Posted Sunday - September 17, 2000

Bush Accuses Gore of Neglecting National Parks
Panel OKs Controversial Plan for Reagan Monument
Bush Plan for National Parks Strong on Short-term Fix, Weaker on Long-term Solution, NPCA Says
Nearly 20 Million Acres To Reopen To The Public In Montana
Park Service Alerts EPA To Clear The Air
Computer Maps Bottom of Crater Lake
Endangered Species: State Parks Threatened By Sprawl
Jump into Thermal Pool Kills One Employee In Yellowstone
From Lookout Tower, Veteran Ranger Sees 'Explosion' As Trees Become Torches
Firefighters Racing Against Flames Trying To Save National Parks
Babbitt Offers Blank Check To Firefighters
Grizzly Bear Attack Was Quick, But So Were College hikers
Monumental Proposal - Babbitt Wants Another Arizona Addition to the National Parks
Fire Could Help Solve Anasazi Mystery

INDEX OF PAST ISSUES

---

Wednesday September 13, 2000

Bush Accuses Gore of Neglecting National Parks - Presidential Candidate Says National Parks Are "Crumbling" 

MONROE, Wash. (Reuters) - Republican George W. Bush on Wednesday accused his Democratic presidential rival Al Gore of neglecting the national parks system, seeking to turn the vice president's environmental reputation against him.

The Texas governor, staying on message after weeks of distractions that have left him lagging Gore in a string of polls, pledged to eliminate what his campaign said was a $4.9 billion backlog of neglected maintenance in the parks system.

Standing on the banks of the Skykomish River, Bush also challenged Gore to take a stand on the issue of breaching Washington State's dams to help save the salmon, a sensitive issue in a state up for grabs in the Nov. 7 election.

``Under this administration the parks are in worse shape than ever before,'' Bush said on a cool morning that began shrouded in mist and ended splashed with sunshine.

``Sewage flows untreated into the lakes and streams of Yellowstone National Park. Civil war relics have been soaked by a leaky roof at Gettysburg,'' he added. ``For eight years, this administration has talked of environmentalism while our national parks are crumbling.''

Bush accused Gore and President Clinton of greatly expanding federal lands during their 7 1/2 years in office while ignoring the needs of the vast tracts already under the government's care.

He pledged to better tend to the parks by directing the federal government to prioritize all major maintenance and resource protection projects by April 2001 and then working with Congress to come up with the money to carry it out.

Gore Campaign Calls Attack ``Laughable''

The Gore campaign rejected the accusations, and blasted Bush's environmental record in Texas.

``It's laughable that Bush would reinvent himself as an environmentalist when he let polluters rewrite Texas environmental laws so they wouldn't have to abide by them,'' said Gore spokeswoman Kym Spell. ``Bush's real environmental agenda is to open up wilderness areas to oil drilling.''

Bush delivered the attack after weeks of coverage of his verbal gaffes and questions about his television advertising and vice presidential choice have kept him on the defensive instead of stressing his message and helped to erode his standing in opinion polls.

The Texas governor appeared unruffled by the polls, bantering with reporters and displaying his characteristic bounce in the middle of a five-day campaign swing through Florida, Missouri, Washington, California and New Mexico.

Bush Tries To Broaden Support

Bush is trying to broaden his support by tackling issues traditionally seen as the province of the Democrats, including the environment, health care and education.

As he did earlier this summer, Bush challenged Gore to take a stand on the question of breaching dams to restore local salmon populations in the Northwest, an idea backed by many environmentalists but fought by power companies.

Before speaking, Bush took a tour of Haskell Slough, a 3 1/2 mile waterway near the Skykomish River where wild salmon have begun swimming for the first time in decades after a state, federal and private restoration project.

The Texas governor wants to leave the dams intact and said that he supported private efforts to restore the salmon. ``The federal government's role is to help, not to dictate,'' he said, sitting on a bale of hay by the waterway.

The idea, proposed by Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, was given the go-ahead by voice vote. The bill now goes to the full House.

The bipartisan National Capital Memorial Commission rejected the idea earlier this month, based on the existing rules.

Chairman John G. Parsons, representing the National Park Service, said it would contradict the 14-year-old Commemorative Works Act, which says no memorial to an individual should be approved until 25 years after the person's death. Reagan is 89.

The bill would create a three-member Ronald Reagan Memorial Commission that would consist of the chairman of the National Capital Memorial Commission, who is appointed by the president, plus appointees of the House speaker and the Senate majority leader.

