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A great many National Park advocates have high hopes for the new director Mary Bomar. After the horror that was Fran Mainella, it is understandable that people who love our parks desperately want to believe that the current director will be better than the last.
I expect that will be the case, but only because of how extraordinarily horrible was Mainella. Yet Mainella merely lived up to my expectations. For example, on the day Mainella's name was offered up as a candidate for the Director's position, I wrote:
A few hours ago, President Bush announced the nomination of Fran Mainella to head the National Park Service. I would hope that the environmental community HOWLS like banshees at this nomination!!!!
Later that week I went on to say:
Can there be any doubt that Ms. Mainella's job will be to facilitate the Corporate Takeover of Nature and the Disneyfication of the Wild?
Mary Bomar will not be another Mainella though she won't be a great director either. My guts tell me Bomar will likely do a great deal of harm by successfully facilitating additional commercialization, privatization and perhaps even motorization of the park system. But because Bomar is so damned politically savvy and personable, that fact will likely go unnoticed until after the damage is done.
Because Bomar is so damned savvy, I predict that neither the press nor the big-green conservation organizations will adequately watchdog her and as a consequence of that failure, Bomar will successfully advance much the same agenda Mainella would have advanced had Mainella been competent.
Pasted below is Bomar's very first memo to her troops. It sounds so love-er-ly that Julie Andrews or even Mary Poppins herself might have sung it.
I've emboldened phrases and passages that jarred my tilt sensors. This phrases will become the issues for which, in retrospect, former Director Bomar will probably be best known.. or so I predict.
Scott
12/07/06
Memorandum
To: All Employees
From: /s/ Mary A. Bomar Director
Subject: National Park Service Centennial Challenge
In my first memo to you, I stressed the qualities of courtesy,
communication and teamwork as essential ingredients for our success. I
pledge that I will communicate with you on issues of importance to the
National Park Service, using many communication tools, to help foster
cooperation and teamwork among one another and our partners.
On August 24, 2006, the eve of the National Park Service’s 90th
anniversary, President Bush challenged the Service and the American
people to work together over the next ten years to strengthen the parks
and to prepare them for another century of conservation, preservation
and public enjoyment.
The President was clear in his directive that he expects us as an
agency to work closely with our many partners to leverage government
investment with philanthropic and partnership contributions and to
establish clear, measurable performance goals that will ensure that all
the investments made in the parks are contributing to the long-term
protection of the priceless resources entrusted to our care.
Since August, we have called upon many of our colleagues in the field
to help craft our message outlining the purpose and expectations of the
President’s Centennial Challenge. The three program initiatives we
have developed consistent with the President’s directive are -
Strengthening Core Park Operations, Connecting People to Parks, and
Serving Communities through Signature Programs. Just before
Thanksgiving, we shared this message with representatives from a number
of our partners in the philanthropic, conservation, corporate and
friends communities. Their support was unanimous and enthusiastic.
Secretary Kempthorne is a staunch advocate of the National Park Service
and the Challenge, leading the effort to work with our partners and
strongly endorsing the funding necessary to make the Challenge a
reality with the Office of Management and Budget. While I cannot share
with you the specific dollar amounts being considered while the
President’s FY08 budget is still under debate, there is a clear
understanding that a strong government investment is required in order
to stimulate philanthropic contribution—and that much of the federal
commitment needs to be directed to mission critical needs of field
areas throughout the county.
Support by Superintendents and park staffs are critical to the success
of the Centennial Challenge. In the weeks and months ahead we will
supply greater detail regarding the Challenge’s specific elements,
particularly as the budget is made public. Undoubtedly you will receive
many questions from your partners and the public, and I hope you will
be as enthusiastic about this wonderful opportunity as I am. All our
parks—as well as our visitors—will benefit from the Centennial
Challenge.
In the meantime, we will continue to fine tune the Centennial Challenge
message in order to make it the compelling story it needs to be in
order to garner the public and political support it so richly deserves.
I will also keep you up to date on the Centennial Challenge as new
information becomes available.
Thank you for your continued support and for your efforts each and every day.
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- Land management 
on't trust Bomar or anyone in Interior. They represent neither our parks or the taxpayers.