Thanks for the recent story on penny-pinching by the
Bush administration when it comes to funding our National Park
Service (NPS) (HCN, 8/16/04: National parks pinching pennies). The
budget shortfalls that are being forced on the NPS by the White
House are just one more of the many examples of how Bush is
hell-bent on letting our beautiful national treasures be torn apart
by neglect, misuse and outright hostility toward the environment in
general.
As one of the hundreds of Sierra Club and
California Desert Protection League members who fought for and won
additional protection in 1994 for then-Death Valley National
Monument under the California Desert Protection Act (CDPA), I am
outraged that there is still not even a draft wilderness management
plan for Death Valley National Park! It is indeed a hollow victory
if we who love the land cannot count on the NPS to protect the
millions of acres of wilderness created by the CDPA. This is not
the fault of the many dedicated professionals at the NPS, but an
intentional underfunding by the White House, in order to allow the
continuation of the very activities — such as off-road
vehicle use — the CDPA was meant to prevent.
Don Kimball
Las Vegas, Nevada
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Bush neglects parks.
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