want to know the real poop on OUR national parks

[donsu]

3 things:

One - c-span Wash. Journal this a.m. had as a guest Fran Mainella head of the national parks (last 3 yrs.) and she blathered about how wonderful everything was and when asked about the whistleblower, said she couldn't talk about it but that the wb was on paid leave. Fran said that snowmobiles would be managed and no one should be kept from seeing the back country. she sounded like Karen Hughes.


Two - House kills proposal to ban snowmobiles in parks

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?tl=1&display=rednews/2004/06/18/build/state/20-sleds-park.inc

An effort to impose a ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks was rejected by the House of Representatives by a vote of 224 to 198 on Thursday evening.

-snip=

Besides preparing the fact sheets, Western Republicans who oppose the ban also joined forces with a handful of Democrats who support snowmobiling in the parks. Minnesota Democratic congressmen Collin Peterson and James Oberstar led the Democratic effort to defeat the amendment.

-snip-

Holt said that if his amendment had been adopted it would have given certainty to the communities around the park who derive income from tourists who rent snowmobiles. Two federal courts have issued contradictory rulings about snowmobiling in the parks.
-snip-
------------------------------------


Three - Overall Budget for National Parks Slashed, while Logging Industry (via Bush's 'Fire Control' scam) Given $231 Million
If you listened to Washington Journal on C-SPAN on June 21, then you would have heard Bush's top National Parks toady Fran Mainella mapping out the 'Bush vision" for our (OUR!) national wildlands: snowmobiles in wilderness areas, oil drilling in Big Cypress and other endangered habitats, paved roads in roadless areas (despite overwhelming public outcry against this). The GOP-led House appropriations for the Dept. of the Interior (National Parks is under it) reflects the Bush vision: an overal budget that is slashed, including funds for acquiring and protecting new lands, with the only big increase being Bush's 'National Fire Plan," which is, in essence, a stealth giveaway to the logging industry.

this article is at www.democrats.com but I couldn't get the rest of the article to open. maybe someone else will have better luck


----------------------


bottom line is that they want to privitize national parks - the better to rape them.

[Xithras]

1. What I don't get about the snowmobile debate...

Why does nobody suggest the obvious: The argument against snowmobiles in the backcountry is that they're noisy and smell bad. Well, so do cars without the proper equipment. Why not simply require that Yellowstone snowmobiles be equipped with catalytic converters and big mufflers? If they'd just clean up the exhaust and knock out the noise, 90% of the opposition to these things would evaporate.

[MadHound]

5. A few things with that

Most snowmobiles have small, but powerful two stroke engines. Two strokes are much more polluting, and if you tried to clean then up with a catalytic converter, you're power output would drop drastically, to the point where the snowmobile would be barely moving. Big mufflers also have the problem of robbing power, also of starting fires. It would actually be best to rework the entire engine concept of a snowmobile and providing them with four stroke, three cylinder engines ala Geo Metros. But this would also increase the price of the snowmobile, and profits would go down.

Also there is the matter of physical damage that snowmobiles cause. They can rip up delicate ecosystems easily and quickly with their treads and runners. Also snowmobile paths can quickly turn into nightmare erosion sites that can potentially wash entire hillsides away.

My thought is they should just ban the damn things in the park. If you want to go snowmobiling, there are plenty of private and commercial runs in the area that you can go. Ripping up land that belongs to every citizen is shortsided, foolish and self-centered.

[cosmicdot]

2. the whistleblower is on paid leave

sounds like what corporations do when someone
points out policy violations

the life of a wb isn't a pretty one ... gosh knows what kind of harassment is on-going

[TexasSissy]

3. I saw part of this. It was the standard admin. perception lines

that they always give. "The party line," it used to be referred to in the Soviet Union. She was just such a joke that I turned the channel.

[donhakman]

4. On advice form other DUers here

I asked various Park rangers what they were up against since the Bush administration and how they felt about it.

They all said basicly they were in fear of losing their jobs since everything in the park was planned for privatization.

[donsu]

6. and religious nut groups are already running some parts of parks

putting out media preaching creationism

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Privatizing the nat'l park system. What a brilliant idea.

/sarcasm

[donhakman]

8. God's green acres

all non members keep out.


...or pay double.