By JOHN HEILPRIN
Friday, Dec. 16, 2005
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Grappling with how much access Americans should get to 84 million acres of the nation's best scenery, National Park Service Director
Fran Mainella draws flak from both sides in Congress as she finds herself in
a fight to maintain her agency's main mission.
Mainella insists conservation is her priority when considering what's best
for the 58 national parks and 330 monuments, preserves and other areas she
has overseen for the past five years. Earlier this year, she proposed
revising the Park Service's management policies, its official manual guiding
the day-to-day work that was last revised in 2001 and 1988.
"The policies are not tilting toward more commercialization," she insisted
during an interview with The Associated Press in her office this week,
defending the proposed guidelines the Bush administration says will give
people more access. "You cannot have outdoor recreation, or have an
enjoyable experience, if the resource is not healthy."
Mainella also foresaw inevitable technological changes afoot in the parks
with each successive generation. She believes Segway scooters could be
allowed in a few national parks, for example, and more cell phone towers
could be erected without too much trouble, as long as they are bundled
whenever possible with buildings or other manmade structures.
But even supporters of greater access to public lands say preservation might
suffer.
"Success should not be determined exclusively by whether our resources look
the way they did when the Pilgrims landed," said Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M.,
who heads a House Resources parks subcommittee. "To allow public use and
recreation means literally that parks cannot be preserved in a snapshot. ...
For 40 years, the preservationists have really infiltrated the national park
system."
The National Parks Conservation Association, however, said the management
changes would weaken protections for park air quality and wilderness, and
could lead to more Jet Skis, snowmobiles, off-road vehicles and commercial
activities.
At a hearing by Pearce's subcommittee this week, Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M.,
said he, too, was "gravely concerned" about the proposal. "The current
changes seem unnecessary," he said.
Caught between critics of her revisions to management policies, Mainella is
also having to fend off critics like Pearce, who has begun examining whether
to tilt the 1916 law that created the agency's mission more toward access
and away from preservation.
The law says the Park Service must always work "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 of future generations."
Mainella said the law's inherent juggling act between use and care for the
nation's prized getaways _ a dynamic tension that parks managers adapt to
areas as diverse as Alaska's wilderness and the East's car-laden parkways _
must always put conservation first.
"It's sort of like the Constitution for us," Mainella said of the "Organic
Act" that President Wilson signed during World War I. "It's served us well
for 90 years. We are not looking for any changes to it. ... When there's a
conflict, conservation has to be predominant."
Mainella also faces criticism from Republican senators, including Craig
Thomas of Wyoming and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who harshly criticized
her management plan in November. She agreed to extend the public comment
period on it until February.
Those senators said the Park Service's proposed guidance to supervisors
would raise the odds of more cell phone towers, air pollution and noise in
the national parks. Senate Democrats Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Ken
Salazar of Colorado said they oppose allowing more parks to recognize
businesses and private donors with logos and plaques.
Mainella's bigger concern, though, is critics like Pearce, who questioned
the purpose of the "nonimpairment standard" for managing parks. Mainella's
deputy, Steve Martin, tried to assure him that the law works fine the way it
is. But Mainella also sent Pearce a letter, telling him the law has "stood
the test of time," protecting parks for generations.
"Our national parks are the soul of America," she wrote. "This mission
cannot, and should not change."