Years of Bush administration policies pushing commerce over conservation have sapped much of the US national park system, reports Julie Cart of the Los Angeles Times.
Many of the country’s most scenic views remain threatened by the industrial roads and drilling platforms of looming energy projects placed near or within the borders of supposedly protected public lands.
Using the authority of the Bureau of Land Management, administration officials bullied through project after project, such as an approved uranium mine two miles from a Grand Canyon visitors center, or the auctioning off of oil and gas leases on 360,000 acres of public land in Utah.
Some of the Bush policies are easily reversible, like the controversial last-minute environmental rule changes immediately suspended by President Barack Obama upon entering office. Others are not (see: exploration and drilling leases).
Some park service veterans have said it could take decades undo the damage that has been done.
“The agency has been demoralized; the employees of the National Park Service have been beaten down,” said Bill Wade, former superintendent at Shenandoah National Park and co-founder of a park service retirees group that has been critical of the Bush administration.
Former park service director Roger Kennedy is more hopeful.
“If we get lucky and we have a good strong National Park Service director, a lot of this can be reversed quite quickly,” said Kennedy, currently director emeritus of the National Museum of American History.
In related news, Obama appointee and new Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar promised Friday to bring back “high ethical standards” to the scandal-plagued department, which oversees both the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, reports Environment News Service.