Under the bill, Congress would approve a precise location for the monument and a marker at least three feet square would be set up that designates it as the ``Future Site of the Ronald Reagan Memorial.'' The secretary of the Interior would be required to maintain that marker until the monument is built, dedicated and opened to the public.

The new commission would raise private funds to design, build and maintain the monument.

Last year the commission and two others - the Fine Arts Commission and the National Capital Planning Commission - agreed to disapprove any new monument on the Mall. That accord would be overridden if Young's bill becomes law and Congress approves a site.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 /PRNewswire/NPCA Press Release -- ``George W. Bush's promise to eliminate the national parks maintenance and resource-protection-projects backlog with increased funding is a bright spot in a presidential campaign too often silent on environmental issues,'' says Thomas Kiernan, president of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA). ``We have been neglecting the national parks at the expense of future generations. Bush's promise of more funding is a substantial start toward ending that neglect. His emphasis on improving science in the parks also is a good first step toward a desperately needed expansion of the Park Service's scientific and resource-protection capability.''

A fact sheet issued by the Bush campaign preliminary to a speech in Monroe, Washington, today on environmental issues indicates that Bush is committed to eliminating a backlog of national park maintenance and resource- protection needs within five years by seeking $4.9 billion in funding. He also promises to increase by $20 million annually the funding for scientific research, such as inventories of plant and animal species native to parks.

``Providing the money needed to get rid of the maintenance backlog is key to getting the parks into peak condition,'' says Kiernan. ``But it is only half the story. The backlog is the result of a $500-million to $1-billion shortfall in the National Park Service's annual operating budget, according to preliminary figures from the NPCA/National Park Service Business Plan Initiative, which has analyzed the on-going financial needs of 26 national parks. Governor Bush's proposal fixes the backlog problem, but does not solve the underlying problem of an inadequate annual budget for the Park Service to protect the plants, animals, and historic artifacts in its care.''

For example, Mount Rainier National Park, within sight of Monroe, Washington, has budget shortfalls that keep the park from adequately monitoring its 10 federally listed threatened and endangered species, such as the Pacific salmon. Montana's Glacier National Park lacks the means to determine why gray wolves there have declined 75 percent since 1997.

``We must address both the backlog and the annual budget shortfall if we are to protect the parks for future generations'' says Kiernan.

``George Bush has the beginnings of a good agenda for park protection, but critical elements are still missing, such as preservation of cultural artifacts, improvements in park air quality, and the need to expand existing parks and even create new parks to avoid the loss of our cultural and natural heritage,'' Kiernan says. ``Nevertheless, Governor Bush's proposal is a strong challenge to the Gore campaign to step up to the plate and show the American people what a Gore Administration would do for the natural and cultural resource protection of our National Parks.''

In an effort to improve air quality in America's national parks and wilderness areas, the National Park Service, through the Department of the Interior, is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to implement new regulations to protect public lands from air pollution.

Impaired visibility and damage to vegetation from ozone are serious problems at several parks and wilderness areas, including the Great Smoky Mountains; Shenandoah, Sequoia and Yosemite national parks; and Cape Romain and Mingo national wildlife refuges.

The damage is widespread. Streams, surface water and soil at Shenandoah, Sequoia and Great Smoky national parks are scarred from decades of acid rain. The coastal waters in Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge are plagued with eutrophication, an increase in mineral and organic nutrients that promotes algal growth and often causes the extinction of organisms.

"In our parks and wilderness areas, we're seeing deteriorating air quality trends. The sulfur levels are increasing and the visibility is decreasing, so something isn't working," said John Bunyak of the DOI. "So we asked the EPA to look at current programs and fix them because the Prevention of Significant Deterioration program established many years ago is not meeting its one key purpose - to preserve, protect and enhance."

Established through the Clean Air Act, the PSD limits the amount of air pollution in national parks and wilderness areas. It requires pre-construction permits for potential sources of emissions.

READ THE WHOLE STORY:

By JEFF BARNARD, Associated Press Writer

CRATER LAKE, Ore. (AP) - While a small boat cruised the sunlit blue surface of Crater Lake pounding sonar pulses deep into the water, Jim Gardner sat in the dark of a boathouse on Wizard Island, ``flying'' through the latest computer images the soundings produced.

