Posted on 06/21/2006 4:34:34 AM PDT by Brilliant
...or the Federal Government, which owns most of the western U.S., could sell some of their holdings to private individuals or corporations. The Feds obviously can't take care of it.
"To make some 6,000 shafts and caves completely safe would take money that Reynolds does not have."
Dynamite them closed. Next?
"When winter rain visits Death Valley, the bucket comes out near the visitor center cash register. Before the leaky ceiling got a temporary patch job...'
That's all you need to know about the fat-ass bureaucratic culture.
They're too damn stupid and lazy to buy a bucket of roof tar, climb up the ladder and patch the hole.
Sell off the federal socialist commons to the private sector and the parks will be fixed. And fire every bureaucrat.
Speaking of falling down mineshafts, a guy in Alta California died a few months ago when his *house* collapsed into a mineshaft that ran below it. Nobody knew the shaft even existed and so they built over the top of it.
Bad luck, and he was reportedly a nice guy too.
Yes, the feds have too much property as it is. They sure have the budget to continue some things though. This problem with the parks has gone on forever, not just with Bush.
The park service could also get out of the law enforcement business. They have plenty of money for that.
IMO, the parks system is really run for the benefit of the people running the parks and not the visitors. If they had less visitors it would be fine by them.
Looks like the annual story before they start lobbying for a larger budget.
Soon to follow will be the story about the Hubble Space Telescope getting canceled again.
Last month the story was about the Tropical Prediction Center getting it's funding cut.
Too many visitors will damage the infrastructure, so raise fees, maybe introduce a lottery system for tickets. As far as the mineshafts etc, post warning signs at main lots and then you're on your own (common sense applies).
We have hundreds of mine shafts in our area. The proper way to solve the problem is to cap the shafts, usually with cement slabs. We also have a mining inspector who travels the territory making certain the caps are in good repair.
Of course hiring a person who actually has a skill and actually works for a living will entail spending money. That might mean decreasing the salary of worthless federal bureaucrats or firing one. And we can't have that.
--nobody has fallen into them yet. To make them "completely" safe means close the park. This is the usual annual budget bleating--
I agree with most, except I would not only raise prices to Disney level, I'd have Disney run them on long leases under certain stipulations. I also imagine that there are some marginal parks that should be sold.
Just the usual whining for money. Why should they raise entry fees when its the taxpayers money already being used? Disney is a private company and should be free to charge more.
Sell the damn property to the citizens on auction, ebay or whatever. Private property means more money for the school district and the chiiilllldreeeeennnn.
Seems to be a concerted effort recently by the drive-by media to criticize the lack of funding and the overuse of our national parks. This is about the 3rd article on this theme I've seen in just the past few weeks.
I agree that those who use the parks should pay more. Why should someone who never sets foot inside a national park subsidize those who do?
Charging more would discourage those tourists who drive to the parks, stay an hour or two to glimpse the highlights and snap some pictures, then move on to the next one. That would cut out a lot of the traffic.
I know it was T. Roosevelt's goal that the national parks would be a treasure that all people could visit and enjoy (used to be for free) but he could never have envisioned the current rate of park visititation.
When will people wise up and realize we've been on a war footing for, oh, the past few years?
We're so lucky, we are not experiencing the shortages our parents and grandparents endured. So the national park system is having to make do with less money?
Boo hoo.
You are right.........The above article ran in our local rag, and directly next to it was a puff piece on how the Feds were changing the rules on parks to eliminate "recreational uses" in favor of "conservation". In other words, elimination of vehicles and snowmobiles in favor of the tree-huggers. Now they bitch because there is no money. I would suggest that they charge the tree-huggers more to "experience nature".
Eliminate the little wannabe hitlers, who rather than providing a service, always degenerate into rule-making idiots with delusions of grandeur.
Other than building and maintaining access roads, we don't need a single welfare-by-another name doofus in a funny hat.
We could save billions. Immediately.
You nailed it.
My guess would be that 99% of the visitors to Death Valley never get close to a mine shaft. Just those that explore the back country in a 4X4 and most of those have enough sense to stay out of old mine shafts.
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