The ongoing, back door bid to commercialize our national parks

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Our national park system was and is America's gift to the world, providing wildlife with sanctuary and two-legged visitors with a refuge from the workaday world. Never has that refuge been needed more than in today's stressed-out, overworked, online America.

Yet, along comes a Trump-appointed panel — the "Made in America Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee" — dominated by national park concessionaires, delivering a call to "modernize" the park system.

"Our recommendations would allow people to opt for additional costs if they want, for example, Amazon deliveries at a particular campsite," Derrick Crandall, vice chair of the panel told the Los Angeles Times.

Park campgrounds are an "under performing asset," the panel's report said. Ideas to "modernize": Wi-Fi, food trucks in campgrounds, more camp stores, equipment rentals and — hint, hint, — take campground operations away from the National Park Service. Such measures, said the panel's report, would "boost net agency revenues particularly when operational costs are transferred to private sector partners."

https://www.seattlepi.com/local/politics/article/Connelly-The-ongoing-back-door-bid-to-14821518.php

[appalachiablue]

1. Just say 'commercialize'-- it's what they mean..

modernize my foot

[Wellstone ruled]

2. This has been on the GOP

agenda for decades. What the public does not know is,the National Monument and Park system has been under siege by three major Operators for thirty plus years. All about Gentrifying these parks as Playgrounds for the 1% er class. If you have ever worked for one of these big three,you the real game plan.

[2naSalit]

4. Yup.

The parks are turning into Disneyland.

[Wellstone ruled]

5. Yes they have,

watched it in real time. Promise the USDA a percentage of the Concessions and the rip off begins. Pay your Employees crap and treat them like crap. Then jacked the books so there is little to none profit to report.

[2naSalit]

8. Well actually,

To begin with, the reprobates have been cutting funding to the National Parks for decades, every budget has a serious decrease in funding for the parks. The National Parks and Monuments are a component of the Interior Dept., USDA is within the Dept. of Agriculture. They are funded and treated differently. The National Park Service is quasi-military as they were created to replace the cavalry who were managing/policing the parks before that. They are all in trouble from personnel issues to infrastructure. But they will also be destroyed if they are "upgraded" in several ways. There are now several communications towers in YNP, the concessionaires make it too expensive to stay at most of them as well as the supporting businesses outside the parks. The housing prices near parks has skyrocketed so unaffordably high for the residents of the areas... We need to rethink tourism.

But this push to privatize has been around for quite a while. And one of the main proponents of this and also killing the Endangered Species Act is Mike Pompeo, yes the Sec of State, since back in the late 1990s. He's had his fingers in the pie for a long time and he's at his pinnacle right now and as such is very dangerous on all levels. So yeah, the idea is to privatize everything which price many into starvation and death, on purpose.

As for the USDA Forest Service, that's a whole different deal that deals with flat out selling off a lot of taxpayer owned real estate. It's also the plan for the BLM even though that agency is part of Interior rather than AG.

[Wellstone ruled]

10. Yellowstone is a

great example of the Gentrification of the Parks. Spent many a day in the area. The one that is never mentioned is Glacier and the Big Arm Area. That area is major ugly out of reach money wise.

[2naSalit]

11. I lived and worked

there for years and I had to get away from it because of the cost and that the kind of tourists going there now is the kind of people I would cross the street to avoid. And that includes some of the supervisors in the NPS. I sill have my ranger hats, they're custom fit so we get to keep them. I think of them as souvenirs of a time long gone.

[Wellstone ruled]

12. Our paths may have crossed.

Bozeman,and Billings Business ties.

[2naSalit]

14. Perhaps.

I did move north. Not a fan of living within 100 miles of an Interstate highway, though.

[Wellstone ruled]

20. How I understand. 100 miles from

West Yellowstone is off the path during the winter months unless your a Snowmobile person as well as Kalispell or Columbia Falls.

[2naSalit]

21. Yup.

I have been fortunate to live in such a place for so long, and be a part of its protection. It's nice to be able to see no street lights, hear no sirens... only the wind and the wildlife. City life just isn't my thing.

[democratisphere]

3. Parks should be modernized by the National Park Service

with tha aid of expert contract consultants. The National Park Service must remain in charge. Access to wifi in campgrounds is critical for the sustainability of campgrounds now and especially into the future.

[2naSalit]

13. Wifi should not be

a feature in the parks. It distracts the visitors from the reasons for visiting the park. They drive around rushing off from one traffic jam to the next all while texting and not watching where they are going... among other problems they cause like running over the wildlife and getting too close while taking selfies to post online.

