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Of Wolves and Moose on Isle Royale

Mar 13th - 08:48am | Greg

Kurt - these would be the same wolves and moose that got quite a bit of publicity recently with the story and photos from a researcher in the park of one of the wolf packs killing one of the moose.

Sequoia, Drugs, and Rangers

Mar 12th - 12:10pm | kath

One of the most active marijuana growing areas in Sequoia is accessed via the Mineral King Road. The NPS now has a 24 hour gate at that entrance. It seems that checking vehicles on the access roads would be better way of stopping marijuana growing that finding the fields, by which time the damage to the land has already been done.

Mar 12th - 11:20am | Carol

The marijuana problem exists not just at Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks but also Sequoia National Forest, the Sierra National Forest, the Los Padres National Forest, etc. And the National Forests seem to have even less money and less resources to deal with the problem... ugh.

Mar 10th - 16:15pm | retreadranger

Having not set foot in Sequoia-Kings since my seasonal days in the 1970s, I have no idea whether this reallocation of resources is a good idea or a bad idea. However, I do know that selectively deploying one's resources to deal with the most pressing problems is what law enforcement management is all about. In this Bushite era of depleted staffs, the choices have become especially difficult.

Mar 10th - 10:40am | L.J.

Let's keep using federal funding and resource to round up and deport illegal immigrant workers, and handcuffing seven year old American Citizens, like the incidents in San Rafael and Novato California instead of pursuing drug cartels and abusers of our National Treasures.

Mar 10th - 09:50am | repanshek

Good question, Green. The short answer is that DEA doesn't have the manpower needed to tackle each and every incident across the country.

Mar 10th - 09:36am | green

How come Swed is not receiving/demanding the necessary resources from the DEA? Back country rangers should be focused where primary Park use occurs not battling large drug plantations. That should be the focus of the DEA. Both organizations undergo significantly different training and offer different skills to the public.

Mar 10th - 07:14am | kath

I'm curious as to how these drug lords get access to the park. Are there that many roads into the chaparral areas? Why doesn't the park or the DEA set up checkpoints on the roads, looking for vehicles carrying fertilizers, irrigation equipment etc. Or are all these things being packed in on foot?

Mar 9th - 18:46pm | Ranger X

You had me at hello. For a second there, I thought someone tipped you off about my time at Sequoia. Just kidding :) But seriously, this is yet another reason to decriminalize.

Mountain Bikers to Seek Access Through Listening Sessions

Mar 12th - 07:38am | repanshek

Your criticism sounds oddly familiar to that espoused by snowmobilers, who would have you think snowshoers and cross-country skiers also are elitist or "egocentric," as you put it. But under your logic, the parks' trails should also be open to dirt bikes, ATVs and ORVs, and their lakes to personal watercraft and ski boats.

Mar 11th - 18:24pm | Ellis G.

Single track is attractive to mountain bikers for the same reasons hikers prefer it. Delegating "cyclists" to dirt roads reeks of a system of class whereby hikers get the choice trails, and cyclists get something less. Egocentric logic if you ask me. Share the trail people.

Mar 10th - 18:35pm | Jim Macdonald

Hell, don't diss the coffee and fingerfoods; that's the only reason to go to any of these things; in this town, if you wear a suit, trust me, you'll never go hungry. All you need is a daybook and an appetite for BS. There's no real reason to have these sessions anywhere near the big parks; that would only give them even more of a veneer of legitimacy.

Mar 10th - 13:16pm | Alan

Let's see.

Forget FY08 Budget, Look at Things Now

Mar 11th - 15:34pm | Sylva Blackstone

Re all the hoopla about 'new' & 'increased' funding apparently promised by the centennial initiative, if Memory serves, the parks have been steadily losing funding, and have deferred maintenance and personnel shortfalls. What is normal funding and staffing? Does the proposed 'initiative' merely add window dressing for the centennial Party, like putting make-up on a corpse?

Grand Canyon Skywalk Moved into Place

Mar 11th - 11:50am | Ranger X

I may have misspoken. Technically, isn't the Haulapai a sovereign nation? So that isn't really the same thing as private land. I think. Could be wrong. If so, the US has no business telling other sovereign nations what to do, but clearly, that matters little to Americans who allowed the government to invade a sovereign nation four years ago.

Mar 10th - 07:06am | kath

Like the government doesn't put environmental restrictions on private land. This tourist trap is akin to the proposed casino close to Gettysburg or the proposed Disney Americana theme park close to Manassas. Both, thank goodness, were voted down. They would have been on private land but would have degraded the area around a National Park.

