NPS Retirees: Doctor Coburn's "Cure" for U.S. National Parks Would Be Worse Than What Already Ails Them
CNPSR Outlines Concerns with Oklahoma Senator's Ill-Conceived Prescriptions for America's Crown Jewels: Higher Costs for Visitors, Slashing Park Services, and Rolling Back Diversity in Sites.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees (CNPSR) issued the following statement today in response to the "Parked" report from the offices of U.S. Senator and doctor Tom Coburn, R-OK:
- Robbing national park visitors to pay the bill that Congress should be covering is no solution. Dramatically increasing the price of fees for national parks and the services in them is the equivalent of a recreational "poll tax" – pricing America's national parks out of the reach of many families, retirees on fixed incomes, veterans, and college age youth, etc. The notion of radically increasing one entrance fee by a factor of eight, as is discussed in the report, flies directly in the face of making our national parks accessible to all Americans, regardless of income. No American should have to pass on a trip to a national park because they can't afford the entrance fee.
- Yes, our national parks have a maintenance backlog program. No, the answer is not to impose huge hikes in fees, slash the ranks of rangers, and shutter scores of national parks and monuments. Our national parks are not a chain of discount shopping stores and were never intended to be managed as such. Congress needs to get back to where it once was – a place of strong bipartisan support for funding the country's national parks in order to preserve them for current and future generations of Americans. Just because Congress got off the path of working across the aisle to support our national parks does not mean that the parks are the problem. They aren't the problem – the problem is the dysfunction in Congress … and national park visitors should not have to be penalized because of it.
- Many national parks and monuments established in more recent years need a little time to become as widely known as others already in the system for well over 100 years. It is disturbing to read the Coburn report's heavy emphasis on killing national parks and monuments celebrating the lives and achievements of minorities in Americans. America can afford to embrace diversity in its national parks and monuments. Not doing so – even worse, retreating from doing so – would send a terrible message to our children.
- Polls show that 90 percent of Americans think our national parks are great … so why break what isn't broken? Why would we go for slash-and-burn approach to "fixing" the parks when Americans clearly think they are a major national priority that merit the necessary public funding so that they can be enjoyed by all Americans? One must be deeply skeptical of the real motives behind this report, which has the appearance of being dressed up as deep concern about the parks when, in fact, the prescriptions for change could kill or severely damage our national parks.
ABOUT CNPSR
The over 900 members of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees are all former employees of the National Park Service with a combined 25,000 years of stewardship of America's most precious natural and cultural resources. In their personal lives, CNPSR members reflect the broad spectrum of skills and expertise that distinguished their National Park Service careers. CNPSR members now strive to apply their credibility and integrity as they speak out for national park solutions that uphold law and apply sound science. The Coalition counts among its members: former national park deputy directors, regional directors, superintendents, rangers and other career professionals who devoted an average of nearly 30 years each to protecting and interpreting America's national parks on behalf of the public. For more information, visit the CNPSR Web site at:
@CNPSRetirees
https://www.facebook.com/NPSretirees
SOURCE Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, Tucson, AZ
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