Dear HCN,
Yellowstone Park managers
are still not focusing on the main problem – true for most parks, I
would guess – and that is crowds and what park officials feel they
must do to accommodate them (HCN, 5/30/94). Crowds destroy the
basic mood of the park itself – its differentness. This
differentness is a thing that all park managers seem to be
pre-programmed to dismiss in favor of “tourist hours of use.”
Too often park employees are sycophants to the
director. The word gets out that we want nothing but positives at
park headquarters: Crowds bring problems, yes, but bigger budgets
too. The message? Find more kinds of things to do, or have, that
some interest group will like. Let’s find a slice of the park for
the jet ski crowd, maybe a dune for the duners. A marina, a kart
track, snowmobiling. How about dirt biking and off-the-road trails
for the RV crowd? For sure a grocery and more trinket
shops.
My first short tour of Yellowstone in 1957
featured a different mood. Now, facilities are peeking out from
everywhere. Roads are freeway speed and bad. Paved walkways abound.
The bear are scarce as are the other predators. Today, nearly all
the roadside rivers have vast gobs of floating masses of algae and
other weeds indicating serious eutrophication.
I
thought one of the basic precepts of park management (in the law
itself) was the idea that “naturalness is to prevail.” If there is
a conflicting congressional mandate, I would think managers would
err on the side of preservation just as nuclear plant managers are
supposed to err on the side of safety and salmon biologists were
supposed to have erred on the side of too many, as opposed to too
few.
Park authorities have helped sabotage the
original mandate. But now we know and, as the Park Service must
know because it confronts the problems every day, it is past time
to kick “em all out: vans, motorhomes, RVs, pickups pulling big
living rooms, autos, all motorized rigs. The most ubiquitous thing
seen in the park – and the most dangerous thing – is the car. Get
out and don’t ever come
back!
Dave
Tillotson
Lakemills,
Wisconsin
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Get out.
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