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NATIONAL PARKS IN DISREPAIR
San Jose Merc ^ | May 25, 2003 | Seth Borenstein

Posted on 05/26/2003 7:29:22 AM PDT by sasquatch

Edited on 04/13/2004 3:31:16 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

WASHINGTON - Dazzled by views of mountains, deserts and wildlife, visitors to America's national parks rarely notice that there also are missing signs, rotting buildings and fewer rangers to answer questions.

On Sept. 13, 2000, presidential candidate George W. Bush posed before the Cascade Mountains in Washington state and warned that national parks were ``at the breaking point.'' He vowed to eliminate a $4.9 billion backlog in deferred maintenance.


(Excerpt) Read more at bayarea.com ...


TOPICS: Activism/Chapters; Announcements; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: blame; nationalparks
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The complaint of underfunded maintenance and lack of new aquisitions is only slightly more humerous than the "loss" of 187,000 acres.
1 posted on 05/26/2003 7:29:22 AM PDT by sasquatch
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To: farmfriend
Please ping the list.
Thx
2 posted on 05/26/2003 7:30:52 AM PDT by sasquatch
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To: sasquatch
My personal favorite: Parks professionals are alarmed by another plan announced this spring. It would turn over 1,708 federal positions in the National Park Service to private contractors, mostly jobs involving maintenance or security. In an internal memo last month, park service director Mainella said this switch would cost $3 million just to study and that that would come at the expense of other park-service priorities.

The poor souls would be working for private bosses, EGAD! the humiliation, the insult, loss of an overly-cushy government pension.

3 posted on 05/26/2003 7:38:23 AM PDT by EggsAckley ( Midnight at the Oasis)
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To: EggsAckley
Clearly National Parks should be privatized in whole. Not just the contracting out of menial jobs away from lazy civil servants.
4 posted on 05/26/2003 7:40:29 AM PDT by eBelasco
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To: sasquatch
Well, this would have never happened under Clintoon's watch. It's all Bush's fault.
5 posted on 05/26/2003 7:40:32 AM PDT by riri
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To: riri
Well, this would have never happened under Clintoon's watch. It's all Bush's fault.

Indeed...as far as hatchet jobs go this one is pretty good. Words like this "The Bush administration has increased spending on park system maintenance and construction above what it inherited by a total of $321 million over three years." just seem to get ignored in the rest of the journalist's screed.

6 posted on 05/26/2003 7:55:09 AM PDT by Drango (There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those that understand binaries, and those that don't.)
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To: sasquatch
I'm sure Bush is to blame for the maintenance backlog as he is for the stock market that started dropping a year before he was sworn in. Strange there is no mention of why there is such a big backlog. Couldn't be that his predecessor didn't fund it.
7 posted on 05/26/2003 8:05:41 AM PDT by T. P. Pole
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To: sasquatch
What kind of inept reporting is this? They just plop down an incredible (literally) "fact" - 187,000 acres go missing, with absolutely no explanation.
8 posted on 05/26/2003 8:05:42 AM PDT by DManA
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To: sasquatch
As for park expansion, since 1900, four new park-service sites have been added each year, on average, and no president averaged fewer than 2.4 new sites per year -- until this one. Bush has averaged 1.3 additions a year

Fine with me. The government should own less land, not more.

Actually, the environmentalists don't want our parks recreational areas maintained. They want all the federal lands to be returned to wilderness, with no human presence. They lobby for all dollars to be spent on land aquisition and the roadless initiatives.

9 posted on 05/26/2003 8:17:25 AM PDT by Kay Ludlow
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To: eBelasco
"Clearly National Parks should be privatized in whole..."

Clearly indeed. Charge enough at the gates and apply the money to needed upkeep. End the civil servants gravy train and replace them with private citizens working in their own interest. I've never heard of a problem of private parks (Hershey Park PA, Disney) lacking of money or maintenance.

"What is owned by no one is wasted by everyone." Bastiat

10 posted on 05/26/2003 8:19:18 AM PDT by SKI NOW
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To: riri
.....Well, this would have never happened under Clintoon's watch.....