Mar 9th - 18:57pm | Ranger X

The Hualapai built the tourist trap on their own PRIVATE land. They are not legally bound to the 1916 Organic Act like the NPS. If you're not familiar, that establishing act requires that the NPS leave parks UNIMPAIRED for future generations, and I'd say that all that Disneyesque development at the Grand Canyon is a major impairment.

Mar 9th - 13:36pm | Snowbird

To make this Skywalk even more attractive, charge extra for free base jumping. Just a gruesome thought but who picks up the mess if don't make it...and there's the suicide jumpers to contend with...does the NPS pick the tab on this one? Being cynical of course, but the Skyrink is pure junk and bad medicine for the tribe.

Mar 9th - 11:52am | kath

It's also revealing that not all the tribe wants this Skywalk. And do I think that travelers will drive many miles over dirt roads and pay $25 a head, $100 for a family of four, to spend a few minutes walking on this thing? No. But we shall see.

Mar 9th - 11:23am | kath

So if the Hualapai build a skywalk over the canyon, it's okay. If the NPS were to do it, it's not okay. Yeah, I see the double standard. Do I think that too much development in the park is a bad thing? Absolutely. But it's naive to think that people want to endure the hardships of a John Wesley Powell in order to see the canyon. Some development is necessary.

Mar 9th - 09:21am | Ranger X

"The arhitects of the El Tovar and the other buildings at the South Rim kept the buildings aesthetically in line with the canyon." What a load of crap. The Market Plaza at the South Rim is the size of a K-Mart. Why do we need such a big store in a National Park?

Mar 9th - 08:31am | kath

The facilities the National Park Service built at the Grand Canyon are, for the most part, necessary in order for people to visit the canyon. Not many people could or would visit if there were no place to stay, no place to eat and no railroad or road to get there. The arhitects of the El Tovar and the other buildings at the South Rim kept the buildings aesthetically in line with the canyon.

Mar 9th - 08:07am | Casey

It does. Doesn't mean it *should*, but more than not, it does.

Mar 8th - 18:35pm | Ranger X

"Should economics trump spiritual beliefs?" You can't eat spiritual beliefs. Peyote aside of course.

Mar 8th - 17:39pm | Alan

I think Claire's analysis is correct. "Should economics trump spiritual beliefs?" I can't pinpoint another documented case at the moment, but my gut tells me the answer is yes. And more than a few times. And not just in the West. At a national park.

Mar 8th - 14:25pm | Claire Walter

When it comes to sacred versus profitable, sacred sometimes takes a backseat and becomes profane. In a sense, I can't fault the tribe though. The river has been dammed, parts of the the canyon have been mined and ranched, railroad tracks have been laid practically to the rim, and most/much of it is now federal land that an approved concessionaire makes money from.

Public Lands Fees PushBack and Pork

Mar 10th - 14:07pm | jersu

By the way Kurt, for your readers in the State of Washington that are interested in this particular issue, there is some immediate help that is needed. The Chairman of the Rules Committee in the State Legislature has put a hold on this bill, for unknown reasons.

Mar 10th - 14:00pm | jersu

It's not just the State of Washington which is crafting this type of message to Congress. In just the last couple years, Alaska, Montana, Oregon, and Colorado have written similar resolutions. You can read the text of these bills from the Western Slope No Fee website: http://www.westernslopenofee.org/NoFee/resolutions.php

Listening Session Two-Step

Mar 10th - 06:11am | Jim Macdonald

Well, Kurt, as I also mentioned, actually Washington, D.C., is close to many parks run by the NPS, several battlefields, Great Falls NP, Shenandoah, and of course the city parks of DC. We have a whole different experience with the NPS here, and they are definitely noticed due to the very complex and overlapping law enforcement jurisdictions. But, I get your point.

How Will Parks Cope With Climate Change?

Mar 8th - 21:07pm | Snowbird

The most important issue pressing mankind on earth...and such very little response...and we talk about a little rink hanging over the Grand Canyon. No wonder mother earth is falling apart!

Cubans Use Parks to Come Ashore

Mar 8th - 07:56am | kath

Clearly illegal border crossers using the national parks as trash dumps and dope growers turning the parks into marijuana farms are a major problem for the NPS and those of us who love the National Parks. Meanwhile the national media is virtually silent on the damage done to the parks by illegals.

Mar 7th - 19:35pm | Snowbird

Whatever the case, we have very porous borders that will continously be a problem with illegal immigration. The question is, how do we stop the rich from reaping the wealth off of cheap labor: no workmens comp. to worry about, no benefit packages or health care concerns for the dirt poor illegal. Just pay them a cheap pittance!

