[Sam Cree]

I hadn't known about these extreme cases, but I do have a generally sour feeling toward the NPS, based on the way they act in the Everglades National Park. The rangers there stop you and check you out fairly often. Though they can be nice, I more often get the impression that they think of the public the same way the Sheriff of Nottingham thought of peasants trespassing or poaching in the King's Forest.

Most folks around here seem to think Park rangers are the least polite of all local law enforcement types, even the Marine Patrol guys admit that the rangers have a "reputation."

I used to attribute this to rangers having inadequate law enforcement training, but now wonder if it isn't more likely that the entire NPS hasn't just become part of the liberal, politically correct establishment that so threatens America today.

In the past I had been an admirer of the NPS, but these days am thinking perhaps to change my views.

[AAABEST]

The NPS is becoming a goon squad.

Where in FL do you live? I'm in the Naples area and spend some time in the Glades myself when I get the chance.

[countrydummy]

I know how you feel! Yet for the last 3 years, I can tell you that no one has a friend in the NPS! They have become nothing more than a environmental gestopo!

[Red Boots]

I have often thought that the Sherwood Forest analogy was right on. Remember, the peasants used the forest for their very livelihoods;fuel,building material,grazing for their animals and food. All these uses were stopped just as they are so being today. Then fees were charged, then the forest was restricted to King and his friends only, just as the forests and other public lands are incrementaly being restricted today. They want to return the forests to their "pre-european state", which means no people allowed. Pre-european being undefined of course, since no one was around to take notes, it's a state that exists only in the minds of the NPS/USFS/BLM.


This land was your land, this land was my land
Now it's BLM land, now it's NPS land,
from the redwood forests, to the gulfstream waters,
This land, it once belong to me...




It used to belong to you and me...