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Op-Ed: Let's Compromise To Support The National Parks

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Rob Smith, NPCA's Pacific Northwest Region director.

There is a place to start coming together on the federal budget, and Sen. Patty Murray is well-suited to lead the way as chairwoman of the Senate Budget Committee and a leader in the current, difficult budget negotiations. Shutting down the government — and our national parks — is simply not a reasonable choice.

In addition to disrupting long-planned vacations, relocating weddings, and spoiling other events, communities surrounding Olympic National Park lost nearly $4 million in visitor spending during the shutdown. Businesses surrounding Mount Rainier lost up to $1 million. But the shutdown was part of a long-term trend of broken budgeting harming national parks and threatening the visitor experience and the economic health of surrounding communities.

Our national parks offer an instructive lesson about why budget brinksmanship and the indiscriminate across-the-board sequester cuts demand a new approach. Sen. Murray is choosing the right fight in seeking a compromise that will end this damaging policy.

While the entrances to our national parks have been reopened, there are still “closed” signs on some campgrounds, visitor centers and historic structures and nearly 2,000 fewer rangers to help visitors due to sequestration. The ever-shrinking budget — down 13 percent since 2010 just to operate our national parks — is shortsighted and unsustainable.

Studies show that our national parks generate a $10 return for every $1 invested. National parks in Washington state alone support more than 3,800 jobs and produce upwards of $260 million in economic activity, according to 2011 reports.

It’s time to reinvest in our heritage. Nine in 10 voters — Republican, Democrat and Independent — do not want national park funding cut. Sen. Murray has reflected this bipartisan support with a budget that allows room for investing in national parks, which enjoy broad support, are economically important and are being harmed by the sequester.

Time will tell if the budget conferees also take this common ground into consideration and find the compromise necessary to end the damaging sequester.

Rob Smith is the Northwest regional director of the National Parks Conservation Association. This essay first appeared in The Olympian.

Comments

directly contradicting what Mitt Romney told David Gregor

And that's why he said he would repeal Obamacare right, because it would work so well at the national level?

And I stand by my own facts and reality.

Your own reality is right. I don't care how long you worked in healthcare. With millions being tossed off their insurance plans, doctors abandoning or being thrown off the networks, costs skyrocketing and no real improvement in healthcare or cost, the ACA is a disaster.


How about we get back to the parks.

A good suggestion! I don't see any mention of the ACA in the story that started this thread, and the various opinions on that topic have been more than thoroughly covered.

How about, instead, some comments on the topic at hand, including this quote from the story: "Nine in 10 voters — Republican, Democrat and Independent — do not want national park funding cut. Sen. Murray has reflected this bipartisan support with a budget that allows room for investing in national parks, which enjoy broad support, are economically important and are being harmed by the sequester."


I agree with Kurt that the future will tell us more about successes and failures of ACA. But if I were to make a plan for Health Care, I would have done it differently. I would raise Taxes to cover a basic health care plan, and then allow those that want to to buy supplimental insurance. To me that would put us closer to the rest of the industrialized countries and be true universal insurance for all. Thats my opinion.


The trend has shown that NPS doesn't know how effectively cut it's budget and requires outside intervention to make the cuts for them. These forced cuts are usually not ideal but the NPS believes the beauracracy is more important.

The thoughtless polices dreamt up by the NPS is the primary reason for causing a harm to the national parks, threatening the visitor experience and the economic health of surrounding communities. Current NPS are their own worst enemy.


Rick B, thank you for your service, great comment. Back to funding for parks, as I occasionally am an emergency hire for wildland and managed wilderness fire, I have seen first hand the effects of the cuts in our NPS funding by congress. I know there are others that have much more knowledge, but just in park fire management activities here in Yosemite, I have witnessed about a 30% cut in their programs including fuel treatments, etc. Depending on the latest budget efforts, it could be even more drastic this year. Interesting fire effects data being released on the Rim fire, the largest in Sierra recorded history, total burned acres on both the Stanislaus NF and Yosemite NP was roughly 260.000, roughly 65,000 inside the parks north western boundary,

In measuring both soil severity on a scale of 1-10, from not burned, moderate burn to severe burn the Stanisalus NF stats show 7% severe soil impact, not to bad actually, and most of this did occur in the Cherry Creek, Granite Basin area. Vegetation loss was more extreme, up to 40%. In the park, the figures are quite impressive, no measured soil severity loss, vegetation loss minimal, mostly dead and down and seedling trees up to 6" in diameter. Initial evaluation points to the outstanding efforts of Park employees in their efforts in both prescribed fire and managed wilderness fire over the last 20-30 years, in reducing the forest floor biomass and fuel ladders that help cause the type of extreme fire behavior that did occur on the Stanislaus Forest. This proposed implementation of the sequestration cuts for our parks, forests and public lands will, unfortunately, only continue the rising costs of managing wildland fires.


Beach-- I am sure that there is not a superintendent in the NPS who wouldn't appreciate your insights on how to reduce services to cut budgets. Perhaps you should go into the consulting business.

Rick


But, ec, you won't try to watch the Romney / Gregory interview? I guess it's much easier to maintain one's "reality" if there are no efforts made to learn about real reality. It's a whole lot easier than actually thinking.

As for park funding, nothing positive will happen in much of anything governed by Congress until those clowns stop acting like spoiled brats and put aside their idiotically childish behavior.

Probably the only cure for that would be an almost total housecleaning by voters -- and the vast money behind the PACs and other propaganda mills will be hard to fight.


I guess it's much easier to maintain one's "reality" if there are no efforts made to learn about real reality.

Hmm - since I am sure you wont except my analysis of the interview, lets take the opening paragraph from this analysis:

"Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoke to Meet the Press' David Gregory and pushed back against President Barack Obama's comparison of the Affordable Care Act to Mitt Romney's health care reforms in Massachusetts, arguing that "the president failed to learn the lessons that came from Massachusetts."

Mitt Romney to David Gregory: Obama's 'Fundamental Dishonesty' Will 'Rot'
2nd Term"
http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2013/11/video-mitt-romney-interview-on-nbc...

Doesn't sound to me much like Romney supporting Obamacare.


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