Park Service Policy favors Conservation

Park Service Policy Favors Conservation
By JULIE CART Los Angeles Times
Published: Aug 31, 2006

The National Park Service is expected to adopt management guidelines today that affirm the importance of conservation in parks, resisting efforts by the recreation industry to open more parkland to snowmobiles, power boats and off-road vehicles.
By adopting the guidelines, the park service is retreating from a proposal to change 90-year-old policies, a move that critics said would have weakened protection of natural resources and wildlife, while allowing increased commercial activity and off-road vehicle use in national parks.
After a public outcry and criticism from Congress, the agency backtracked, saying the proposed changes were simply a starting point.
The new guidelines maintain the current high standard for protection of resources and instruct park managers to prohibit activities that would degrade them.
The park service had been lobbied by manufacturers of recreational vehicles and the American Recreation Coalition who contend that the agency overemphasizes protection at the expense of recreation.
The controversial draft polices would have required officials to prove that an activity "permanently and irreversibly adversely affect a resource or value" before banning it. Critics said that standard would have been all but impossible to meet.
"This is a victory. Now the emphasis is on preventing and avoiding damage, not mitigating," said Bill Wade, who leads an organization of retired park service employees who strongly opposed the first set of proposed changes.