How might a Biden administration deal with the National Park System and other environmental issues?/NPS file

While it's still a bit early to declare the presidential election and all the legal wranglings done and behind us, it's not too early to think about what a Biden administration might do on the environmental and National Park System fronts.

* How long would it take the Biden administration to have a nominee for director of the National Park Service confirmed by the U.S. Senate?

There never has been one during the Trump administration. Jonathan Jarvis, the last confirmed director, was nominated by President Obama during the summer of 2009 and confirmed that September.

* Would a Biden Interior secretary reverse changes in predator hunting in national preserves in Alaska?

Back in May the National Park Service relaxed its hunting and trapping prohibitions in national preserves so they'd align with the state's regulations. Three years ago Interior Department officials told the Park Service to make the changes.

While David Vela, at the time the acting National Park Service director, said the new regulations "will support the (Interior) Department's interest in advancing wildlife conservation goals and objectives, and in ensuring the state of Alaska’s proper management of hunting and trapping in our national preserves," National Parks Conservation Association President Theresa Pierno said the adopted regulations would not only harm bears and other wildlife but also deprive visitors of seeing some of these animals in the wild.

Under those changes, the following practices were allowed:

• Use bait (donuts, grease-soaked bread, etc.) to hunt bears;
• Use of artificial light to spotlight dens to kill black bears; and
• Kill bear cubs or sows with cubs.
• Take wolves and coyotes (including pups) during the denning season (between May 1 and August 9)
• Take swimming caribou
• Take caribou from motorboats under power
• Take black bears over bait
• Use dogs to hunt black bears

The changes applied to national preserves-- not national parks -- in Alaska, such as the preserve sections of Wrangell-St. Elias, Denali, Katmai national parks as well as Yukon-Charley and Gates of the Arctic national preserves.

* How would a Biden administration handle the Caneel Bay Resort situation? 

This sad dilemma has been going on three years too long, at least. Back in 1983 the late Laurance S. Rockefeller told the Interior Department in an official agreement that the acreage that the resort sits on in Virgin Islands National Park would be handed over to the National Park Service in October 2023. But for about a decade now the entity that manages the resort, CBI Acquisitions, has tried to void that agreement, primarily through extension of the Retained Use Agreement that Rockefeller crafted.

More than once CBI's principal, Gary Engle, was told by Interior officials that they were bound by Rockefeller's agreement and couldn't renew or extend it. So what's been going on since September 2017, when back-to-back hurricanes left the Caneel Bay Resort in shambles? No one is talking, not the Park Service, Interior Department, or Engle.

Since 2010, when NPS staff suggested that the RUE be converted to a more traditional concessions agreement after the RUE sunsets, the agency has tried to negotiate a concessions lease with CBI. In light of what's transpired behind the scenes the past decade, is that in the best interests of the general public and the national park?

• Engle and CBI through the years have sought to avoid any responsibility for any environmental contamination that might exist on the resort's grounds.
• Engle has blocked the Park Service from sending consultants onto the property to get a better idea of what environmental contamination might exist, according to Park Service documents.
• CBI has run the resort since 2004 without paying any use fees to the National Park Service.
• Engle tried to pocket $70 million from the Interior Department and walk away from the battered resort.
• CBI apparently has made no serious effort to rebuild the resort following the 2017 hurricanes.

* About that border wall in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument?

Would a President Biden call for its removal?

* Would the National Park Service under a President Biden take a closer look at the damage being done to Big Cypress National Preserve by oil exploration?

In agreeing to let Burnett Oil Co. crisscross the preserve in search of recoverable oil deposits, the Park Service set down 46 conditions. Among them was that "(R)uts, depressions, and vehicle tracks resulting from field operations will be restored to original contour conditions concurrent with daily operations using shovels and rakes to prevent the creation of new trails. Field clean-up activities will begin immediately upon completion of each task, and final clearance will be documented by and coordinated with NPS inspectors to the satisfaction of the Superintendent." (emphasis added).

As I discovered while walking the preserve in March, that hasn't always been done.

* Where would a Biden administration come down on President Trump's changes to the Endangered Species Act?

Among the changes the Trump administration supported was one in how critical habitat is determined. Under that proposed definition, only areas physically occupied by a threatened or endangered species would be considered critical habitat. Outside of those areas, what constitutes critical habitat would be left to the Interior secretary to determine.

There have been calls for reforms in the ESA, but some say the Trump administration's changes go too far and would be too disruptive to species listed as either threatened or endangered.

That's a glance at a small handful of issues key to the health of the National Park System. There surely will be others that come to the surface.

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