[Awclist] NPS management policy hearing

[Thomas Robey]

The National Park Service will hold a Santa Fe informational open house 
on their proposed management policy changes 4-7 pm on Feb. 13 in the 
Jemez Room, Santa Fe Community College, 6401 Richards Ave in Santa Fe.  
The proposed management policy changes no longer give the most 
importance to preservation of the parks but give recreation an equal 
importance.  These rule changes will allow a lot more access to 
commercial recreation and especially motorized recreation to the 
detriment of private boaters.  A River Runners for Wilderness Riverwire 
recently asked private boaters to comment on these proposed management 
policy changes:

http://www.rrfw.org/article.php?file=20060121.RRFW_Riverwire.NPS_Proposes_Removing_The_Wild_From_Wilderness

Paul Hoffman, deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, 
wrote controversial rule changes last summer that Interior later 
described as intitating a dialog.  Paul Hoffman was the former head of 
the Cody, Wyoming Chamber of Commerce and former aide to Congressman 
Cheney and is a supporter of motorized recreation interests.  His rule 
changes have been repackaged (and are now referred to as "developed by 
career professionals" although no names have been produced) and were 
released October 19 with comments due Feb 18, 2006.

The rules weaken congressional mandates that emphasize preservation over 
recreation in the National Park Service.  They delete a requirement that 
the Park Service review its lands for potential wilderness, and prevent 
the public from suing the agency for not complying with its own 
management policies.

High Country News has two articles on the changes:

"Revealed - secret changes to park rules"

http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=15781

"Cheney picks former aide to oversee parks, BLM, wildlife"

http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=11015

Information about the changes are at

http://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?projectId=13746

The draft policy is available at

http://parkplanning.nps.gov/documentsAndLinks.cfm?projectId=13746

If you have problems with those, the Washington Office is at

http://parkplanning.nps.gov/waso

- Tom Robey