I’ve posted here with unbridled enthusiasm about our National Parks many, many times. They are, in the Interior Department’s own words, our nation’s crown jewels. But the parks seem to be under threat from several angles. There are issues of public use and whether motorized vehicles should be allowed in near-sacred places like Yellowstone.
There is a multi-million dollar backlog of needed maintenance and improvements that the government has not yet acted on. And, according to some reports, there is a growing indifference to the parks among the American public. This last issue, frankly puzzles me. Perhaps, as Neil discussed in a post a while back, this is due to the expanding waistlines and concomitant laziness of Americans. Who really knows?
Either way, the parks are having problems and, as this post over at Park Remark discusses, this is a matter we should all be concerned about. The post discusses several of the problems facing the NPS including another issue — Privatization — that faces parks like the Presidio, a lovely old military site that also happens to sit on some of the most valuable real estate in the country (right on San Francisco Bay). I have a feeling all these issues wil work themselves out, but only if we all pay attention to what is happening and act. The fact is, the parks are simply too important a national/public resource to let them fail.