[democratisphere]

16. Campers are already a breed in trouble. It will become much worse if

younger generations don't have access to wifi now and especially as they get older. I have seen this first hand at my favorite campgrounds and with my 2 just turning teenagers. The rest of camping should be left as it was in the past. Believe me, wifi is a deal breaker for camping.

[2naSalit]

17. So are you saying

that camping is in trouble if young people can't use wifi while camping? I don't get why they bother to go camping since they obviously don't get it if that's the case. Seriously, if you're so addicted to that little communicator filtering your life for you, stay home.

[democratisphere]

22. That's the problem. Everyone will stay home and camping, as we know it,

will become extinct. Wifi access is a part of their souls.

[2naSalit]

25. Yeah, I don't think camping will go extinct.

And from the crowding I see in the campgrounds that I see, that's not going to be a problem. If wifi is that much a part of their souls then they should probably just stay home. People who don't understand how aware they need to be when out n the wild are usually the ones who get into trouble with wildlife or getting lost or other ridiculous stuff which case harm to others in getting them out of trouble so they would do well for themselves and others to just stay indoors.

Seriously, those are the people who show up at the park entrance at dusk, with five kids, thinking they can just hike a little ways up a trail and pitch a tent in grizzly bear territory because they didn't bother to look at where they were gong and safety concerns they need to make.

These places aren't Disneyland and we shouldn't turn them into Disneyland just to satisfy the lazy & unconcerned for their own responsibility to watch out for themselves at the expense of all others concerned, especially the wildlife.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

24. bullshit. they're supposed to be preserved, not turned into malls

[Bayard]

6. Stay home,

If you must have delivery services, wifi, TV, and whatever else. That's not why you go to a National Park. Its to appreciate nature in its most splendid forms, not shop online.

Probably the same idiots that think its just awesome to try to take selfies with wild animals.

[Duppers]

9. Exactly! That's not why you go to National Parks.

[2naSalit]

15. Exactly.

And yes, as a former park ranger I can confirm that they are, indeed, the same folks who like to take selfies with the bison and bears. And they think the signs indicating an amphitheater is actaully indicating that wifi is available. I used to love telling them that it meant amphitheater and it was our symbol long before cell phones.

[Kali]

28. yep

and stay in the fucking city if you need all the urban amenities, stop moving to rural places and ruining them too.

[Drahthaardogs]

7. If you're going to a National Park for Good trucks and Amazon

You might want to reconsider why you even went.

[Blue_true]

18. Exactly.

If people want food, there are plenty of concessionaires just outside the most popular national parks. National parks are for gaining quiet reflection and observation of wildlife in their habitat.

If people want Amazon deliveries, they should stay home.

[bdamomma]

19. Damn

they just want to ruin everything. Monetary donations to stop these bastards here I go.

Stephen Miller's stench is on this.

[klook]

23. The National Parks Conservation Association is a good resource

for those wanting to protect our national parks from the many threats being posed to them nowadays:
npca.org

As for these morons who must have wifi access, Amazon deliveries, Spotify blaring at their campsite, etc. -- fuck off.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

26. Coming Soon: Walt Disney World National Park. nt

[riversedge]

27. "Join me in opposing turning our national parks into the sort of place we are escaping from," Bryant

I go to National Parks for many reasons--not for modern conveniences.



Connelly: The ongoing, back door bid to commercialize our national parks

https://www.seattlepi.com/local/politics/article/Connelly-The-ongoing-back-door-bid-to-14821518.php


By Joel Connelly, SeattlePI Published 3:08 pm PST, Friday, November 8, 2019

7

Political leaders love using national parks as photo backdrops. They don't give park managers enough money. Here, President George W. Bush, left, and his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, right, tour the Everglades with Park Supervisor Maureen Finnerty and her deputy, Larry Belli. Photo: Associated Press / Associated Press

Photo: Associated Press
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"Our recommendations would allow people to opt for additional costs if they want, for example, Amazon deliveries at a particular campsite," Derrick Crandall, vice chair of the panel told the Los Angeles Times.
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Park campgrounds are an "under performing asset," the panel's report said. Ideas to "modernize": Wi-Fi, food trucks in campgrounds, more camp stores, equipment rentals and — hint, hint, — take campground operations away from the National Park Service. Such measures, said the panel's report, would "boost net agency revenues particularly when operational costs are transferred to private sector partners."

Bill Bryant, outdoors activist and the Republicans' 2016 nominee for Governor, reacted by bearing his teeth, making a wolf-like snarl, and talking common sense.

"Join me in opposing turning our national parks into the sort of place we are escaping from," Bryant said in a post Friday. "We need places where we hear the sounds of wind, animals, water tumbling over rocks and cliffs, where we escape from the world's events and conveniences.....................................