Retirees on NPS Rules Rewrite

There is a group of retired National Park Service executives who call themselves the The Coalition of Concerned NPS Retirees. They keep a close eye on the operations of the NPS, and write press releases and letters to important folks when they think things are going astray. They have been very concerned with the proposed "Hoffman rewrite" of the Management Policies. The changes in the rewrite seem to be politically motivated with a slant toward commercial interests, and not based on the core mission of the Park Service to preserve the resources for all time. In a letter written to the NPS Director Fran Mainella, they write:

Revisions implying a need for the NPS to "balance"' conservation with enjoyment, or implying that they are on "an equal plane,"' would depart radically from (the) time-honored emphasis that future enjoyment of the national parks flows from their conservation and that the two are inextricably linked.

Director Mainella may be listening. In an interview with the Associated Press this week when speaking of the Organic Act of 1916, she said: "It's served us well for 90 years. We are not looking for any changes to it. ... When there's a conflict, conservation has to be predominant." Will she stick with her word?