Their organization includes:

* Five former Directors or Deputy Directors of the National Park Service

* Twenty-five former Regional Directors or Deputy Regional Directors

* Twenty-eight former Associate or Assistant Directors at the national or regional office level

* Sixty former Division Chiefs at the national or regional office level

* One hundred and twenty former Park Superintendents or Assistant Superintendents

As they say on their web site, “Never before in the 88 year history of the National Park Service have so many retired employees come together to voice concern about threats to the Service and system to which they devoted their professional careers.” If they are concerned, we should be too.

There is a wealth of information on their web site about current issues affecting the future of our National Parks. High on their list of concerns are the proposed changes to NPS management policies. As pointed out in my post from earlier today, the NPS deadline for you to comment on these issues is February 18.

Other web sites discuss these concerns, including Faithful America. They list these concerns:

“In October, the National Park Service proposed a number of changes to the park Management Policies – the document that guides the day-to-day management of the park system. The proposal has drawn criticism from former Park Service employees and groups like the National Parks Conservation Association. In November, the U.S. Senate held a two-hour hearing to question Park Service leaders about the changes, and at the end, senators from both parties hailing from Hawaii to Tennessee expressed concern that the draft plan would damage the parks.

A quick look at the document shows some of the reasons to be worried:
*Key provisions, which clearly set “conservation,” “resource protection,” and “preservation” as top priorities for the Park Service, have been deleted (Section 1.4.3).

*Intangible but important attributes like “clear skies” and “natural soundscapes” have been demoted from essential resources to “associated characteristics” (Section 4).

*Prudent guidelines for off-road vehicles, such as “the least impacting equipment, vehicles, and transportation systems should be used” and “routes and areas [for off-road vehicles] may be designated only in locations in which there will be no adverse impacts on an area’s natural, cultural, scenic, and esthetic values,” have also been removed (Sections 8.2.3 and 8.2.3.1).”

The National Parks Conservation Association is also opposed to the changes. This is the fine organization that runs the concessions at many of our National Parks where you can by books, videos, maps, post cards and other information about our parks. You can read more about the proposed NPS policy changes at their web site.

To voice your concerns and protest the proposed changes to NPS policies, you can use a pre-written online form letter, or write your own email. Make your voice heard!

Send an email to the NPS:

Send a message to the National Park Service with this online form letter from the Faithful America web site. Just fill in your name, email address, and mailing address and click “Send this message”. You can edit the letter or write your own letter in the box provided.

You can also use the NPS comment form. You are limited to a 4,000 character message.

Or write to this NPS email address: waso_policy@nps.gov and use this subject line: “Comments on NPS Management Policies (ID: 12825)”.

There is an online form letter you can log on and use at the Sierra Club web site and another online form at the National Parks Conservation Association web site.

From the National Parks Conservation Association web site.