Michelle Nijhuis’s article “The Ghosts of
Yosemite” seems to be little more than a rant against the National
Park Service (HCN, 10/17/05: The Ghosts of Yosemite). Rather than
dwelling on the threat that global warming poses to native
wildlife, Nijhuis instead changes the focus to an unfair criticism
of an agency that is hardly responsible for global warming.
A more insightful look at the Park Service might reveal
that the agency is preoccupied with more basic battles. The George
W. Bush administration is, by most accounts and according to most
Park Service scholars, the most hostile administration toward
national park preservation in the history of the agency. Nijhuis
fails to mention the fact that Interior Secretary Gale Norton has
now made all GS-13 and higher new hires subject to her approval, or
that of Assistant Deputy Secretary of Interior Paul Hoffman. (The
GS-13 level includes most middle-level park managers.) Never has a
presidential administration extended its political reach so far
down into Park Service ranks.
The first advice in war is
to defend your home front, before you go on the offensive. The Park
Service — without the help of High Country
News, evidently — is fighting for its very
survival. Asking it to take on the multi-generation effort to
meaningfully address global warming is akin to asking the
passengers on the sinking Lusitania to worry about the advent of
World War I.
Woody
Hesselbarth
Fort Collins, Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Don’t blame the Park Service.
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