Invasive species, not the maintenance backlog, not the annual budget, and not political differences, pose the greatest threat to America's Best Idea.

There's a slow movement on to further commercialize the National Park System, one so slow that, like the frog in the pot atop the stove, it might soon be too late to stave off the incursions.

Work for the National Park Service in Utah and you best be prepared to serve the best interests of Utah politicians. Why else, after Park Service staff at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area spent nine years working on the requisite environmental studies and public comment periods to allow ATV use in the NRA, would the agency's regional director issue a directive that all parks in the state open their dirt and paved roads to ATVs without similar studies?

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt is forcing the National Park Service's hand by telling the agency to give greater access to eBikes with just 30 days to study the matter, a time period that doesn't possibly allow park staff to thoroughly consider all the facets of the issue.

The lack of a Senate-confirmed director of the National Park Service remains to be a demoralizing factor for the agency's workforce, which also has had no specific agenda to follow under the Trump administration.

When it comes to managing the National Park System, the example before us is clearly not the right way. In this case, we're referring to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and de facto National Park Service Director P. Dan Smith on, most recently, the topic of eBikes in the parks.

It has been mentioned so often, that it seemingly has lost its impact: The National Park Service is roughly $12 billion behind in maintaining its infrastructure. And maybe numbness to that backlog is why Park Service planners are continue to work on capital projects.

A former National Park Service superintendent says the time has come to appoint a commission to study all units in the National Park System to determine whether some are not worthy of inclusion.

Climate science is just that, science, which ebbs and flows through the refinement of technology and physical observation. But the Trump administration's refusal to recognize the science its land-management agencies conduct neither ebbs nor flows; you could say it's frozen in place. Sadly, that clamp down is preventing a thorough discussion of what's going on with the glaciers at Glacier National Park.

Last month we pointed to some of the frustrations that can be had when trying to navigate the overall NPS.gov domain. Let's now take a look at the individual haves and have-nots of the National Park System and some of the things that differentiate them.

You might have heard the news. The National Park System was behind a $40 billion bump in the nation's economy last year. What that jubilant news released by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt overlooked was the dire state of the park system.

One of the very best government websites is the one run by the National Park Service. Sadly, nps.gov is also one of the worst.

Could a ruling late last week out of Alaska be a precursor to the outcome of efforts to reverse President Trump's breaking up of the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments?

Years ago when we published our code of conduct for comments, we said anonymous comments would be allowed because there obviously are times when whistleblowers want to shield their identity, when the topic is political dissent, and when the individual doesn't want his/her comments attached to the organization they work for. Now we're not so sure.

While an investigation has cleared Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Christine Lehnertz of any wrongdoing in managing the park, it has placed the National Park Service in a hard to defend position by leaving her accusers in the park.

As the partial government shutdown drags on towards its fourth week, so does the National Park Service's blackout on news regarding what's going on in the parks with most of the staff furloughed. When the government does get back to work, expect more than a few Freedom of Information Act requests filed concerning not just the decision-making regarding keeping the parks open, but what damage occurred.

With the Interior Department led by a recent oil industry lobbyist and the National Park Service by a past political appointee who overlooked environmental rules to please a billionaire, we're embarking on a new paradigm for managing the National Park System, one that includes changing the rules on the fly.

Here's a shortlist of the things we'd like to see sweep across the National Park System this year.

Keeping most units of the National Park System open during the partial government shutdown is a bad idea, as accumulating human waste and garbage poses sanitation issues and some visitors are taking advantage of the lack of presence of rangers to do what they want, regardless of regulations.

Early in the 20th century there was a fight over the fate of the Hetch Hetchy Valley at Yosemite National Park. Would it remain an amazing, waterfall-rimmed valley that so very well complemented the Yosemite Valley, or would it be given over to a reservoir to meet San Francisco's utilitarian needs? The battle for wildness, of course, was lost at Hetch Hetchy. Today the battle is being repeated in Utah, where wildness and sacredness at Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments are being tossed aside not so much for utilitarianism as for profiteering.