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Fall 2005 |
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Alert: Radical Policy Changes to Open National Parks to Commercial Interests
Recently, the National Park Service (NPS) management policies, which have benefited generations of Americans and ensured protection of our national heritage, have been secretly and sweepingly rewritten by Paul Hoffman, deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Interior for fish and wildlife and parks. As a watchdog organization, NPCA shares the concerns expressed by park professionals that these policy revisions would depart drastically from the fundamental stewardship ethic that has preserved our national parks from their beginning.
Revising the Park Service’s management policies isn’t unusual, but the process, which is conducted every 10 years on average, it generally driven by the agency itself, with broad public input. The two most recent policy revisions occurred during the Reagan (1988) and Clinton (2000) administrations. In each case, the revisions were made after a very deliberate process that included thorough public scoping and review, and carefully considered policy revisions.
NPCA urges the Department of Interior to immediately abandon this rewrite, heeding the advice of National Park Service professionals who have effectively managed our heritage for decades. No case has been made for revising these polices now, and any policy changes put forward should be considered in an open, careful, deliberate process—starting with a scoping process—that allows for broad public input and vetting of any changes.
Since NPCA’s initial call to action, there has been a nationwide, bipartisan disapproval of the sweeping changes outlined in that 194-page draft document. The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees has been one of the leading voices in this effort to expose the consequences of implementing this policy. For the most recent information on changes to the management policies, consult their web site, www.npsretirees.org, or NPCA’s web site, www.npca.org. Both sites feature examples of how the changes will commercialize beloved icons and diminish the visitor experience.
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