``We're flying up over the plateau - the plateau Wizard Island is on,'' the U.S. Geological Survey scientist said, his body twisting, head bobbing as he used a joystick to move through the violet, red, blue, green and yellow bands of the 3-D image of the lake bottom on the computer screen. ``Then we fly down into the South Basin.''

Gardner and eight other scientists camped out for a week this summer on Wizard Island, a cinder cone inside the blown-out volcano that forms the nation's deepest and clearest lake. For all but a few hours each day they generated the most accurate maps ever of the lake bottom. But they also dined on Cajun cuisine, enjoyed hot showers and did a little fly fishing.

``The neat thing about this is that it is exploration, still,'' said Larry Mayer, who directed the data gathering and is director of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire. ``You feel the excitement of the old surveyors exploring new territory.''

READ THE WHOLE STORY:

Ten years ago, from the top of a 63-foot knoll at Etowah Indian Mounds Historic Site northwest of Atlanta, Georgia, you could see rolling pastures, cotton and soybean fields, the tree-lined foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and the Etowah River to the south.

Now, the view from the top of the mound - once the site of the tribe's chief - is sullied by residential sprawl.

"During the fall and winter all you can see are houses. They are big, beautiful homes, but I don't want to see them," said Libby Bell, site manager of the Etowah historic site. "And so many schools have been built around the site. More schools means more traffic and more people."

Sprawl and lack of federal funding are the chief threats to the 10.8 million acres of the United States that contain 3,266 state parks, according to a report released Thursday by the National Park Trust.

According to the report, "Legacy: The Crisis in Our Parks," some 62,013 acres of state park land, as surveyed by park directors in 10 states, are most threatened. The National Park Trust did not rank the states, but Florida's director of recreation and parks, Fran Mainella, reported that 25,000 acres hang in the balance in the state.

READ THE ENN STORY

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) - Three young park concession employees on a late-evening outing plunged into a 178-degree hot spring. One died and two were in critical condition Wednesday.

The three were burned late Monday in the Cavern Spring, a 10-foot-deep pool in the Lower Geyser Basin, seven miles north of Old Faithful in the middle of Yellowstone National Park.

``These three teen-agers jumped into the pool thinking it was cold water and were amazed to find it was not,'' Dr. Jeff Saffle, treating the survivors at a Salt Lake City hospital, said Wednesday.

But late Wednesday, park spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said the two survivors told first-aid workers that they fell in trying to jump over what they thought was a small creek after returning from a swim in the Firehole River.

Yellowstone's thermal pools are often surrounded by thin, fragile crusts. Numerous warning signs are posted. Visitors to the Lower Geyser Basin are urged to stay on a half-mile boardwalk over the treacherous terrain.

``I would not venture off this boardwalk. You couldn't pay me enough to set foot off this,'' said Carla Wilson, a visitor from Denver.

Sara Hulphers, 20, of Oroville, Wash., was burned over her entire body and died a few hours later at the University of Utah's Intermountain Burn and Trauma Center in Salt Lake City.

Tyler Montague, 18, of Salt Lake City and Lance Buchi, 18, of Sandy, Utah, were in critical condition.

Saffle said Montague and Buchi were in shock and barely coherent after being rescued but told doctors that they dove into the pool on purpose. He estimated their chances of survival at 30 percent to 40 percent.

The three teens worked in the Old Faithful area, Hulphers and Buchi in the Old Faithful Inn and Montague at the Old Faithful Lodge.

MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK - On a clear day, fire-watch ranger R.J. Erner can see a hundred miles in any direction from his lookout tower.

But on Saturday, all he saw was smoke and an endless air show of firefighting aircraft.

"When the fire hits the trees, there is so much heat it is like an explosion," Erner said. "You stand there looking at this incredible natural phenomenon."

In his 17th year as a summer ranger and fourth year at the lookout, Erner has never seen so many fires consume so much land. By Saturday night, a fire near the national park had stormed over 6,000 acres.

Every time a new column of smoke reached skyward, Erner squinted through a brass fire site, marked down the coordinates and recorded a new plume.

"It's an incredible natural event," said Erner, who teaches high school history.

Out of the windowed, circular station, Shiprock loomed to the southwest and Sleeping Ute Mountain reposed to the west in a haze of smoke.

READ THE WHOLE STORY AT THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS:

HELENA, Mont. (AP) - Like the original Smokey Bear, a small cub has emerged burned but alive from the wildfires that have charred forest and rangeland across Montana.

