Rain Monkey
August 28th, 2005, 08:48 PM
The L.A. Times reported on Friday (August 26) proposed changes to National Park Policy:
"They are changing the whole nature of who we are and what we have been," said J.T. Reynolds, superintendent of Death Valley National Park. "I hope the public understands that this is a threat to their heritage. It threatens the past, the present and the future. It's painful to see this."
The potential changes would allow cellphone towers and low-flying tour planes and would liberalize rules that prohibited mining, according to Bill Wade, former superintendent at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.
The changes are the brainchild of Paul Hoffman, who oversees the Park Service and was appointed deputy assistant secretary of the Interior in January 2002.
Hoffman came to the Park Service after serving as director of the Chamber of Commerce in Cody, Wyo. He had previously served as Wyoming state director for then-U.S. Rep. Dick Cheney from 1985 to 1989.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-parks26aug26%2C0%2C1637602.story?coll=la-home-nation
Conservation groups responded quickly with a press release:
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=52170
And the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees jumped up out of their rocking chairs, fit to be tied:
http://www.npsretirees.org/
"They are changing the whole nature of who we are and what we have been," said J.T. Reynolds, superintendent of Death Valley National Park. "I hope the public understands that this is a threat to their heritage. It threatens the past, the present and the future. It's painful to see this."
The potential changes would allow cellphone towers and low-flying tour planes and would liberalize rules that prohibited mining, according to Bill Wade, former superintendent at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.
The changes are the brainchild of Paul Hoffman, who oversees the Park Service and was appointed deputy assistant secretary of the Interior in January 2002.
Hoffman came to the Park Service after serving as director of the Chamber of Commerce in Cody, Wyo. He had previously served as Wyoming state director for then-U.S. Rep. Dick Cheney from 1985 to 1989.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-parks26aug26%2C0%2C1637602.story?coll=la-home-nation
Conservation groups responded quickly with a press release:
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=52170
And the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees jumped up out of their rocking chairs, fit to be tied:
http://www.npsretirees.org/