Opinion Columns

Essay | To Preserve US National Parks In A Warming World, Reconnect Fragmented Public Lands

The Trump administration’s proposal to lop 14 percent off the Interior Department’s budget for fiscal year 2020, which would continue a series of cuts to the National Park Service, spotlights how vulnerable these unique places are.

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March 28th, 2019

3 comments

Op-Ed | Don't Favor Cattle Over Wildlife At Point Reyes National Seashore

The first time I drove to the Point Reyes Lighthouse, I was horrified to see large cattle ranching operations on National Park Service lands.

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November 15th, 2018

16 comments

Op-Ed | Secretary Zinke Is Undoing A 100-Year Legacy Of National Park Stewardship

Allowing unethical and unscientific predator control practices on National Park Service lands in Alaska, as Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is currently proposing to do, is contrary to federal law and the interest of all Americans.

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November 2nd, 2018

7 comments

Op-Ed | An Easterner's View Of The Proposed $70 Entrance Fee

I am totally against this proposed fee hike for 17 of our famous parks, most in the West. Congress must fund the parks properly with our taxes. We have to step up and tell our representatives that national parks are important to us.

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November 13th, 2017

20 comments

Op-Ed | The National Park Service For Too Long Has Been Without A Permanent Director

Since 2017 dawned, the National Park Service has been without a permanent director. The lack of leadership at the top of the agency is unprecedented and damaging. There is no one to speak for our national parks, there is no internal leadership. How long this condition will last I do not know, but it has to end. The National Park Service needs a director.

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October 29th, 2017

9 comments

Op-Ed | Recalling Theodore Roosevelt's Love Of The Land While Worrying About Oil And Gas Development

Mark Motsko, a former ranger at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, offers the following thoughts on Theodore Roosevelt's conservation ethics, national parks, and oil and gas development.

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October 28th, 2017

6 comments

Op-Ed | Yosemite So Crowded You Can’t Park; But You'll Still Pay To Enter

It’s the summer tourist season, and Yosemite Park is gridlocked with traffic.

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July 23rd, 2017

20 comments

Op-Ed | A Monumental Task!

Over the years, in visits to national monuments, this question seldom occurred to me. Walking the lava at Craters of the Moon NM, canoeing the Missouri River in the Upper Missouri River Breaks, kayaking and hiking Glacier Bay while it was still a monument and before it gained national park status, I gave little thought to where the monument boundaries were and why they were there.

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June 23rd, 2017

1 comment

Op-Ed | Holding True To President Roosevelt's Vision At Theodore Roosevelt National Park

In 1910, Theodore Roosevelt stated, "Of all the questions which can come before this nation…there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us." More than a century later, as we celebrate the 70th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, this comment rings true, though shrouded in irony.

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April 25th, 2017

2 comments

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