| Page 1568 | National Parks Traveler

When NPS opened the parks to snowmobiles 40 years ago, it was said they would have no impact. Now we know better, and the Yellowstone case shows it can be difficult to curtail an established motorized use. NPS should also be thinking about the impacts of growing ORV traffic at Big Cypress, because that's where the biggest impact comes in.

May 29th - 09:24am | Shannon Esteno...

Protecting the Addition Lands, one of the largest tracts of rapidly vanishing landscape, is essential to ensuring the long-term health of the greater south Florida ecosystem.

May 13th - 10:02am | Tom Hanson

Having grown up in the Big Cypress even before it was a national preserve, I find it very frustrating that people that know nothing about the area or it's history submit comments for consideration and this information is used by the NPS planning departments. Swamp buggies have been used for over 50 years as necessary for travel in the Everglades.

May 11th - 16:15pm | repanshek

Richard, I appreciate the time you took to comment. There is always more than one side to an issue; often there are at least a good half-dozen. And there also are many sets of "facts."

May 11th - 14:59pm | Richard Harvey

Kurt,I read your article and must say I disagree with alot of your opinions.My family and I have been visiting Big Cypress Bear Island unit for many years and have not seen buggy ruts like your picture shows.We have traveled down every trail and for the most part they are kept clean of trash and people are obeying rules.I have seen deer,panther and many other animals in the same area over and over

May 11th - 11:14am | c.mogelvang

Retired Physician, lover of outdoors,WITH endangered species concerns. Take away the sense of freedom and the ability to be familiar with sometimes risky activities(e.g: exposure to panthers and even rattlesnakes), as well as being comfortable with guns, from our citizens, and the YOUNG PEOPLE they take with them to the rugged outdoors, and eventually you take away our means of national defense.

none

Jun 4th - 21:15pm | SteveSgt

Wow -- a teaser ad. Should we be starting a "buzz" about whatever new features or redesign you have planned?

Yellowstone Bison Gain Reprieve

Jun 4th - 19:56pm | Snowbird

Jim, your historical perspective of Yellowstone is quite accurate. Prior, to the white man's settlment to Yellowstone, the U.S. second calvary was sent into the park to curtail any potential violence from the native Indians in the area (from 1879 to 1881, the Nez Perce upraising and the Bannock Indian problems in the Mammoth region).

Jun 4th - 16:42pm | Jim Macdonald

There were a few whites settling in the area before the official park. They generally weren't farming. They set up makeshift hotels, they offered to sell healing in the hot springs, at Mammoth. In the early years of the Park, some squatted.

Jun 4th - 16:33pm | Snowbird

Geez Sally, please do your homework before you go rambling off at the mouth.

Jun 4th - 16:27pm | Sally

Yeah, they live off tourism, (including those "EVIL *snicker* snowmobiles" tourism) but I garandamnteeya those same people would put private property rights above a government land grab... ...and you are wrong, whites settled the area before the park was born.

Jun 4th - 15:32pm | Rick Smith

Hey Sally--One small correction: Yellowstone was a park (1872) before many people other than American Indians were farming or ranching in the area. I suspect that most people living around the park would be horrified if Yellowstone ceased to exist.

Jun 4th - 12:32pm | Sally

Hey jr ranger...I got news for ya...most of those farmers were there LONG before Yellowstone was made a park...their grandfathers or great-grandfathers fed the building of this great nation with their ranching or farming.

Jun 3rd - 09:46am | Snowbird

Kurt, your blog "Yellowstone Bison Gain Reprieve" is a excellent piece of commmentary on the bison issue in Yellowstone National Park. Well researched! I wonder what approach the Craighead Institute would have on this issue...probably advocate more open space for wildlife and less human intrusion. Less cowboy influence and more open range is the key to this poor animals demise.

Jun 3rd - 04:48am | jr_ranger

Build fences?! What are we going to do - fence in the park?!! Farmers who live near a national park need to understand what that entails. If they don't like it, they can move - I'm sure there's a developer that would pay big bucks for some land near Yellowstone. Talk about death knells to NPS...