The cub, apparently orphaned and weighing only about 20 pounds, was in a veterinary clinic being treated for burns on all four paws.

``He'll be a little tender-footed for awhile, but he should be fine,'' said the state wildlife warden who rescued the animal, Joe Jacquith.

There were 98 major fires burning Sunday in Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. They had blackened a total of about 1.3 million acres, it said.

In Montana, the 30 most significant fires had burned about 600,000 acres, the fire center said.

The Bitterroot Valley remained Montana's worst fire zone, accounting for more than a third of the state's burned land. Hundreds of evacuees have been forced from their homes, and some have been unable to return for more than two weeks.

READ THE WHOLE STORY:

ALSO:

National Interagency Fire Center:

Smoke Bear Web Site: 

August 16, 2000

Bear Attack Was Quick, But So Were U-M Hikers - Fast Thinking Eclipsed Fear On Montana Trail

Out of the clouds, down a Montana mountain, and into a valley, popping huckleberries and whistling, Kelly Krpata rounded a corner and saw a huge brown blur coming his way.

Roaring and grunting, the bear charged so fast it appeared to be running on air.

With no time to retreat, Krpata, 26, a University of Michigan business school student, took a few steps back and dropped to the ground, curling up in the fetal position, his backpack facing the bear as a buffer. The maneuver came to him from a national park video he and his friend watched before setting off on their 5-day hike in Glacier National Park.

"I just waited it out," Krpata said. "It was on top of me for about 10 seconds, and it did some good work in those 10 seconds. I was screaming, trying to ...I don't even know what I was trying to do. I had my face buried in the dirt."

His friend Kim Taffer, 20 feet behind him, dove into some bushes and pine trees.

Taffer, 27 and a U-M classmate, lay motionless, listening to Krpata screaming. Soon the bear left her friend and approached her. "I heard it breathing and sniffing around me," she said. "I could see brown out of the corner of my eye, and it felt like it was about a foot away from my head. All of a sudden, it turned and walked away."

Taffer could still hear Krpata screaming, so she knew he was alive. She stared at her watch for three minutes before deciding they were safe, for the time being.

"I think I was more scared after it went away than any other time, wondering whether it would come back," she said. "Before that, we were just going on adrenaline and instinct."

Amy Vanderbilt, a park spokeswoman, said lying down may have saved the hikers' lives. She said bears are less likely to hurt people if they play dead.

READ THE WHOLE GRUESOME STORY

Tuesday, August 15, 2000

Monumental Proposal - Babbitt Wants Another Arizona Addition to the National Parks 
Washington, DC (From ENN) - Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt wants President Clinton to designate 293,000 acres of federal land on the Colorado Plateau in northern Arizona as Vermilion Cliffs National Monument and expand Craters of the Moon National Monument in central Idaho, which covers 54,440 acres of craters and lava flows. 

The expansion would add an additional 661,000 acres of federal land, primarily south of the current monument, to encompass the entire lava field. In recent months, Babbitt has visited both areas several times to meet with local residents and officials. "Both of these recommendations cover unique, spectacular landscapes," said Babbitt. "So far, they have been untouched by development or sprawl, but the West is expanding rapidly, and this is the time to act."

Tuesday July 25, 2000

Fire Could Help Solve Anasazi Mystery

By Bill Scanlon, Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

Fires roaring through Mesa Verde National Park are threatening what many call one of the nation's greatest and most mysterious archaeological treasures.

But while firefighters struggle to save the Cliff Palace, Spruce House and other famous cliff dwellings, the fires are uncovering scores of previously unknown sites where the Anasazi Indians once lived.

A 1996 Mesa Verde fire burned 3,000 acres, one-sixth of the acreage that has been scorched this month. In so doing it uncovered previously 440 unknown sites, said park archaeologist Linda Towle.

Scientists hope the new sites revealed this year will help solve the great mystery of Mesa Verde and the Anasazi: Why did the ancient people suddenly disappear from the Four Corners area, and under what circumstances did they possibly turn to cannibalism?

Whatever the fires reveal, scientists will have to act fast. The bonanza for archaeology may vanish with the first heavy rain.

"The fires are great for visibility, but when the rains come, there will be big erosion problems," said Rick Wilshusen, curator of anthropology for the University of Colorado museum.

READ THE FULL STORY AT THE DENVER ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

---

	LAST ISSUE			CONTENTS			INDEX			NEXT ISSUE