You may lose your free NPS passport but at least you’ll have wi-fi and food trucks...yay!

gto

The October 23rd issue of this newsletter contained an item on a proposal by DOI’s Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee to privatize and modernize NPS campgrounds. The November 4th edition of the Los Angeles Timesadds more information on this proposal under a headline that’s bound to get your attention: “Trump team has a plan for national parks: Amazon, food trucks and no senior discounts.” Here are some excerpts: “At the urging of a controversial team of advisors,” writes the author, “the Trump administration is mulling proposals to privatize national park campgrounds and further commercialize the parks with expanded Wi-Fi service, food trucks and even Amazon deliveries at tourist camp sites. Leaders of the Interior Department’s ‘Made in America’ Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee say these changes could make America’s national parks more attractive to a digitally minded younger generation and improve the quality of National Park Service facilities amid a huge maintenance backlog. As part of its plan, the committee calls for blacking out senior discounts at park campgrounds during peak holiday seasons….But the group’s proposals face angry opposition from conservation organizations and senior citizen advocates, who call them a transfer of public assets to private industry, including businesses led by executives appointed to the Outdoor Advisory Committee…Critics say the administration is engaged in a self-fulfilling prophesy, arguing that private industry can deliver better than the public sector even as the White House starves public agencies of resources. But what really angers opponents is how corporate donors and businesses with a vested interest in park privatization have been invited by the Trump administration to offer proposals for further concession opportunities…” Here’s one of their new ideas: “The committee’s proposals would make their concession contracts more profitable than ever. They call for ‘categorical permissions’ to sidestep environmental impact reviews for campground expansion and development…” For more, read the full article at the following link. Source: Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times.

HikinMike

The Letter:

https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1892/upload/ORAC_recommendations_letter_to_DOI-Oct102019.pdf

As with anything, when the Government gets involved, they tend to make matters worse.

Please understand, our National Parks are in big trouble. Something has to be done. I live in Texas. We just amended our Constitution to have 100% of the revenue from the sales tax on sporting goods go to our Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Texas Historical Commission. We did something.

An interesting article in the last issue of Backpacker Magazine talked about shuttering some of the National Parks because we just don't have enough money to take care of all the parks we keep adding. Then the already allocated monies would be used to improve the remaining parks.

I believe the ORAC is trying to come up with an idea that will help save our National Parks. Its not a Trump thing. If I have to give up my "free" stuff to help save the Parks, then I'm willing to do so. Because, if I get in free, that means someone else has to pay. If strengthening the Wi-Fi signal will help bring younger people to our Parks, I vote yes.

These were all suggestions and recommendations contained in the letter. Please let your Representatives know any suggestions you may have. These are our Parks and we should take care of them.

JamesDow

One good thing is that Congress is responsible for drafting the annual budget and for monitoring action on the budget for the federal government.

• Los Angeles Times
  November 4, 2019

Leaders of the Interior Department’s Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee say these changes could make America’s national parks more attractive to a digitally minded younger generation … As part of its plan, the committee calls for blacking out senior discounts at park campgrounds during peak holiday seasons.

… said Jayson O’Neill, deputy director of the Western Values Project, a nonprofit public lands watchdog group in Montana. “The trouble with these recommendations is that they were written by concessionaire industry representatives vying for more control of national parks.”

… response from Bill Sweeney, senior vice president of government affairs at AARP.
“This proposal is an insulting attempt to push older Americans out of our national parks,” … this proposal would further hurt older Americans who want to visit national parks. Enough is enough.”

… President Trump and his administration have sought to privatize an array of public services, ... the White House has sought to reduce spending for many public services, such as its plan to cut the National Park Service’s budget by $481 million in 2020.

According to a memo … business services officials of the National Park Service in 2017 warned that four people nominated to serve on the panel had potential conflicts of interest.

… members: Crandall, whose association includes some of the largest concessions management companies in the U.S.; Jeremy Jacobs Jr., co-chief executive of Delaware North Cos., Yosemite National Park’s former facilities operator, whose family has donated at least $167,700 to Trump’s campaigns and political committees; and Bruce Fears, president of Aramark, which holds a $2-billion contract to run hotels, eateries and campgrounds at Yosemite.

Other committee members include Jim Rogers, former president of Kampgrounds of America, … the largest privately owned campground system in the world, and Brad Franklin, government relations manager at Yamaha Motor Corp. USA, a producer of electric-powered bicycles.

... proposals would make their concession contracts more profitable … They call for “categorical permissions” to sidestep environmental impact reviews for campground expansion and development, and new policies to ensure that concessionaires be compensated for investments and assets when a competitor is awarded its contract.

“The corporate interests on this committee stand to financially benefit from the privatization and corporate giveaways they are empowered to make,” said Nicole Gentile, deputy director of public lands at the Center for American Progress … “And they are strategically inflating the Park Service’s maintenance backlog to use it as a talking point to scare the public into accepting privatization as necessary in our national parks.”

gto

I think it’s the last part of the dual mandate that established the NPS in 1916 that gives developers and concessions that most heart burn?
The National Park Service established by the Act "shall promote and regulate the use of the Federal areas known as national parks, monuments, and reservations hereinafter specified by such means and measures as conform to the fundamental purpose of the said parks, monuments, and reservations, which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations"..

BBsGarage

Ya, that whole "future generations" thing that the current "me generation" doesn't quite get.

HellFish

If you want wifi and food trucks, stay home. That's not camping. Why change the "wilderness experience" to attract folks who don't really want the "wilderness experience"? Of course, the answer is "money"...private companies will come out okay, but I fear the park system will suffer greatly.

gto

Yes, the problem with “natural ecosystems “ is that once they are altered or destroyed they can’t be restored. They can be recreated or mimicked but .....sadly....never as they were. I’m reminded of a place called “Konza prairie “ that was “restored “ back in the early 1900s. It had been lost to farming and planting. Fifty years later the prairie grasses were there. The animal, birds and insects were there but when they looked at the soils the micro flora was still of just a farmed field...prairie lost forever. As we say in Missouri “ I’m just sayin “

GigHarborTom

Today a good many folks cannot afford to take their family to the zoo, parks, the YMCA . So many expensive upgrades, parking fees, etc. in so many areas. Privatize and you can be sure more folks will be left out. Thankful we are able to take part. Sorry so many people cannot.