Making foreigners pay more for national park visits

That's the story, per the Beeb.

Note that three states will be most hit, because relatively few US national parks are unique.

Europeans can see Yellowstone's geysers in Iceland and bison in the wisent of Poland, for example. They can stay at home for the Alps instead of the Rockies. Chinese and other Asians can do Banff instead of the Rockies, and there are plenty of waterfalls, in a couple of exceptions I'm about to note, in Europe and Asia.

==

There's only one Grand Canyon, and only one saguaro cactus, and both are in Arizona. I'm not sure how much foreign visitation Saguaro NP gets, and Tucson has other attractions, but Tusayan et al losing foreign visitors to the Grand Canyon would be big.

Many canyon visitors also do one or more of Utah's Mighty Five, and like with the Grand Canyon, the small towns in this area might be affected.

In the Pacific Northwest, Olympic's temperate rain forest and Crater Lake's starkness are semi-unique, but not biggies.

Further south? California's Redwoods, in the combined state and national parks, the giant sequoias in that national park, the all-around beauty of Yosemite Valley, and especially for Germans, it seems, the starkness of Death Valley all are special.

The parks that will have a steep hike in per-park fees for foreign visitors without a fee-hiked foreign Parks Pass? Acadia National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Everglades National Park, Glacier National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Parks, and Zion National Park.

So, we have Grand Canyon, two of the California parks, and two of Utah's Mighty Five. Why Arches isn't on the list I have no idea.

==

That said, just days after The Donald announced this, The Louvre said it was more than doubling the admission cost for non-EU visitors. So, it's not like this is unique, or in terms of Trump-world, that bad. That said, he's just trying to soak visitors. He doesn't actually care about national parks and monuments; we already know that. 

Democrats care about the system somewhat more than Republicans, but not THAT much more. After all, they gave us

A very good article about Utah hypocrisy and the Mighty Five national parks falls short of greatness with a steaming chunk of capitalist hypocrisy of its own

A very good but not quite great article by Mark Sundeen about the crowding at Utah's Mighty Five and Park Service issues in general, along with Utah state gummint hypocrisy, caught my eye earlier this week.

It talks about the crowding, or overcrowding at Utah's five National Parks, labeled the "Mighty Five" as part of a marketing campaign a decade ago. It talks somewhat, but not as much as it probably could, about the state of Utah's hypocrisy.

But beyond that? I said very good but not quite great. It falls short because, near the end, Sundeen tells an outright lie:

As Grand County’s Kevin Walker pointed out, national parks are built and managed to handle people, and despite the continuous budget cuts over the past two decades, they’ve done a good job of it, even if the only solution at Arches, for now, is to simply shut the gate.

No, they haven't done a good job of it, and I let him and the mag know that in a detailed five-tweet stream.

Let's post those tweets and then go beyond that.

.@outsidemagazine & .@SundeenMark There are a couple of untruths in what is generally a great piece about Utah/Mighty Five. Biggest untruth is that .@NatlParkService does a great mgmt job despite cuts. BULLSHIT. 1/x https://t.co/7nAUhOmdpb

— reallyDonaldTrump 🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) February 2, 2020

And, bullshit it is. Sorry, Mark, no other word for it. And, everything I list in subsequent tweets, and beyond, you surely know about. (He actually liked this Tweet on Twitter.)

Reality is that customer service & everything related to it has gone downhill in National Parks
1. Longer waits for info at visitor center desks.
1A. More of this help dumped unto volunteers from "Friends of Park X" orgs.
2. Non-paved roads getting ever crappier
2/x

— reallyDonaldTrump 🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) February 2, 2020

As for the non-paved roads? Per my recent blog post about my first visit to Big Bend in more than 8 years, Grapevine Hills has gone downhill, going by memory. When I told a visitor desk ranger about driving Pine Canyon in a 2wd car, he was almost agog. That was 15-plus years ago, and I'm sure the road has gone downhill since then. And, the waits at visitor center desks.

More probs at National Parks?
3. Last time I was in Lower Yose it was March, prolly spring break time 4 many Cal schools. Shuttle buses ran less than half as often as Zion. Was faster to walk to popular places in heart of Valley.
3A. Concessionaires get ever more pricey there 3/x

— reallyDonaldTrump 🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) February 2, 2020

I mean, Mark, I could write a whole blog post in response to you JUST about how budget cuts have made the Yosemite experience worse. You know I could, too.

So, maybe your comment was a throwaway line, or an attaboy one for the Park Service? I don't care. It doesn't make it any less untrue. Let's continue. We'll go back to Zion.

4. At Zion itself, per links within this blog post, Park staff have said budget cuts have meant they can't buy more shuttle buses, which they need cuz they're overloaded
4A. Budget cuts reduce backcountry ranger work, so, more trail-cutting etc.
4/xhttps://t.co/WXQLTZo1Y4

— reallyDonaldTrump 🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) February 2, 2020

As I noted on that post, more money would also allow replacing current propane fueled buses with electric ones. Given the amount of solar panels Zion already has, it would be relatively easy to recharge them.

And, not mentioned on that post, but an increasing problem? People flying drones inside NPS units. And, the problem of patrolling and policing for that, with ongoing budget cuts.

And, it's not just these parks. About 18 months ago, I visited Rocky and Mesa Verde, the latter for the first time in years and quite possibly the last time ever. As I separately blogged, at Rocky and definitely at Mesa Verde, budget cuts have caused real problems, and at Rocky, have even worse, caused rangers to plug concessionaires.

