Posted by John Lehmkuhl on July 30, 2006 at 12:57 PM
Today's Orgonian Opinion section has a story about the state of our National parks. Current the financial shortfall for maintaining the parks tops 800 million dollars annually and the backlog of maintenance projects is at 5 billion dollars.
Does it bug the &%#@& out of you that we spent 1 trillion dollars in our war on terrorism while talk of this possibility is even being brought up?
Here is the whole story with information on what we can do to prevent this. One thing he didn't mention that we all should do is own a NPS Park pass. I own one and plan to renew it this month since it expires then.aa`
Concidering that the general public when thinking about camping, think about a 10ftx20ft lot where they can park their trailers or they concider a 1.5 KM hiking trail to be a long walk........this doesnt surprise me in the least.
Posted by Skip Layman on August 1, 2006 at 7:11 AM
What I don't understand is why they don't raise the fees more, If you can afford to drive to most of our national parks you sure aught to be willing to pay more for admission. The most heavily visited of our national parks, Great Smoky Mountain, has no admission fees at all? What's up with that!
On one level, I tend to agree with Skip, but I know not everyone has the disposable income that I do. I buy a NP pass every other year or so. I would hate to have people feel that they couldn't afford admission to 'their' parks. Donation to the National Parks Foundation is an option.
Paying to 'maintain' National Parks is a subject I have mixed feelings about. They are natural wonders that did just fine without us for a long time. What we are paying for is the luxury of being in these places without much hardship and protecting their features from the throngs that can now get there. Colter's Hell was there long before the NPS existed. I expect it will be there long after the NPS.
Pete D.
Posted by Jerry Greer on August 2, 2006 at 7:34 AM
Skip,
The land for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was taken from hundreds of private owners so when the park charter was written it was to never charge for addmission. I personally think that a fee would be a good thing but it will never happen due to this charter.
Discussion
4 repliesDoes it bug the &%#@& out of you that we spent 1 trillion dollars in our war on terrorism while talk of this possibility is even being brought up?
Here is the whole story with information on what we can do to prevent this. One thing he didn't mention that we all should do is own a NPS Park pass. I own one and plan to renew it this month since it expires then.aa`
Paying to 'maintain' National Parks is a subject I have mixed feelings about. They are natural wonders that did just fine without us for a long time. What we are paying for is the luxury of being in these places without much hardship and protecting their features from the throngs that can now get there. Colter's Hell was there long before the NPS existed. I expect it will be there long after the NPS.
Pete D.
The land for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was taken from hundreds of private owners so when the park charter was written it was to never charge for addmission. I personally think that a fee would be a good thing but it will never happen due to this charter.