked if the otherside suddenly said....Gee, I never thought of it that way and then changed our minds. Merry Christmas to all.

I drive the BW parkway at least four days a week. It's miserable with all the traffic and lack of public transportation in the Baltimore/Washington corridor. Nice on a Sunday morning though, and even though it's always jam-packed, at least there are no trucks!

Chance, sure enjoyed reading this article and look forward to seeing more from you! Great job.

Appealing to emotion rather than fact is what has propelled this argument for decades now. It is not simply a case of one footstep in a meadow. These public lands are "our" lands - 300+million of us in this country alone. Add to that figure all of the foreign tourism our nations best idea generates and you have significant crowd control issues, even in the most remote areas of our public lands. That is a lot of footsteps. Moreover, it seems that lands already set aside for consumptive, controlled use are not enough to satisfy an appetite for consumption, as if we are suffering from shortages dire enough to warrant raping our parklands, thereby denigrating the very reason for their existence.

The Earth is certainly capable of recovering from most types of human impact, but that does not convey the right for careless subjugation of it's resources. At best this practice as advocated by Gerald is disrespectful to the earth, our nation, and subsequent generations; and at worst, it is patently immoral, misguided, disingenuous, and embarrassing.

The NPS and DOI are responsible for keeping these parks in perpetuity for us, and like it or not, it involves regulating how we use our land and protecting the future us from our current selves. Those are facts. Think in terms of long-term sustainability before calling for the easing or repeal of use policies.