In my view this happened under Gore's watch. The Great Smokey Mountains became a Biosphere under the reinvention of government. Water fountains ceased to work, signs deterioriated.

The enviros took control and their bureaucrats advocating the end of the industrial world began actions make parks less friendly to visitors.

11 posted on 05/26/2003 8:27:21 AM PDT by bert (Don't Panic !)
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To: sasquatch
The Bush administration has increased spending on park system maintenance and construction above what it inherited from the Clinton administration by a total of $321 million over three years.

More NYT-style journalist "ethics" on display here.

12 posted on 05/26/2003 8:39:24 AM PDT by Eala ("Here in France I feel at home." --Madonna. So go already.)
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To: sasquatch
Although this Whitehouse webpage is from '02, the projected for '03 and '04 would be similar or rising.

Examining only the two charts shows two things:

First, Bush has increased the state grants portion of the LWCF, which has always been that the states were supposed to get half this money. The Feds have been screwing the states on this since the act was passed. This is funded by royalties from oil production on the outer continental shelf.

Second, the chart on NPS funding for deferred maintainace shows exactly what is being spent. Note that Bush instituted the Federal Infrastucture Improvement. Also note that the fee reciepts are rising. Those that use the park should contribute to the upkeep.

13 posted on 05/26/2003 9:01:17 AM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: sasquatch
This is all part of a drive to limit public access to National Parks. Pretty soon, everybody will have to park at the entrance, board busses and be driven like Japanese tourists hither and yon - all under the watchful eye of a "guide". That way, nothing gets "spoiled".

I didn't notice any mention in this article about Mexican drug gangs growing marijuana fields and really trashing the environment (not to mention making the area physically hazardous to visitors), or illegal aliens using these lands as entry ways and garbage dumps. I guess that is OK.

14 posted on 05/26/2003 9:04:40 AM PDT by Gritty
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To: sasquatch
You can call me crazy but I believe there was a concerted movement by the Clinton Admin to basically shut down access to all parks and national forests.

They just stopped the maintenance. It is how they let former access roads get to such a state of disrepair that they could no longer be used.

Now, the little green communists that make up the park service are complaining about losing their jobs???

What did they think would happen?

By the way, I volunteer to conduct the proposed three million dollar study for a mere one million dollars.
15 posted on 05/26/2003 9:06:47 AM PDT by Pylot
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To: Gritty
Are there not enough immigration threads without having to hijack this one?
16 posted on 05/26/2003 9:07:55 AM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: sasquatch
Please don't take this the wrong way. It is not a personal attack, merely an educational suggestion. Take a copy of the Constitution to your favorite reading chair, sit down and read carefully - I have a feeling that you will not be able to find any authorization of Federal ownership of land for parks.

Custom houses, armories, navy yards, post offices, etc. are mentioned in the Constitution; parks are not. They began with Teddy Roosevelt. But that in no way makes them constitutionally legitimate.

Sell off Federal lands, privatize the Parks, put the "Armed and Rangerous" out on the economy instead of on Federal payrolls.

Summary: Shut down the Department of the Inferior.

All of it.

NOW!
17 posted on 05/26/2003 9:16:23 AM PDT by GladesGuru (In a society predicated upon liberty, it is essential to examine principles - -)
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To: sasquatch
So, the Federal Government has become so incompetent that it can't even maintain wilderness?

LET'S SOCIALIZE MEDICINE!

18 posted on 05/26/2003 9:17:30 AM PDT by Psycho_Bunny
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To: Psycho_Bunny
Yeah you'd think we could run the parks just as well as we run the postal system...
19 posted on 05/26/2003 9:19:48 AM PDT by Drango (There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those that understand binaries, and those that don't.)
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To: GladesGuru
Exactly. Well, almost exactly. We don't have to limit private investors to maintaining the parks as private parks. Just sell off the land and let the purchaser do whatever with it.
20 posted on 05/26/2003 9:25:24 AM PDT by eBelasco
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