NPCA hoping for brighter times for the national parks under a Biden administration/Rebecca Latson file
After "four brutal years" for the National Park System under the Trump administration, the National Parks Conservation Association is looking forward to working with the incoming Biden team.
According to the parks advocacy group, under President Trump more than one hundred environmental safeguards have been rolled back, including the Clean Water Rule, numerous Endangered Species Act regulations, and the National Environmental Policy Act, a 50-year-old law that has given people a voice in how their public lands are used. These will be among the first policies NPCA works to reinstate under a new Biden administration.
“Though our country is going through a period of change, our national parks can help bridge political differences, as they’ve done so many times before," said NPCA President Theresa Pierno. "We’ve seen the power our parks have to unite us as Congress and the current administration came together to pass critical legislation to fix our parks and protect millions of acres of public lands. Our country needs bipartisan efforts like these more than ever.
"...The last four years have been brutal for our national parks and public lands," continued Pierno. "Clean air safeguards were erased, park wildlife was endangered, and clean water protections were undermined."
The NPCA chief listed additional problems she saw with how the Trump administration approached the national parks, pointing to the lack of a Senate-confirmed director of the National Park Service as well as "(T)urmoil and pro-industry appointees at the top levels of the Interior Department, Environmental Protection Agency and Bureau of Land Management" that forced those agencies to put development of public lands in the United States above "protecting our national parks and neighboring communities."
“We have serious work ahead of us to undo the damage that has been done to our national parks and public lands," said Pierno. "But we are ready. We will forge key relationships with the Biden administration, as well as with new allies and returning park champions in Congress, and work together on behalf of our national parks.”
Comments
Was it that when Democrats were building it in previous administrations?
Yes, those years were so "brutal".
Like permanently allocating $900 million annually to the Land and Water Conservation Fund (much of which goes to serve minority communities) and the $9.5 billion in funding to the National Park Service's maintenance backlog. The 367 miles of new scenic rivers and 2,600 miles of new national trails, the expansion of both Death Valley and Joshua Tree national parks.
The 5 new national monuments, one of which honors African American soldier, another honoring a black civil rights activist and the then there is the one which is the site of the first significant Union victory in the civil war. How racist.
As for the wall, one of the great things about a wall is it is color blind and acts as a deterrent to everyone who would seek to break the law by entering the country illegally regardless of race, creed, color or gender.
Best thing about Trump's illegally-funded and unnecessary border wall? Steel is recyclable! Tear. It. Down. (And bring back the vehicle barriers that were removed.) Don't worry, Mexico will pay for it. And the good construction jobs that wall is currently providing, will last twice as long, as they get extended and converted into demolition and restoration jobs!
"Trafficking women & children", as spoken by the Trump pple re. the border wall, is by & large a red herring.