Some Thoughts on Park Visitation Trends

Jun 4th - 09:06am | Anne Mitchell ...

What a great piece Bill Tweed wrote, with a very interesting take on the long relationship between tourism, the tourism industry, and the National Parks. Thanks, Kurt,for finding and sharing this!

Off The Well-Worn Path: Great Basin National Park

Jun 4th - 04:52am | jr_ranger

Great Basin was my park of the week a few weeks ago - you can read my take on it at http://tntrailhead.blogspot.com/2007/05/park-of-week-great-basin-np_18.html Hehehe - I actually got to a story before Kurt! Score!

Jun 3rd - 17:45pm | Bobt

Wow! That pic in your post is Wheeler Peak in The Great Basin National Park? I had no idea. I kept wondering about Great Basin and just kind of thought that it was flat lands desert type of landscape. I am moving it up on my list of places to visit. Thanks for bringing more attention to it. Bob

Yellowstone's Snowmobile Public Meetings

Jun 1st - 22:03pm | Sally

Yeah but as everybody knows, most of those folks makin' statements have the time to go to the meetings 'cause they don't have jobs!!! The typical lazy liberal either there on their own accord or being paid a pittance by some envirowhacko organization!

Yellowstone's Killing Fields

Jun 1st - 19:57pm | Jim Macdonald

Montana and the Park Service announced today that these buffalo will not be slaughtered but will be trucked back to Yellowstone (at least those that come back after the last hazing operation).

May 31st - 13:53pm | phillip

Apparently ranchers and politicians alike and the so called enviorimental-conservations activist have all lost their minds.Simple solution herd the bison back into the destinated area,or simply allow nature(god)to do his work.test the bishon and come up with an anitidote.merly by the time a solution is so called figured out there won't be no more catte,bison,elk,wildlife in general or even human b

May 31st - 07:36am | Sally

Hey Jimmy...they are ANIMALS.... I say agin...Yeeeeeeee-hawwwww! Round 'em up, rawhide!!

May 31st - 03:21am | Jim Macdonald

update on story: There's been a delay in the slaughter. Of course, that means that they'll try hazing one more time, as if hazing is all right, leaving us happy that at least they're not dead. What a hopeless charade. I can't feel good about any of it.

May 30th - 23:00pm | Sally

Yeeeeeeeeee-hawwwwwww! Round 'em up cowboys!! Buffalo steaks!!!!

May 30th - 19:26pm | Snowbird

This is clearly a policy to appease the so called happy rhinestone cowboy types and there gun loving buddies. Remember, a happy hunter is some one with a huge gut pile. Enjoy your slaughter!

May 30th - 19:05pm | matt

Ah, the brucellosis boogeyman strikes again!

May 30th - 15:57pm | Jim Macdonald

Much of this has been precipitated by the discovery of brucellosis in a herd of cattle in far off Bridger, Montana. The entire herd of cattle is to be destroyed. No one believes that bison caused this. Of course, the slaughter might have happened anyhow since bison are still outside of Yellowstone's boundaries after a certain date.

Centennial Initiative-Natural Resources

May 31st - 19:25pm | Snowbird

Action speaks louder then words! Will see!!

Park Overflights: A Problem Out of Control

May 30th - 23:02pm | Sally

Hey birdie...listen to the wind whisper thru your ears!!lol....

May 29th - 20:03pm | Snowbird

I thought that beautiful and sacred places like the Grand Canyon are lessons to be learned that "silence is golden". I miss the whisper of the wind!

Park Concessionaires Growing Desperate for Workers

May 28th - 11:07am | Jim Macdonald

Judy, this is about seasonal workers for the private concessionaires in the park. This story has me absolutely irate for a million reasons. When I cool down from that and my 96-mile bike ride, I want to say more.

May 28th - 09:07am | Judy

I have always wanted to work in the Park Service. It is not a livable wage.

Glacier And Waterton Celebrate 75 Years as a Peace Park

May 26th - 19:41pm | Snowbird

It's a shame that we don't have more international parks dedicated to world peace...especially after what's happening in Iraq and in the Middle East. Maybe this can all happen in 2008!

