How concerned should those who love national parks and those who work for the National Park Service be that the agency has rolled over and stepped aside for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at Big Bend National Park?
As has been widely reported, CBP has been planning to build a southern border wall through Big Bend in the coming months despite no demonstrated need for one there, despite local outrage, and despite the logistical challenges that could result in significant environmental damage to the park.
We asked Interior Department officials if the Park Service had any concerns about the proposal and was told they had no comment. None other than to suggest we ask the Border Patrol or the "Department of War."
Congress back in 1996 passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 that allowed the Department of Homeland Security to turn a blind eye towards such environmental laws as The Wilderness Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Endangered Species Act and others in its efforts to secure the border. And DHS last month renewed the waivers for projects West Texas and Big Bend.
But you'd hope/expect the Park Service would be ready and willing to point out what harms could be done to Big Bend and its natural, cultural, and historic resources so protections could be put in place. After all, that's the agency's mission, "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."
Riverside Parking
Shoreline parking along the Buffalo National River in Arkansas long has been standard practice for boaters and anglers. But it carries obvious risks for the river — and the vehicle owners — in terms of pollution and resource damage for the river, and possible flood damage for the vehicles. Perhaps in response to those issues the Park Service has drafted a river management plan that calls for approximately 320 parking spaces to be adding at various points along the river.
Strangely, though, the agency can't say how many vehicles regularly park on the shorelines. Without that information, how can the agency determine how many parking spaces need to be built? And if those spaces are being built to get river users to keep their vehicles off the shorelines, why would gravel bars along the river, the country's first "national river," still be kept open for day use, as the draft plan proposes?
We tried to get answers from the park, but they sent them on to the Park Service's Midwest Regional Office to handle. Whether they need to be sent on to Washington under the Interior Department's new approach to dealing with media remains to be seen.
Ping Ponging Park Policies
President Donald Trump during his first term opened national preserves in Alaska to using bacon grease and donuts to lure bears into range for hunters.
President Joe Biden during his term reversed that rule.
President Trump is working to reverse Biden's reversal.
President Trump during his first term allowed fireworks to be used at Mount Rushmore National Memorial to celebrate the Fourth of July.
President Biden banned that practice.
President Trump is allowing it again.
Timed-entry reservation plans were used at Glacier National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Arches National Park, Mount Rainier National Park, and Yosemite National Park during President Biden's term.
Those plans, except for the one at Rocky Mountain, have been scrapped under President Trump.
President Trump during his first term allowed for a 211-mile-long road to be built across pristine sections of Alaska, including parts of Gates of the Arctic National Preserve and across the Kobuk Wild River, to allow for development of a copper mine at an isolated town called Ambler.
President Biden halted that project.
President Trump is giving it life.
President Barack Obama in 2016 established the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument roughly 130 miles off Cape Cod.
President Trump during his first term opened the monument to commercial fishing.
President Biden closed it to commercial fishing.
President Trump has reopened it.
Is this any way to manage ecosystems?
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The easiest way to explore RV-friendly National Park campgrounds.
Here’s the definitive guide to National Park System campgrounds where RVers can park their rigs.
Our app is packed with RVing- specific details on more than 250 campgrounds in more than 70 national parks.
You’ll also find stories about RVing in the parks, tips helpful if you’ve just recently become an RVer, and useful planning suggestions.
