A NATIONAL PARK FEE HIKE WOULD DETER VISITORS
At 17 “highly visited” national parks, the Trump administration has proposed increasing entrance fees up to $70 a car during peak periods. This proposal would generate $70 million annually, which would barely dent the National Park Service’s deferred maintenance backlog of $12 billion. It also erodes equity for visitors. —Glenn Nelson/Crosscut
Chad Young:“This is a strategy to get citizens disinterested in national parks and public lands by creating barriers to accessibility. Their ultimate goal is handing over public lands to states and by default to the wealthy.”
Brian Hench: “Some parks such as Zion and Yosemite have serious overcrowding problems. Putting limits on visitors is a very unpalatable way of dealing with it. This approach may be a lesser evil that gets infrastructure fixed.”
Steven Argus McQuinn: “It is designed to get people mad enough to insist that Congress vote to support appropriations for deferred maintenance.”
WORDS INTO ACTION
11-18% Drop in typical California household water consumption that a new study attributes to increased media coverage about the drought
California’s recent 5-year drought brought water restrictions and intensive media coverage. New research suggests that media attention itself was a substantial driver to get people to use less water, spurring awareness and public engagement. “For future droughts, there’s no question that we learned that there is a role for media to play,” says Nicole Sandkulla, CEO and general manager of the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency. —Emily Benson
SIX BILLS THAT WOULD WEAKEN ENDANGERED SPECIES PROTECTION
- Federally Integrated Species Health Act
- Gray Wolf State Management Act
- Saving America’s Endangered Species Act
- State, Tribal, and Local Species Transparency and Recovery Act
- Listing Reform Act
- Endangered Species Litigation Reasonableness Act
—Maya L. Kapoor
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