Wednesday
- November 24, 1999
Washington
DC Parks Siphon $2 Million From Cash-Strapped National
Parks
Old
Faithful Erupts On World Wide Web
Martha
Stewart Cancels Her Millennium Hike
Out-Manned
Rangers Fight Losing Battle Against Criminals Stealing
Petrified Forest National Park
Foreign
Intruders At Golden Gate National Recreation Area Being
Removed
One
Year Deal Saves Ocean Homes From Being Torn Down, For
Now
More
Than $100,000 Raised Toward Memorial Fund Honoring The
Life of Slain Yosemite Naturalist
Caribbean
National Park Units Hit Hard By Hurricane Lenny
New
National Park Budget Not Nearly Enough
Tidal
Marsh Brought Back To Life At Golden Gate National Recreation
Area
Group
Seeks Ban On Yellowstone Traffic
INDEX
OF PAST ISSUES
Tuesday,
November 23, 1999
Washington
DC Parks Siphon $2 Million From Cash Strapped National
Parks
WASHINGTON,
DC - Under the National Park Service's current fee collection
regulations 20% of entrance fees collected at Yosemite,
Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and all other national parks
must be sent to a general NPS fund.
That's
why $2 million in fees collected from parks that cannot
afford to pay their own maintenance and repair bills is
making its way into Washington DC's parks to spruce them
up according to Department of Interior Assistant Secretary,
John Berry.
While
estimates of the budget backlog across the entire national
park system is currently $9 billion and rising, "Washington
DC has the highest amount of parkland of any other city,
and it has the highest facility backlog in the country,"
Berry said. The backlog is in maintenance, repair and
preservation work which has been postponed for lack of
money in regular operational allocations.
Since
none of the Washington DC parks charge an entrance fee,
and since Congress does not provide an adequate budget
for the DC parks to pay for the necessary ongoing maintenance
and repairs they must be bailed out by all the other parks
in the system.
"The
federal government, which owns virtually all of the parks
in the city, has neglected them for decades," said
De. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) who lobbied for the extra
funding for her own district.
Tuesday,
November 23, 1999
Old
Faithful Erupts on World Wide Web
A
new webcam is broadcasting live pictures of Old Faithful's
geyser on the Internet, and it's attracting a record number
of visitors. The park's Internet coordinator says on some
days Old Faithful accounts for nearly half the online
visits recorded by all National Park Service Web sites
combined.
A
story in The New York Times last week resulted in nearly
182,000 hits -- that's more than the number of people
who visit Yellowstone on the busiest summer day.
You
can find the webcam link on The Parks Company links page
or by going directly to:
http://www.nps.gov/yell/oldfaithfulcam.htm
Tueday,
November 23, 1999
Martha
Stewart Cancels Her Millenium Hike
PORTLAND,
Maine - Media celebrity Martha Stewart canceled plans
to watch the first sunrise of the millennium's from the
top of Acadia National Park's Cadillac Mountain after
admitting it would be too difficult.
According
to the U.S. Naval Observatory the summit of the Acadia
National Park peak will be the first spot in the continental
United States to see the sun rise in 2000.
After
a test run of the route,``We found the trails too icy,
steep and circuitous for any of us to reach the 1,532-foot
summit before daybreak,'' Ms. Stewart wrote in a special
millennium issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine.
Acadia
has received dozens of calls since the U.S. Naval Observatory
said the new year's first dawn will hit Porcupine Mountain
in Lubec and Cadillac Mountain at the same time, 7:04
a.m.
The
National Park Service is hoping other thrill-seekers follow
Ms. Stewart's lead. The nine-mile road to the Cadillac
Mountain summit is closed in winter and the trails are
treacherous for inexperienced hikers.
``There
have been fatalities when there has been ice in the park,''
Acadia spokeswoman Shirley Beccue said. ``It would be
a real shame to have celebrations turn into something
tragic.''
Tuesday,
November 23, 1999
Out-Manned
Rangers Fight Losing Battle Against Criminals Stealing
Petrified Forest National Park
Petrified
Forest National Park, Arizona -- If you've never been
to see the Petrified Forest in Arizona, you better get
there right away before all of it is stolen and carted
away.
Despicable
thieves rip off an estimated 12 tons of petrified wood
from the national park every year. Rangers nab only a
fraction of the thieving visitors and violators face paltry
penalties - a mere $250 fine in some cases.
