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Stand by America for the unveiling
of a new national park system where Yellowstone could be Viacom, or
Exxon, or Annheiser-Bush National Park sometime soon.
If you like that idea, you will love being able to buy a new condo atop
El Capitan in Yosemite, err, Hallliburton National Park.
The space atop George Washington's head is not on the for sale list
yet, but the first 15 prime real estate bargains are on the chopping
block.
Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) has drafted a bill that would sell 15 national
parks and require the National Park Service to raise money by selling
naming rights to visitor centers and trails within our national parks.
While Pombo's staff claims the congressman has no intention of actually
introducing the national park sale bill, a host of watchdog groups arent
so sure. Such diverse groups as the Sierra Club and the obscure Coalition
of National Park Service Retirees have been screaming about this for
over a month.
According to a barrage of California newspaper reports, Pombo’s
bill is tied in with oil exploration in Alaska wildlife refuges and
the outer continental shelf. A veritable host of critics say that Pombo’s
bill is a threat: Either you let us drill and mine wildlife refuges
and the outer shelf, or we start selling off national parks.
The California Republican is chairman of the House Resources Committee.
His bill would also privatize non-essential park operations. The Congressman
considers maintenance and janitorial functions non-essential.
”The Pombo plan is emerging just one month after CNPSR warned on
August 26, 2005 of a secret Interior Department attempt to rewrite and
override 90 years of laws, rules and court rulings governing the 388
sites in the U.S. National Park System,” says the retiree group.
The Bush Administration policy rewrite is to long-standing park policies
favoring preservation over commercialization. The new rules will allow
snowmobiles and ATVs in national parks by lowering air pollution limits,
eliminating policies maintaining park soundscapes and limiting vehicles
allowed to those that are least disruptive to the land and wildlife.
Other changes will allow park managers to solicit corporate contributions
and speed commercialization/privatization our national parks.
No park manager would do this, right? Well, maybe not right now, but
that is going to change too. Yet another policy change for the park
service will require park service employees who want top jobs to endure
an interview process operated by political appointees. Some critics
call it a political screening process that will put corporation and
privatization-friendly managers at the top of the park service.
A new Interior Dept. deputy secretary who said he felt the current policies
in our national parks are "anti-enjoyment" stimulated and
supervised the policy revisions.
Only massive public outrage stimulated by focused reporting on national
television will stop this train, but guess who owns the media. Yep,
the very folks who will be sponsoring your next trip to the new Six
Flags Over Yellowstone theme park coming soon to Yellowstone, oops,
I mean Viacom National Park.
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