Corporate Relations And The National Parks: Good Deal?

If Corporate America can stand the thought of an NPS that stands firmly with the mantra "Give us your money and keep your products and services FAR away from our properties" then I say fine, take the money and run.  The last thing our public lands need is more McDonald wrappers blowing around from the clowns who don't know what a garbage can is for, or for the golden neon of Best Western sprouting up within park boundries, or a L.L. Bean outfitter at every camp ground and the associated billboard nonsense that would accompany such development.
Of course that's all based on the NPS having the stones to chance walking away from the prospects of an influx of much needed cash which, as the federal government has time and time again demonstrated it's incompetence in even passing a general operating budget without tapping monies we as a nation don't have for their own local pork constituents and lobbyists, is now needed from an external entity since it's also obvious that the REAL people in charge of funding are too irresponsible and short-sighted to invest in our country's future.  So at some point in the not too distant future we will most likely be in the "there goes the neighborhood" and "I remember when" mode when it comes to our public lands.

Go to the St. Louis Arch for the "Fair St. Louis" July 4th event and you will see a massive sign over the stage "Budwiser Salutes the National Park Service."  I cannot think of anything more offensive and inappropriate. This is the type of thing the NPS managers work on these days, getting more money to sustain a rudderless and increasingly irrelevent government agency.  There was a time that the NPS was regarded as the moral standard of the U.S. Government and was rewarded by the public and the congress with support and funding.  Today, the parks themselves are the only thing proping up this poorly managed and led agency.  The agency has no moral compass, as evidenced by thier willingness to whore out our parks to corporate interests and influence.  This is what the era of "partnering" gets you.  Partnering is a code word for compromise.  There is little room for compromise when your mission is to "...preserve, unimpaired for future generations..."   It has been painful to watch this great agency loose its standing as a well managed and highly regarded government agency.  This generation of NPS managers have failed to protect its agency legacy.

Lone Hiker: "If Corporate America can stand the thought of an NPS that stands firmly with the mantra "Give us your money and keep your products and services FAR away from our properties" then I say fine, take the money and run."

Response: There is a tendency to believe that some are on a higher mission than corporate America when invoking the environment. Sometimes there seems to be NO difference when comparing with National Politics.

Lady Bird Johnson (President Lyndon Johnson's wife) had a national campaign to lesson the impact roadside advertisements had at blocking the views to our natural vistas. Maybe someone can explain the difference between the the attached sign picture and a theoretical sign for a corporate interest.  So much personal, corporate, environmental and political ambitions have found cover in "Greenwashing:).  Gotta get the message out I suppose but at this spot it doesn't seem appropriate.

Chevron paid for the majority of the rebuilding of the Lower Yosemite Fall area that was completed in 2005. I also remember going on a naturalist guided activity at Bryce Canyon on the official NPS schedule of activities. The naturalist was from a private organization and wore a uniform with a prominent Ford Motor Co logo on her sleeve.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/04/03/TRGNAC0SBR1.DTL

The April 18 ceremony at the base of the falls will include National Park Service and Yosemite Fund officials, representatives of Chevron Texaco (a partner in the largest public/private project ever undertaken in Yosemite) and Yosemite Valley Elementary School students.

Nature Valley is an incredible spokesperson for the Parks and conservation on their Facebook page.  I have been impressed at how much they work to get the NPS message - and natural history knowledge - out.  Don't want to see granola bar wrappers blowing around the parks either,  but do like the corporate interest.

I'm not sure if I care for the series of Nature Valley commercials that has been airing over the past few years. They show scenes made to look like someone has spend hours getting to some remote location. One of them shows Convict Lake in California which is an area with docks, and supposed "resort" lodging. Then there's the one in the Bitterroot Mountains, which I was told was filmed just off of a parking lot but made to look like it's deep in the backcountry.

Hey YPW would it have been better to hike an entire film crew and equipment into the back woods with generators and all to film in a spot few people would recognize as being really remote? Better yet let them drive ORV's or helicopter in!

I also like the fact the Toyota donated like 20 million a few years back and no one said a word

samsdad1:
Hey YPW would it have been better to hike an entire film crew and equipment into the back woods with generators and all to film in a spot few people would recognize as being really remote? Better yet let them drive ORV's or helicopter in!

  Well - Everest IMAX was filmed with maybe a couple of crew members lugging along the heavy cameras and film.  They didn't need generators since they filmed using natural light.

REI has a series of commercials which were actually filmed in backcountry locations. Of course they didn't look to be heavily computer edited with a soft look like the Nature Valley commercials. Also - I don't really consider the stuff great as trail food. I know it's fantasy that all of a sudden the eater turns into an attractive blonde after munching a granola bar.

I fully agree and that documentary was great where I also agree that those bars are not great trail food. How about what that guys teeth look like that left the mountain scene in his granola bar...

Now there is another great idea for an article...

What food do you prefer to hike in and out with? Share the recipes of the wild...?

Beggers can't be choosers NPS could plaster ad's on the side of the shuttles is some parks

Lady Bird Supporter, great example, and I agree with you 100%.