It seems not a week goes by without some issue being identified as a threat to the national parks. One week it might be funding woes, another week pollution, another diversity concerns, and then, of course, there's climate change.
So, from the following list, which do you think poses the greatest threat to our national parks? And if your concern is not on the list, please tell us what it is.
* Funding issues. It's been often reported that the National Park Service has a maintenance backlog of about $9 billion. And, of course, there's the issue of annual funding in general for the Park Service. Is Congress spending too little on the parks, or is the Park Service not as fiscally fit as it could be?
* Pollution. Whether it's ground-level ozone at Acadia or Great Smoky Mountains national parks, air quality in general at places such as Shenandoah and Sequoia national parks, or heavy metals and acid rain deposition in the Sierra, Rockies, or Appalachian parks there are plenty of pollution issues that can be cited across the National Park System.
* Diversity. This is a two-pronged issue, as there are concerns over both a lack of diversity in park visitors and within the NPS ranks.
* Climate change. Is this, as Park Service Director Jon Jarvis has said, "fundamentally the greatest threat to the integrity of our national parks that we have ever experienced"?
* Visitation. This also is a two-pronged issue, as some worry that the parks are not being seen by enough visitors, while others argue that places such as the Yosemite Valley, the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, and Old Faithful in Yellowstone are overrun with visitors in the summer months.
* Inholdings. There are many cases across the National Park System where pockets of private property exist within the borders of a national park. And earlier this year there were news stories about a developer who was buying up parcels to build multi-million-dollar homes on them. Is the Park Service's inability, due to lack of funding, to buy these parcels harming the integrity of the parks?
* Motorized recreation. How great a threat are snowmobiles, personal watercraft, and off-road vehicles to national parks?
Comments
Andrea,
A bureaucratic monster has indeed risen up over the parks, just like those around many other government agencies (states included). However, how do you get superintendents at parks such as Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon or Great Smoky to put blinders on to political pressures?
It seems that we as a society have created this political, and legal (dueling lawsuits), problem and expecting or even hoping that one superintendent can address issues such as snowmobiles, ORVs, over-crowding, lodging pricing, etc on a micro level is overly optimistic.
I agree with this comment about mismanagement or lack of management. I wouldn't limit it to Superintendents although they must hold the foundation of the problems. I cannot help but recall the NPS decision to respond to employees' concerns about poor supervision by providing "required" training courses for all supervisors and leaders. Almost immediately, many upper management exempted themselves as not needing such training. Good leaders do things first!
Whether it was Mather or Albright doesn't matter, the advise that we must "know the land on which we stand, and stand fast" is still critical advise.
I would add one additional problem. The American Public still doesn't know what the NPS is or what we do. Regardless of the various efforts to share our message and mission, too many do not know and that will always be the greatest hurdle to overcome as we seek funds, support or good employees.
Kurt: We are the political pressure. Or at least part of it. And we are overwhelming the NPS with all our myriad of complaints and desires. Regardless, I do believe Superindents have the capability to at least mitigate management issues such as snowmobile use, over crowding, and the like. If I am being overly optimistic to believe superintendents can take some, if relatively small, actions on theses issues at the park level, how overly optimistic is it to believe they can do something about a problem on a national or worldwide level?
Regarding tackling huge global crises such as "ending poverty worldwide," there has been a demonstrated lack of success despite billions of dollars of aid spent. Several critical thinkers in this arena are suggesting that individuals taking action on one small problem at a micro level has been and will be more successful at helping people. These same thinkers make solid arguements that the current paradigm of throwing millions of foreign aid dollars at overwhelming problems is actually making things much worse!
For more insight into this perspective may I suggest The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good by William Easterly. Also John Stossel broached this topic not to long ago: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=1955664&page=1
There are many analogies here that conservationists should heed.
We are indeed the pressure, Andrea. Yellowstone, Cape Hatteras, Yosemite and on and on and on are proof of that.
As for superintendents having success with issues such as over-crowding, how well did Mike Finley succeed with that in the Yosemite Valley?
I would agree that there are some issues that can be handled from the confines of a superintendent's office, but issues such as motorized recreation and carrying capacities in terms of visitors I would argue require strong guidance, if not outright dictated policy, from the director's office.
But since the director is a political appointee....
Fred,
I agree with your last point. As someone who has always enjoyed the outdoors, I was astonished to discover how very little I knew about the national parks. For instance, I was only vaguely aware that the Everglades and the Grand Canyon were national parks. But the Ken Burns documentary changed all that; since last fall, I've backpacked through 15 national parks, and supporting our parks has since become a mission for me. I wonder if an expanded national campaign to promote the parks might be a good idea.
Fred and Justin,
The key mission of the Traveler is to both educate the public about the national parks, and to nurture advocates for the parks. You can help us with that mission by sharing our site with your friends and contacts, either by pointing out the url or forwarding our weekly e-letter to them.
Justin, you backpacked through 15 parks in the past year?!? Congrats to you. Maybe we should entice you to contributing field reports.
the biggest danger is the way the parks are ran by the NPS, that is obvious!
Ok, I've finally decided the greatest threat to America's Parks are anonymous posters lobbing unfounded proclamations. Actually, that's the biggest threat to human existence, come to think of it.