
The great dismantling of America's national parks is under way - vanusa
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/10/us-national-parks-dismantling-under-way
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8bitsrule
Jan 2019: "The New Acting Interior Secretary Is An Agency Insider And Ex-Oil
Lobbyist" [https://www.npr.org/2019/01/02/677390503/the-new-acting-
inte...](https://www.npr.org/2019/01/02/677390503/the-new-acting-interior-
secretary-is-an-agency-insider-and-ex-oil-lobbyist)

"The president's objectives actually represent the will of the people,"
Bernhardt said during a speech to ... the Heritage Foundation in September
2018.... Those goals include deregulation and relaxing environmental standards
for oil and gas companies.... For instance, late last year he erased a chapter
on climate change from the department's handbook."

The order, 3360 (Sect.4 a.1) which erased that chapter:
[https://www.eenews.net/assets/2018/01/05/document_gw_04.pdf](https://www.eenews.net/assets/2018/01/05/document_gw_04.pdf)

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wcarron
This more than mere dismantling of an institution. This is the deliberate and
purposeful rape of public land for the sake of profit.

The crown jewels of the natural world are being violated so that resource
industries can turn new profit.

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topkai22
Where did you get that resource industries are able to turn a profit in the
park system from the article? The only thing I saw was the privatization of
campgrounds, that’s not exactly the “purposeful rape of public land.”

The public lands outside the park system are under far more threat of
development.

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vanusa
_Where did you get that resource industries are able to turn a profit in the
park system from the article?_

From actually reading the article, rather than just skimming a line or two.
For example:

 _Then came the decisions to leave the parks open to impacts during the
unfortunate government shutdown, illegally misuse entrance fees, open park
trails to e-bikes, suppress climate science, kill wolf pups and bear cubs in
their dens to enhance “sport hunting”, privatize campgrounds, and issue muzzle
memos to park managers. With a waiver of environmental laws, bulldozers are
plowing ancient cacti in national parks along the southern border in order to
build a wall. Senior career park managers are likely to be replaced with
unqualified political hacks._

It doesn't explicitly say that these companies will turn a profit. But since
the moves are basically industry-driven - we can take it as a given that that
the ultimate intended goal.

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sparker72678
I don't even think I disagree with the premise, but gosh this is poorly
written and hard to read.

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topkai22
The US has a wide variety of public lands, of which the national park system
represents relatively little- about 15% of total federal land. The National
Park System might be getting underfunded and pressured to privatize certain
aspects, but its the other public lands that have largely been treated as de
facto parks are really where the threat is. The administration has a lot more
legal leeway there and its not afraid to use it.

See [https://www.rei.com/blog/hike/your-guide-to-understanding-
pu...](https://www.rei.com/blog/hike/your-guide-to-understanding-public-lands)
for a nice primer on public land in the us.

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RcouF1uZ4gsC
> This time is different and we should know, as Jon, one of this story’s
> authors, worked for the last 10 interior secretaries as a career NPS
> manager, and ultimately led the agency under Barack Obama,

Previous agency director, criticizing current director.

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op00to
Right, so experts in the field with experience are unable to speak to the
performance of other directors. Sounds like the current administration is a
little over sensitive.

