Senators Tell National
Park Service To Back Off New Management Guidelines
November 02, 2005 — By John Heilprin, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Republican senators
joined Democrats in telling the National Park Service on Tuesday to back
off proposed new guidelines that could allow Segway scooters and more
cell phones, noise and air pollution in the national parks.
Instead, members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources' national
parks subcommittee urged Park Service officials to undertake more modest
changes to their overall plan for managing a 388-park system.
"It's very controversial and it (the Park Service) put the wrong
emphasis on it," Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., the panel's chairman, said
after a two-hour hearing. "I don't think we're satisfied yet."
Other Republicans and Democrats were more pointed in their assessment of
the Park Service's draft guidance to supervisors. Nearly 300 million
people visited the U.S. parks last year, which cover 132,000 square
miles.
"There's no reason to do this when you're going to diminish what's in
the parks," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. He said the document
raises the odds of more cell phone towers, air pollution and noise in
the national parks, and he urged the Park Service to lengthen its 90-day
public comment period on it to 180 days.
"Frankly, we don't understand what the true motivation was," said Sen.
Ken Salazar, D-Colo.
The Park Service's "Management Policies," its official manual guiding
the agency's day-to-day work, was last revised in 2001 and, before that,
in 1988.
Steve Martin, the Park Service's deputy director, said the agency began
updating policies three years ago to provide "further clarity" and
professionalism after inquiries from park supervisors and the House
Resources Committee.
"It's to continue to improve how we manage the service for the 21st
Century. It's very complex and there are many different reasons," Martin
told the panel. "We're also saying that this is a draft, and if we have
inadvertently dropped a sentence that is that important, we can have a
discussion and put it back in."
Martin said the draft would "allow us to consider new technologies like
Segways," two-wheeled battery-powered transporters than can zip along at
up to 12 mph with almost no effort. After the hearing, he said that also
could extend to other "battery-powered machinery" and "clean-fuel
vehicles."
William Horn, a former assistant interior secretary for fish, wildlife
and parks, said it was the right of every administration to update its
policies.
The latest proposal, more than 200 pages, is an improvement in the eyes
of environmentalists and some Park Service's employees from a draft
floated earlier this year by Assistant Deputy Interior Secretary Paul
Hoffman.
That version would have allowed expanded use of snowmobiles and
all-terrain vehicles on federal land. It was scrapped after it was
leaked to the press.
"This seemed as though it was a secret thing that took place in a
smoke-filled room somewhere," said Don Castleberry, a former Midwest
director for the Park Service and a member of the Coalition of National
Park Service Retirees, an advocacy group.
One provision, for example, would have made it harder to block
activities in the parks by banning what "irreversibly" harms them,
instead of only harming them. The current version removes the word
"irreversibly" and it uses the terms "conservation" and "preservation"
as if they have the same meaning, Martin said.
Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, said he also worried the current draft
could weaken protection of cultural resources .
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said a provision in the proposed guidelines
that would allow parks to recognize businesses and private donors with
logos and plaques sets a dangerous precedent. "I've always thought of
the parks as a commercial-free zone," he said. "Strikes me this is a
slippery slope and a very major change."
Martin countered that the new guidelines merely acknowledge this
practice is already going on, with parks receiving $17 million from such
outside sources. "I think we're searching for (financial) partnerships
because we need it," he said.
Source: Associated Press |