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Every summer evening in Yosemite National Park a large bonfire used
to be built on Glacier Point. The embers were then pushed over the side
in a spectacular firefall, a spectacle I witnessed many times. Yet, in
one of the most naturally beautiful places on earth, something this
artificial seemed out-of-place. And herein lays the central question:
do our national parks exist to entertain and cater to human needs? Or
to protect America's natural, cultural and historical treasures? The
answer to both questions is decidedly yes, but with added clarity
needed.
To better manage our national parks-the first was Yellowstone in
1872-congress created the National Park Service (NPS) in 1916. Its
mission: 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, education, and inspiration of future generations. Given such
clarity of purpose, what followed is quite amazing. In Yosemite, for
example, which got designated in 1905 and had already seen magnificent
Hetch Hetchy Valley dammed and inundated with water in 1913, Ahwahnee
Lodge opened in 1927, with a golf course, tennis courts, and swimming
pool. Badger Pass Ski Area opened in 1935, followed by gas stations,
motels, gift shops, apartments, restaurants, houses, garages, all told
more than 1,000 buildings and 30 miles of roads in a valley 7 miles
long and one mile wide.
A mentality had long existed in America that public lands existed to be
exploited. But the attendant poisoning of air, land and water caused
Congress to pass vital environmental laws in the 1960s and 1970s. In
concert the NPS recommitted itself to preservation of nature as its
primary purpose. Yosemite reduced automobile traffic, removed roads and
paved areas, eliminated the golf course, gas stations and other
businesses, and ended the firefall, something better suited to
Disneyland or Las Vegas.
In Lassen Volcanic National Park a ski area had been built near the
south entrance, and cabins, gas station, store, and café near Manzanita
Lake, where rental boats littered the shoreline. True to their mission,
enlightened officials eliminated most of these intrusions. Today
Manzanita Lake is as picturesque and spotless as could be. On most
summer or fall days, canoes, kayaks, prams, and float tubes will dot
the trout-laden lake, hikers and anglers on the trail encircling it,
joined by eagles, ospreys, and myriad waterfowl species, deer always
nearby. To paddle here, snow capped peaks reflected in the water,
serenaded by honking geese, is idyllic. For those appreciative of
nature's gifts, Lassen is indeed special.
Enter the Bush administration and its business-oriented ideology.
Officials developed a national park plan that would have privatized
many services, permitted more businesses and mechanized vehicles, built
more roads, and lowered clean air standards. When this plan surfaced,
nationwide protests erupted. Americans spoke loudly and clearly: keep
our national parks as unspoiled as possible! The administration
retreated and announced "new" policies reaffirming conservation as the
top priority. But commercialization pressures persist, with
concessionaires and motorized recreational enterprises the chief
lobbyists, helped in part by a momentary decline in visitors. In truth
our parks are more in danger of being loved to death than ignored, and
despite occasional dips in visitor numbers, this trend will only
accelerate with population growth. Do we really want 6 million people
visiting Yosemite instead of 3.5 million? Or one million people
visiting Lassen? What's the point?
Yes, the parks need tour buses, some lodging facilities, and I suppose
those huge RVs with noisy generators and all of the conveniences of
home. But the NPS must be primarily dedicated to its mission: to
educate about nature's wonders, and how our ancestors lived; to protect
unique formations, such as redwood forests, deserts, and swamps; to
preserve sublime creations, such as Oregon's Crater Lake; and to
sustain wild creatures in their natural setting, such as the grizzly
bear, bison, and wolf. Our parks are finest when experienced, by
camping, walking, hiking, rock climbing, snowshoeing, biking, x-country
skiing, photographing, rafting, birding, angling, boating, rafting,
riding, swimming, backpacking-all best done without leaving a trace.
Yes, let's strive to make this group of users as large and diverse as
possible.
For anyone to argue that our national parks need to return to a better
past i.e. more commercial enterprises, misses the point entirely. Our
parks are precious precisely because of their natural authenticity,
already too compromised. They cannot be all things to all people, and
we should not try to re-make them into something other than the
magnificent sanctuaries they are. As a wise voice said, we have power
to destroy such temples of nature, but never, never in our wildest
imagination could we ever recreate them.
Bob Madgic is the author of "Shattered Air: A True Account of
Catastrophe, Courage, and Rescue on Yosemite's Half Dome" and "A Guide
To California's Freshwater Fishes." He lives in Anderson, Calif. For
more info go to www.bobmadgic.com.
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