Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. When the Mojave National Preserve was created by the Desert Protection Act in 1994, its enemies in Congress hit it where it hurts (HCN, 4/14/97). In 1996, California Republican Rep. Jerry Lewis led a successful effort to reduce the preserve’s annual budget to a […]
National Park Service
Posted inMay 24, 1999: The last weird place
‘It didn’t need to be saved’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Janice Allen is a member of the Death Valley Advisory Commission. Since the 1860s, her family has grazed cattle on lands that are now within Death Valley National Park: “To me, it’s tremendously sad that lots of local people won’t even go (to the […]
Posted inMay 24, 1999: The last weird place
‘We were created to serve all’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Scot McElveen is the chief ranger at Death Valley National Park: “It’s somewhat unrealistic to say we’re going to move land from more human-oriented uses to (management emphasizing) a stricter group of laws, but we’re not going to give you any staff to make […]
Posted inMay 24, 1999: The last weird place
The last weird place
Can rangers and desert rats coexist in Death Valley?
Posted inMay 24, 1999: The last weird place
‘The more protection we have, the better’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Dick Anderson is an environmental specialist at Death Valley National Park: “There wasn’t complete agreement with the Desert Protection Act within the park. Just because it was the law doesn’t mean it was wholeheartedly supported by the staff, not at all. Myself not included […]
Posted inMay 24, 1999: The last weird place
‘Humans aren’t that bad’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Jim Macey is a resident of Keeler, California: “The park and the Sierra Club have a really dim view of human nature. They equate more humans with more doom, more impact. They say, “Let’s not let anybody do anything.” There are a lot of […]
Posted inMay 24, 1999: The last weird place
‘I’m really embarrassed’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Kathy Goss is a resident of Darwin, California: “I’m a disillusioned environmentalist. I’m disillusioned with the way environmentalists took things into their own hands and pushed something like (the Desert Protection Act) through. Congress signed off on something it had never seen; the boundaries […]
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
Officials seek the “complete’ Canyonlands
A new proposal by Canyonlands National Park superintendent Walt Dabney would more than double the park’s size, from 368,000 acres to about 852,000 acres. Dabney says the proposal “completes’ Canyonlands by drawing park boundaries along natural features. He hopes it will serve as a model for future park planning. “This is in the public arena […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Yellowstone soft on safety
After five people working in Yellowstone National Park were accidentally killed in a little less than four years, a federal investigation found that the first and most famous national park had ignored hundreds of safety regulations. “Employees at almost all levels demonstrated an unwillingness to take responsibility for safety,” concluded a 1998 report by the […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 1999: Saving the Platte
Fees feed volunteers
Years of budget-cutting have taken their toll on the trails and roads of the national parks, and the Park Service is using a windfall from increased user fees to clean up its act. Two million dollars in park user fees have jump-started the Public Land Corps, a program administered by the nonprofit Student Conservation Association. […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Scientists get a free ride
-We’re not very receptive to charges that the park is “wimping out,” “””says Rocky Mountain National Park spokesman Doug Caldwell. But critics say the park did just that – by permitting a crew of soil scientists to take a helicopter ride in a wilderness study area. Last summer, the park in northeastern Colorado sent a […]
Posted inOctober 26, 1998: The Oregon way
Next: Grand Teton International?
Passengers who fly into the tiny Jackson Hole, Wyo., airport may not realize it, but they’re landing inside a national park. Airline representatives have argued for years that the Jackson runway should be lengthened for easier access. But Grand Teton National Park officials and environmentalists have steadfastly opposed the idea, saying an expansion would further […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Extinct volcano is up for grabs
From space, northern New Mexico’s Valles Caldera, also known as the Baca Ranch, looks vaguely like the cast of a bear paw print. Small lava-formed mountains rise like inverted claw marks in front of massive Redondo Peak, all nestled within the rim of the world’s largest extinct volcano. From the ground, what most impresses visitors […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Congress drags its feet on Baca Ranch deal
If there is one property that ought to be bought and preserved as public land for all Americans, say Forest Service officials, it’s the 95,000-acre Baca Ranch – most of the Valles Caldera – a place almost completely surrounded by the Santa Fe National Forest. So this summer, Forest Service staffer Denise McCaig has been […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
A lively memoir out of the National Park Service
For a variety of reasons, I have been reading about the National Park Service – reports, histories, and bilious (but also far-seeing) polemics like Alston Chase’s Playing God in Yellowstone. They’re useful but tend to be lifeless. Now we have a restorative potion to go with the reports and histories: a book that breathes life […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Capulin Volcano National Monument
How should a “recent extinct volcano” greet visitors in the future? The National Park Service invites the public to help plan the management of Capulin Volcano National Monument in northeast New Mexico. To comment or to receive a newsletter, contact the National Park Service, Capulin Volcano National Monument, P.O. Box 40, Capulin, NM 88414 (505/278-2201 […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Feds sue a Utah county for building a road in a national park
Garfield County in Utah has yet to prove historical use of the Burr Trail road through Capitol Reef National Park, a federal judge said in April. With the ruling, U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins rejected the county’s motion for summary judgment, and now a trial will likely begin this summer. An attorney defending Garfield County […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Climbing ban upheld at Devils Tower
The National Park Service can continue to ask rock climbers to stay off Wyoming’s Devils Tower during June, the month when Native Americans hold religious ceremonies at the foot of the volcanic monolith. On April 2, U.S. District Court Judge William Downes dismissed the case brought by climbing guide Andy Petefish and the Bear Lodge […]
Posted inMarch 30, 1998: A bare-knuckled trio goes after the Forest Service
Groups sue over microbes
WYOMING, MONTANA Groups sue over microbes Three environmental organizations are suing the National Park Service over plans to allow private “bioprospecting” in Yellowstone National Park. Charging that the park has conducted “closed-door dealing with a part of our national heritage,” the Edmonds Institute of Edmonds, Wash., the Center for Technology Assessment in Washington, D.C., and […]
Posted inMarch 16, 1998: Olympic onslaught: Salt Lake City braces for the winter games
The Park Service takes a hard look at itself
The portrait of the National Park Service that Richard West Sellars paints in his new book is not especially flattering: Entrusted by Americans to preserve natural wonders, the agency instead prefers to develop recreation and promote tourism. Such criticism is nothing new – writer Edward Abbey loved to rail against “industrial tourism” and the “National […]