Some Thoughts on the Centennial Initiative

May 25th - 07:37am | Anne Mitchell ...

This is a great piece -- sensible and measured yet ambitious and inspiring. Let's hope it gets read widely!

May 24th - 12:52pm | Julie Fanselow

Kurt, Thank you for this report and a wish list for the parks. As an Idahoan, I'd be pleased to see that our former gov might go down in history as one of a few (very few) bright spots in an otherwise disastrous administration. Then again, we know how to grow interior secretaries here. See: Andrus, Cece.

A Dearth of Posts?

May 22nd - 12:27pm | retreadranger

Go, Yanks! Nice to see A-Rod popping another one into the stands last night. Will be interesting to see how much of a boost Clemens provides to their pitching staff.

Climbing Rainier: Not for the Meek

May 20th - 19:49pm | Juno888

I thought this mount everest, this all nice post i love it/.

May 19th - 22:14pm | PODO

Great info, thanks a lot!!! I wish I will have such a writing skills.

Fall on Mount McKinley Kills Two Climbers

May 20th - 08:10am | Nat

Two more died in an avalanche while climbing Mt. Barrille. Article in the ADN. http://www.adn.com/outdoors/story/8903007p-8802964c.html http://www.adn.com/front/story/8902915p-8802831c.html

Back on the Lewis and Clark Trail

May 17th - 17:11pm | Nick

Interestingly, at least a few of the books that would have been pulled and shredded would have come from the bookstore at Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail headquarters. Glad they found an amicable agreement.

Acadia Is Streaming

May 16th - 09:33am | Jeff Blaylock

Big Bend National Park offers an RSS feed of its recent news: http://www.nps.gov/bibe/photosmultimedia/newsfeeds.htm You can see it in use on the Big Bend Chat community home page: http://www.bigbendchat.com/index.php

Channel Islands' Eagle Cam

May 15th - 09:16am | tom

It's definitely worth waiting to see the eaglet. When I tuned in one of the parents was milling about, blocking the view of the eaglet -- which did look like discarded fuzz in the middle of the nest. Then the fuzzball came to life and started moving around. Amazing stuff.

Don't Stand in the Way of NPS and Its Logos

May 14th - 19:06pm | matt

Back when I was going through USFS FPO training, the Special Agent liked to tell story about how someone in the city was renting an imitation Smokey Bear costume for birthday parties and other events. Someone rented the costume for a party in a town park, apparently got drunk and behaved somewhat inappropriately.

May 14th - 13:00pm | Claire Walter

I wouldn't have imagined this particular scenario, but why am I not surprised by the general wrong-headedness that seems to accompany almost every government decision these days? Elected/appointed officials are loose cannons more often than not, while the bureaucrats become increasingly bureaucratic.

May 14th - 11:56am | retreadranger

I saw this article this morning, by way of the NPS retirees' listserv, and commented on my own blog. It's a sad day when the Service seems to be more interested in "protecting its intellectual property" than in promoting awareness and appreciation of park resources.

Bryce Hoping to Give Visitors View of the Cosmos

May 13th - 15:09pm | jr_ranger

Backpacker magazine just did a article on the NPS's Nigh Sky Team. Check it out in the June 07 issue of the magazine.

Santa Barbara Newspaper Capsulizes Yosemite Fight

May 11th - 14:42pm | Lindsay Buhles

The Santa Barbara Independent story provides a great overview of this issue.

Fee Creep Reaches Olympic National Park

May 11th - 12:52pm | Onca NOCA Ranger

Historically, roughing it in the backcountry has been the preferred--and usually free--alternative for many younger visitors visiting parks. I've always considered this a good incentive--it helps scouts and others develop a strong lifelong appreciation for nature and our parks.

The "Real" Cost of Visiting a Park

May 11th - 10:43am | MS Kennedy

Seems like the general public's lack knowledge of other public lands (at low or no fee levels) is part of the problem. NFS and/or BLM lands surround many of the "crown" parks and have myriad free or low-cost options for recreation.

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