Mar 7th - 18:28pm | kath

The law treats Cubans differently because they are escaping from a brutal repressive dictatorship and are not coming solely to make more money.

Mar 7th - 16:58pm | Rick Smith

It's also intersting to note how differently the illegal immigrants from Cuba are treated compared to the illegals from other parts of Latin America. Could it have anything to do with the heavy Republican leaning of the Miami Cuban community?

Mar 7th - 15:24pm | Random Walker

Living in the southwest, having traveled the border, national forests/parks, talked with and listened to border guards and land owners, Governors and Representatives (on both sides of the border) and those other folks "protecting" our border (minutemen?) one can not but be involved. Our Border Patrol is also terribly understaffed and over-burdened.

Mar 7th - 14:28pm | repanshek

I'd have to disagree that having NPS personnel in charge of rounding up illegal immigrants is a "wonderful use of resources." As I've been noting for going on two years now, the Park Service is terribly understaffed and over-burdened. Rangers are hired to work in the parks on park-related issues, not to be tasked with immigration duties.

Mar 7th - 13:02pm | Random Walker

IMHO The use of the Rangers "staff and time to handle due to the logistics of coordinating transportation and transfer..." is a wonderful use of resources. The problem with immigration is not the immigrants themselves, but an ongoing narrowing, negative fear based view (smells like racism) our government has taken on folks from other countries and immigration.

Mar 7th - 06:43am | Jim Macdonald

Kurt, I've bit my tongue on these topics because I will get extremely angry very fast (and then I turn into the Incredible Hulk, which might be amusing but is embarrassing here at work); I don't think it takes much to figure out what I believe given that I am an anarchist.

Mar 6th - 17:17pm | repanshek

C'mon, Jim, "Barnes and Noble" just doesn't sound the same... Glad to hear you've wrapped up Locke. Definitely something I want to read to get your spin on his ideas (or should it be his "ideals"?).

Mar 6th - 16:48pm | Jim Macdonald

Borders, borders, borders; it's not just a book store anymore. Kurt, I've finally finished my 4-part series of essays on Locke and against property rights. I can't help thinking of what I talk about there when I read about this.

Kings Canyon Turns 67

Mar 6th - 10:51am | Snowbird

Your right Steve, but close enough to enjoy all three great parks. Thanks for re-directing my pathways.

Mar 6th - 09:17am | Steve Sergeant

Ahh, but what Kings Canyon does have is really a big slice of the best of the high Sierra.

Mar 4th - 11:25am | Snowbird

Don't forget to slice in some time with Mineral King (between Kings Canyon/Sequioa National Park)...great views from the peaks...and much solitude!

Mar 4th - 10:38am | Ranger X

Another reason Kings Canyon is less visited is because the road dead ends. Visitors LOVE loop roads, and if they have to see the same scenery twice, they feel cheated. But the canyon is feels like Yosemite without the crowds. Take a bushwhack up an side of the canyon and you'll be amazed at the silence and unbelievable scenery.

Natural Bridges National Monument: Off the Beaten Path

Mar 5th - 15:07pm | Carol

I worked at Natural Bridges back in the Fall of 2000 - it's a lovely piece of the Colorado Plateau and definitely merits at least a full day of exploration - if not more! There are lots of ruins in the canyons, not just the Horsecollar location which is pointed out to you. Search carefully and you'll find a lot more along with some beautiful pictograph and petroglyph panels.

Mar 4th - 19:13pm | Bob Krumenaker

Kurt,

Cyclists Ride Through Grand Canyon, Booted from Parks

Mar 2nd - 20:34pm | Scott Morris

Hi, Just a correction. Riding bikes IS allowed in Grand Canyon National Park--just not below the rim. There are several miles of Arizona Trail that are open to mountain bikes on the North Rim and still a part of the park. Bikes are allowed in the canyon, however riding (or pushing them) is not.

Mar 2nd - 13:31pm | Jim Macdonald

Wow, that's wild; those three managed to bike through Yellowstone during the time when it was closed (though according to their blog had not been stopped by rangers from doing so). That was a shock and a half to me.

Tinkering With Perfection

Mar 2nd - 04:23am | Judy

Even though it is a state park you could use Stone Mountain Park as the prime example of over development. I grew up there and a little at a time they have paved over and comercialized the park.

Mar 1st - 16:17pm | Ranger X

Bob Madgic(is this a real name?) also writes: "In Lassen Volcanic National Park a ski area had been built near the south entrance, and cabins, a gas station, a store and cafe 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."

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