America's National Parks - Brought To You By Coleman!

[hatrack]

"This summer, when backpackers, hikers and families – with kids in tow – pony up to get into America's national parks, they could be in for a rude awakening. Due to dramatic budget cuts some parks may be cutting back hours, hiking trails may be impassable, educational programs may no longer exist – even some bathrooms may be shut down.

Over the past few months, the National Park Service has quietly imposed a hiring freeze, abandoned maintenance projects, cut visitor services and reduced park hours at a number of America's national parks. And, according to Ski magazine, "Forest Service officials appear to be leaning toward a policy change that would allow more visible displays of sponsors, whose logos, names or ads could appear on items they underwrite."

The theory, according to Scott Silver, the executive director of Wild Wilderness, a Bend, Oregon-based environmental advocacy group, is that the NPS can attract park goers – customers – with the help of private partners in the tourism industry. He speculates that as early as this summer the NPS could announce a public-private partnership initiative.

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Not everyone, however, is unappreciative of the administration's national parks strategy. The American Recreation Coalition is the country's leading advocate of pro-privatization initiatives for the National Park Service and other public land management agencies. In June, during its Great Outdoors Week celebrations, the ARC's Sheldon Coleman Great Outdoors Award will be presented to Fran Mainella. (Previous recipients have included Alaska's Republican Senator Frank Murkowski and George H. W. Bush.) According to ARC's President, Derrick Crandall, Mainella deserves the award because she "increased public-private partnerships in the park system, increased volunteerism, and began new funding concepts including Partnership in Parks."

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http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18302

[Viking12]

1. Here's a pretty good site

Lot's of stuff critiquing privitazation and ARC even though it's poorly organized.

http://www.freeourforests.org