Changes to National Park fees
Just saw an article from CNN claiming that the National Parks have announced the final fee increase decisions for this year. Day use fees will increase by $% Annual Passes for single parks will inc...
Forum Discussion
WRVPO: (You say that any concessionaire that makes a profit inside the park should instead be taken "in-house" and run by the government so they can keep those profits. Where do you draw the line? Helicopter tours, rafting trips, ice cream parlors, restaurants, souvenir shops, fuel stations, snow mobile tours and many other services are concessions at national parks and they all make money or they wouldn't be there. Should the guy flipping burgers at the snack shack be a civil servant getting yearly raises, promotions, benefits and after a few years making $80k or more (average wage of US government employee in 2014 was $84,000. With benefits, HR costs etc. the average government employee costs $119,000 per year. ).
I'll just quote above part of this WRVPO post:
We will eventually damage beyond repair the national parks if we continue hosting concessionaires - like as you suggest, helicopters etc. It has gotten out of hand in many major parks, and the damage cannot be reversed once it reaches a certain point.
We have enough park space and ability to see the parks without huge rafting parties, helicopters crashing in the parks, and other damage that occurs with "multiple-carry civilized mechanical access". That's not why our parks have been designated as national parks and national forests, and seashores.
These parks are, or at least once were, wilderness areas to protect wildlife and allow campers to visit. Theodore Roosevelt - one of the pioneers of the parks system - had a great vision, but is probably spinning in his grave as we degrade those wilderness areas. Roosevelt was a hunter and a rancher long before he emerged as a politician and our President, and saw the loss of habitat would also mean the loss of game as well. So he believed we should preserve the habitat, not run wild over it, and trash it as happens today in many areas and to the lack of education that leads to the damage that occurs when visitors arrive with limited understanding of how they affect the environment and ecosystems.
Plenty of the tourists and visitors do understand how it works, but it doesn't take many to overcome those of us who take pride in our heritage, and protect our parks with every step we take.
Now, places like Yellowstone and Yosemite and Bryce and Zion are nearly over-run with tourists and visitors. And we can no longer even access some of our major parks with a personal vehicle, and must ride the center road in a bus ... how much more evidence do we need to see to understand that can't continue or we'll lose all of it eventually ...
I'll just quote above part of this WRVPO post:
We will eventually damage beyond repair the national parks if we continue hosting concessionaires - like as you suggest, helicopters etc. It has gotten out of hand in many major parks, and the damage cannot be reversed once it reaches a certain point.
We have enough park space and ability to see the parks without huge rafting parties, helicopters crashing in the parks, and other damage that occurs with "multiple-carry civilized mechanical access". That's not why our parks have been designated as national parks and national forests, and seashores.
These parks are, or at least once were, wilderness areas to protect wildlife and allow campers to visit. Theodore Roosevelt - one of the pioneers of the parks system - had a great vision, but is probably spinning in his grave as we degrade those wilderness areas. Roosevelt was a hunter and a rancher long before he emerged as a politician and our President, and saw the loss of habitat would also mean the loss of game as well. So he believed we should preserve the habitat, not run wild over it, and trash it as happens today in many areas and to the lack of education that leads to the damage that occurs when visitors arrive with limited understanding of how they affect the environment and ecosystems.
Plenty of the tourists and visitors do understand how it works, but it doesn't take many to overcome those of us who take pride in our heritage, and protect our parks with every step we take.
Now, places like Yellowstone and Yosemite and Bryce and Zion are nearly over-run with tourists and visitors. And we can no longer even access some of our major parks with a personal vehicle, and must ride the center road in a bus ... how much more evidence do we need to see to understand that can't continue or we'll lose all of it eventually ...