One
California man was slapped with a $2,500 fine after being
caught with an amazing 440 pounds of petrified wood shoved
under the seats of his van.
The
worst damage has been done in popular tourist spots like
the Crystal Forest, where only large chunks of the pink-tan-purple
petrified wood remain. Piece by piece, visitors have stolen
smaller nuggets, leaving barren patches between the larger
hunks of the 225-million year old fossilized wood. The
worst offenders hike up behind hills and hack off large
chunks.
The
park has only seven rangers to try and cover the 92,000-acre
forest.
Tuesday,
November 23, 1999
Foreign
Intruders at Golden Gate National Recreation Area Being
Removed
(Golden
Gate NRA, California -NPS Morning Report) - A three-year,
$600,000 Cape Ivy removal program is well underway in
the park and showing measurable progress. Federally-funded
by the natural resources protection program (NRPP), the
project is aimed at reducing and controlling more than
185 acres of ivy infestation in both Golden Gate NRA and
Point Reyes NS.
The
vine, originally from South Africa, was introduced by
Europeans in the 19th century and has been listed as one
of California's most invasive wild land pest plants. It
spreads extremely rapidly, shutting out light and moisture
to grasses, brush and trees, eventually killing off native
species. To date, more than 25 acres of Cape Ivy have
been contained in areas in both parks, including Golden
Gate NRA sites such as the Marin Headlands, Wolfback Ridge,
Muir Woods and Stinson Beach.
There
are two more years left on the Cape Ivy management program
and resource management personnel involved are very optimistic
about attaining the project goal of controlling and containing
the invasive plant.
Monday,
November 22, 1999
One-Year
Deal Saves Ocean Homes from Being Torn down, for Now
BISCAYNE
NATIONAL PARK (AP) -- Ten days before Stiltsville was
to have been torn down, the seven homes built on poles
out over Biscayne Bay's shallow waters have been given
a one-year reprieve.
Rep.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., announced that the homeowners
and the U.S. National Park Service, which owns the submerged
land the structures are built upon, will keep on negotiating
until Dec. 1, 2000.
The
homeowners are trying to reach an agreement that will
preserve their homes, which are over the water a few miles
offshore south of Key Biscayne, an island off Miami.
The
homeowners' lease with the government, signed almost 30
years ago, had been set to expire Dec. 1; and Biscayne
National Park had planned to reclaim the houses and destroy
them.
Ros-Lehtinen
said she hoped both sides would "find a permanent
solution that will preserve Stiltsville -- and maintain
the integrity of Biscayne National Park."
She
has proposed transferring the Stiltsville lands back to
the state.
Monday,
November 22, 1999
More
than $100,000 Raised toward Memorial Fund Honoring the
Life of Slain Yosemite Naturalist
YOSEMITE,
California (PRNewswire) -- Yosemite National Institutes
(YNI) today announced that more than $100,000 has been
raised for the Joie Armstrong Memorial Fund, established
soon after the naturalist was murdered on July 21 in Yosemite
National Park. Donations have come in from around the
country by those affected deeply by Joie's tragic story
and those she touched with her passion for teaching and
the environment.
"The
YNI community is deeply moved that hundreds of people
have reached out to honor Joie's memory and her bright
spirit by contributing to this Fund," Linda Brownstein,
Chair of the YNI Board of Directors, said. "We are
proud that those closest to Joie have molded the Armstrong
Scholars program in her image."
As
part of her effort to honor Joie Armstrong, Brownstein
announced that she personally will be making a "dollar-for-dollar"
match for all donations to the Fund that are received
between November 16, 1999 and January 31, 2000.
The
Joie Armstrong Memorial Fund will provide annual awards
to assist young women and girls to participate in a YNI
"Armstrong Scholars" summer program, which will
strive to inspire the characteristics that made Joie so
special. The curriculum will focus on improving leadership,
communication and goal-setting skills; encouraging an
enthusiasm for learning and teaching; connecting to the
natural world; and finding strength in being female. Ideally,
the Armstrong Scholars Program will serve as a guide for
these young women and girls so that they can use what
they experienced to become stronger women and better stewards
of our world. Students will be nominated by teachers,
principals and/or leaders in their community. The first
program will take place in Yosemite and the Marin Headlands
in the summer of 2000.
