| Page 1557 | National Parks Traveler

I'm a little confused with this article. I thought the BLM was a protective type of agency.( obviously I was wrong ) Aren't there several other means of obtaining energy besides banging on the earth ?? Wind , Solar, & Water power come to mind and seem to be alot safer way of going about it. Haven't they screwed with the earth long enough !!

How Much is that Campsite--Update

Aug 8th - 02:39am | George Siewerd

Enforcement would be the key issue. If they could check I.Ds half as well as they check my sneakers at the airport there shouldn't be a problem. I just hope it wouldn't interfere with the purchase of either a campsite or any type of back country permit as a gift to someone that you know would cherish it.

Aug 7th - 20:40pm | lennea

Snowbird06 Kudo's to Sequoia National Park! Top on the list as my favorite park to visit. Great great staff and excellent interpretive center.

What's Your Vision for the Centennial Initiative?

Aug 8th - 00:57am | Merryland

OK, so back to the Centennial Initiative... :-) I hope C&O Canal gets all the money they want and then some. I own property adjacent to the canal so that'd be a great windfall for my property values. -- Greedy Bastard

Aug 7th - 23:40pm | Merryland

Jim, thanks... Guilty as charged. I really think all the sniping that goes on between people in a forum such as this happens because people aren't required to be fully accountable for their statements, and the presence of anonymity brings out plenty of inappropriate behaviours as well (primarily from but also toward anons).

Aug 7th - 22:19pm | jsmacdonald

I find the logic splicing and pigeonholing fascinating and fun, but can I say something tangentially on anonymity? I think that it absolutely must be protected on a Web site, especially for those who may be disgruntled ex-employees. They most of all have something to fear from exposing themselves. There are a million reasons why people can't be as out-in-the-open as some of us.

Aug 7th - 22:06pm | Merryland

Please show me where I stated that Gubmint "no longer mismanages national parks." Conservative leaning? Ha! That's a good one. Let's follow what you learned in Philo001:

Aug 7th - 17:27pm | Merryland

Hmmm, critiquing my critique -- an appallingly low blow to divert attention away from your argument's weakness... I'm shocked! :-) "Modern standard English practice" can be used to explain away just about any misuse of the English language. Gnome sane? Ah, but I digress. I just thought it was funny, that's all.

Aug 7th - 15:08pm | PT

Beamis, yes, 15 years in the NE area as a maint. mech. then a supervisor, 8 in the Air Force, 4 as a civilian in DOD. The fraud, waste and abuse I have seen in DOI far exceeds any thing I saw in DOD, and that's saying something. If you have something precious, the last entity on earth you should entrust it to is the federal govt.

Aug 7th - 13:37pm | PT

After 15 years in the NPS I have come to the conclusion that the NPS in it's entirety should be abolished and all sites, monuments, ect, returned to state control. We are a wasteful fraud. WE are the biggest threat to most of these national treasures.

Aug 6th - 21:05pm | Merryland

Again, selective numbers to bolster your argument. I didn't visit EUON last year or the year before. I still find it worthwhile. If I remember correctly, they had recent (meaning the past ten years) earthquake damage to repair yet didn't receive a budget increase to specifically deal with that issue.

Aug 5th - 22:30pm | Merryland

Your anecdotes and numbers are fascinating but don't begin to present the whole picture. The idea that Yosemite entrance fees are funding a war in the Middle East is ridiculous. That war funding will likely be taxed from your great grandchildren who aren't even born yet.

Aug 3rd - 15:10pm | jr_ranger

I think that one very important point needs to be made: NPS is severely underfunded, and cannot have the same number of interpretive programs that it did in the past, hence the visitation declines. I know that Great Smokies used to have day-long, ranger-guided hikes every Saturday in the summer.

Russian Provides Perspective at Minuteman Missile Park

Aug 7th - 16:54pm | Merryland

I hope he'll still be there when my son and I visit at the end of the month. Would be a great learning opportunity for my son to meet someone from the other side of a "war" and hear his perspectives. Thanks for the story. -- Jon

S&R Blotter

Aug 6th - 22:42pm | lennea

Jon, your really on a roll tonight. Keep florishing!

Aug 6th - 21:35pm | Merryland

Note to rescue rangers Aidan Assist, Rocky Rappel, and Reese Essitate: If I ever fall off the edge of something and die, please just leave me there. The vultures and condors need to eat too. -- Jon

RS2477 And the National Parks

Aug 6th - 21:07pm | Mookie

I just got back from backpacking the Under the Rim Trail at Bryce. In two days I saw only 2 other people. Several times my wife and I would just stand still and do nothing but listen to the silence...something that is impossible in our everyday lives. Unfortunately that solitude was broken a couple of times by a low flying helicopter doing tours of Bryce Canyon.

Aug 4th - 14:29pm | rscottjones

RS2477 is a joke, just an arcane tool twisted to undermine necessary protections for special places. It's hard to find a single place that those southern Utah counties believe should remain unroaded.