Joie
was an integral part of YNI's teaching staff for over
two years. She was a field instructor at the Headlands
Institute from the spring of 1997 until transferring to
the Yosemite Institute in January of 1999. Joie was a
teacher of the highest quality. To know this world intimately
was her goal; curiosity fueled her passion for learning
and living. Of what she discovered each day, she shared
zealously with her friends, family, teachers and students.
As one young student recently wrote: "She was the
most energetic and enthusiastic person we've ever met.
Being with Joie the whole week made us want to learn more
and more about nature. She was a dynamite person and instructor."
Founded
in 1971, Yosemite National Institutes is a private, non-profit
organization whose mission is to inspire a personal connection
to the natural world and responsible actions to sustain
it. Long-recognized as a leader in environmental education,
YNI operates three campuses in cooperation with the National
Park Service and serves over 38,000 youth and adults annually.
The campuses are located in Yosemite National Park, Golden
Gate National Recreation Area in California and Olympic
National Park in Washington state.
To
make a tax-deductible contribution, send your check (payable
to the "Joie Armstrong Memorial Fund") to Yosemite
National Institutes, Fort Cronkhite, Building 1055, Sausalito,
CA, 94965. For more information, you may refer to YNI's
Web site at www.yni.org.
Friday,
November 19, 1999
Caribbean
National Park Units Hit Hard By Hurricane Lenny
According
to the National Park Service Morning Report, Christiansted
National Historical Site and Buck Island Reef National
Monument remain closed after Hurricane Lenny pounded the
Virgin Islands. The two parks were struck by hurricane
winds of over 150 mph. Fortunately all employees are accounted
for and are in good health. Phones are working intermittently
and some areas are still experiencing electrical and water
outages. Contract cleanup operations will begin today;
a damage assessment is underway. Virgin Islands National
Park is also known to have suffered damage from this latest
hurricane.
Damage
across the Virgin Islands was widespread and devastating
enough to prompt calls to President Clinton for federal
disaster relief.
Thursday,
November 18, 1999
New
National Parks Budget Not Nearly Enough
Washington,
DC - The federal budget agreement approved today by the
House of Representatives does not meet the needs of the
National Park System, the nation's largest park advocacy
group today said.
"The
most important mission of the park system is to protect
irreplaceable national resources - whether they are the
bison of Yellowstone or the Longfellow library,"
said Tom Kiernan, president of the National Parks and
Conservation Association (NPCA). "The bottom line
is that Congress has not been providing enough money to
do that properly."
"Every year we are falling further and further behind
in the protection of our national parks," Kiernan
said.
The fiscal year 2000 Interior Department budget provides
$255 million for resource stewardship in the National
Park System. This is $26 million more than in FY 99, but
$12 million less than the Park Service had requested for
this year. However, according to the National Park Service,
natural-and-cultural- resource-protection needs approach
$1 billion in parks across the country. The total operational
budget for the park system through the agreement is just
$1.4 billion.
Although
most anti-park riders were removed from the appropriations
bill, Congress still failed to address the over $9 billion
in repairs, maintenance, preservation and manpower needs
going unmet as the National Parks head into their second
century.
Wednesday,
November 17, 1999
Tidal
Marsh Brought Back To Life At Golden Gate National Recreation
Area
Golden
Gate NRA California (from NPS Morning Report) - Over five
hundred people gathered on Tuesday, November 9th, to witness
salt and fresh water mixing together at Crissy Field for
the first time in a nearly a century. The event honored
the opening of the channel connecting the restored Crissy
Field tidal marsh to San Francisco Bay. Ten years of work
and over $24 million were raised to make this project
possible. A special tribute was paid by the Ohlone people
with the playing of a song recorded by Linda Yamane and
with an Ohlone ocean dance welcoming the waters back into
the marsh. Crowds watched the historic moment as the final
barrier of earth was removed and the marsh began to fill
up with salt water from the Bay. Numerous media representatives
were also present.
Tuesday,
November 16, 1999
Group
Seeks Ban On Yellowstone Traffic
Yellowstone
National Park, Montana (ABC NewsWire) -
A national animal rights group doesn't like either alternative
proposed in the battle over snowmobiles in Yellowstone
National Park.
One
plan would replace snowmobiles with shuttle buses, and
plow the road that connects the western park entrance
to the Old Faithful geyser. A tougher plan would allow
only environmentally friendly machines and would not plow
the roads.
But
the group "Fund for Animals" says both plans
are flawed. It wants all ground traffic replaced by an
elevated monorail system. The National Park Service is
taking public comments on a new winter plan for using
the Park until December first.