Aug 1st - 12:14pm | ArizonaTraveler

Amen indeed.

Must We Clearly Set Out "Principles of Parks"?

Aug 6th - 20:50pm | lennea

I'm really surprised that there hasn't been more comments on Kurt's article here. It such a critical issue that needs to be address now. If the general public doesn't give a living damn about the future management policies of the National Parks...so goes the parks. Interesting in put Frank!

Aug 5th - 09:58am | lennea

Snowbird06 Kurt, hopefully will get some good critical and constructive dialogue on your article, Principles Of Parks. I think Henry David Thoreau said it best: "In wildness is the preservation of the world"...let this be a start for constructive in put.

Electric Map Going Away at Gettysburg National Military Park

Aug 6th - 14:54pm | Mark Mones

I've read this news with more than a slight twinge of regret; when I was a student at Gettysburg College, I found that the Electric Map was always a good first stop when family or friends visited and wanted to get a feel for the vast sprawl of the battlefield.

Setting Precedents in the Parks

Aug 5th - 21:57pm | Merryland

All this talk of "Soviet-style bureaucracy" and "Big brother" and "Who's Eugene O'Neill?" is getting tiresome. The old "repeat your mantra often enough in the hopes that people will eventually stop rebutting it" has gotten out of control...

Aug 3rd - 20:55pm | Anonymous

.So, if Eugene O'Neill's home or a site which led and supported women's right to vote are not worthy of National Park status, what is? O'Neill's writing influenced American writing (He was the only American playwright to win the Nobel Peace Prize) and giving women the right to vote was a National movement, both would seem to meet the National part of the National Park system?

Aug 3rd - 10:21am | jsmacdonald

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.

Aug 3rd - 09:43am | jsmacdonald

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.

Aug 2nd - 22:26pm | Art Allen

Continuing the thread...

Aug 2nd - 09:44am | Matt

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.

Aug 2nd - 09:27am | Art Allen

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?

Aug 2nd - 04:33am | Anonymous

There are parks, that put an application form for special events on their website. Redwood NP -> Plan Your Visit -> Fees & Reservations:

Aug 1st - 22:37pm | Beamis

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.

Aug 1st - 16:14pm | Art Allen

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.

Judge Tosses Surprise Canyon Lawsuit

Aug 4th - 21:44pm | Badtux

Err, to reiterate: The road up Surprise Canyon is not, and never has been since the day Panamint City was built and the roadbed was dynamited out of the rock of the canyon, wilderness. It was explicitly cherry-stemmed out of the wilderness area when the wilderness area was created in 1994 because of the rights of valid mine owners in the Panamint City area.

Aug 1st - 06:56am | Dorothy

Get off the bike and hike! Can't we all just move around a little without the help of a motor?! With each generation, we become less healthy in terms of weight. Is it really that horrible to have to use our feet especially in the name of preservation?

Private Party At Charlestown Navy Yard Doesn't Lack Alcohol

Aug 4th - 19:34pm | Anonymous

It's all hush hush at the Navy Yard regarding the contract with Amelia Occasions - dont think the park receives anything in return. Management turns a blind eye about everything which is why there are so many problems. Someone should really investigate into this further - there are still many events that have happened after the

Your National Parks Pass Doesn't Always Cover Your Entrance Fee

Aug 3rd - 11:56am | Anonymous

Maybe those who put out the park passes should do some research! They caused nothing but headaches for those at Mount Rushmore. It's not Mount Rushmore's fault that they were featured on the pass!

Protecting Grand Teton from Drilling Projects

Aug 3rd - 09:13am | Anonymous

This country knows not the definition of "exhausted resources", but can well define "easy profits at the expense of the environment".

Aug 2nd - 13:29pm | lennea

Snowbird06 But, James who determines if these reserves, or resources are exhausted? I certainly hope not the Bush & Cheney administration! I see rape and pillage if this did occur!!

Aug 2nd - 11:24am | James K Miles

These reserves should held in reserve only to be used when or if other resourses have beed exhusted.

Blue Angels Fly By Grand Tetons

Aug 2nd - 15:26pm | SeaJD

| "...consider that the Navy's budget (not including the Marines) for the Blue Angels (about $20 million a year) and the cost of the planes themselves ($22 million EACH) are used for "recruitment" purposes. That money could fund several Yosemites and Grand Canyons." *******

New Movie for World Ranger Day Today (Jul 31)

Aug 1st - 07:39am | jr_ranger

How can we get a copy of the movie? Sounds like something to show in a Greens or SPEAK meeting.. --- jr_ranger http://tntrailhead.blogspot.com http://picasaweb.google.com/north.cascades http://zinch.com/jr_ranger

Website Administrative Note about Comment Spam

Aug 1st - 07:38am | jr_ranger

My, my such heated debate over something as simple as be nice and don't attack other people. There is a difference between cantankerousness and rudeness. Maybe we should learn that one.

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