So, Mark? Throwaway line or not, this was a lie. Period. And blatantly. You owe readers an apology. Not that you're likely to give one. That's in part, I'm sure, because Outside depends on ads — from places like concessionaires inside these national parks, tour guide groups in the cities next to them and so forth. (And read just how much Outside tracks your ass with cookies, analytics, Facebook, etc., if you don't wear lots of online condoms on your browser to protect yourself. And that page notes that, for browsers like Firefox, "do not track" signals are ignored.) Definitely, since your park reviewers at places like Joshua Tree or Zion plug outside businesses in their stories, you don't want to write anything that discourages visitors.

Also, "shutting the gate" at Arches? (I've been by the entrance when it looked like the park was going to be closed at any second.) It's not a "good" solution; it's the "least bad" solution.

A "good solution" would be the city of Moab and its former Arches staffer mayor creating a shuttle bus from town to the park, in combo with the park starting one inside the park.  Kind of amazing that Sundeen didn't think of that. (For that matter, the park starting one inside the park would itself be a huge difference. Supposedly it was considered four-five years ago but deemed "not reasonable." Bullshit there, too. The one-road system [not counting the dirt road going out the NW end of the park] is EXACTLY like Zion Canyon.)

Finally?

Besides the gummint cuts to National Parks actually affecting service there, Mark, don't even get me started on #GangGreen enviro groups. Oops, started myself, like here, where I also call for killing the Access Pass and going back to the Parks Pass 5/x: https://t.co/tJvyUWMmhV

— reallyDonaldTrump 🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) February 2, 2020

In that blog post, and to follow on it? If we look at the old Parks Pass being $50 and the Access Pass being $80, but almost all of that extra $30 going undeservedly to BLM, USFS and USFWS? Make the Parks Pass $65 and you've helped funding right there.

And, in this piece, Outside comes off as close to GangGreen, even though Mark himself outside of that may not be. But he may be. 

He does admit selling his soul out for magazine story cash by revealing secret hot spots for a story. And he adds the background that he was living in New York City then, which I would say is a sellout itself. If you hadn't been living there, you wouldn't have been cash-flow poor.

Also, not a bad, but also not a good thing, he misses a beat. He doesn't pick up on, when Gov. Herbert expanded the original campaign, he didn't include Natural Bridges National Monument. Maybe that's because Natural Bridges, unlike Bears Ears and Grand Staircase, has been around for some time, and is an NPS unit, not BLM.

Environmental news roundup — #climatechange and #bucketlist problems

1. Climate change has become entrenched enough, and in northern latitudes, starting to produce feedback enough, that the Arctic of the last several thousands of years may be permanently gone. This, in turn, will have yet more feedback. Ocean shipping will put more big ships on the Northwest Passage and Northeast Passage. Their diesels will drop sooty pollution on remaining icecaps and glaciers, further speeding the melting.

Sadly, speaking of petrochemicals, per this piece, natives in the region are contributing their own feedback loops. And, by now, probably 80 percent of Inuit have either lost the skills, or abandoned the temperament, to run dogs rather than a snow machine.

2. Yellowstone's grizz may get re-protected under the Endangered Species Act. A bit of good news for the park and its wildlife in the middle of three red states with much of the population having a high animus toward grizzly, and wolves.



The Temple of Sinawava at the being-visited-to-death Zion National Park. More photos in this album.

3. Even as Utahans like Congresscritter Rob Bishop applaud President Trump for whacking away most of Bears Ears National Monument, thanks to the state of Utah's official promotional efforts and other things, visitation at national parks in the state continues to break records. The situation is worst (yes, worst, not best) at Zion. Rejecting Interior Dept. grifter-in-chief Ryan Zinke's plans for use-level pricing, I think Zion does need a reservation system. And, if that decreases visitation, not just controls it, fine. Nearly 5 million visitors a year would be tough enough for a park twice its size WITH most sections of the park visited equally.

But, given that the Kolob Canyons get almost no visitation, and even within the main section of Zion, 80 percent of its visitation is in Zion Canyon, something has to be done. Sadly, many richer bucket-listers won't be affected.

What COULD help, and immensely, is charging a surcharge for RVs, and making it by the length. Say a $5 minimum, then say another $5 for being over 32 feet. When campgrounds are being reconfigured to accommodate an RV flood, they need to pay for it. Not just at Zion, but all parks.

And if the Park Service is going to preserve mega-parks for the long-term future, it needs
1. Zion-like shuttles at more parks
2. Said shuttles to be electric (Zion's are propane, and I believe Yosemite's are too), for global warming, for cutting local air pollution, and for cutting local noise pollution
3. They need to have better scheduling than Yellowstone's does.
4. Fines need to be higher for visitor non-compliance on entry restrictions and bus use, and other things.
5. Here's another. Ban smoking on all trails in national parks.

4. Grist notes that people should avoid touting China's new carbon market trading program before it actually rolls out. Among other things? It's been in the pipeline a decade but is only being rolled out now, and it will only have simulated trading its first two years. I agree with that, as well as noting that Chinese municipal-level corruption is reason enough not to trust a capitalist system like this.

5. The GOPTaxScam includes opening a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. If ANWR in general, and the 1002 Area in particular, are so environmentally important (and I know they are, I'm being rhetorical), why did neither the Slickster nor Dear Leader make it a national monument, especially one inside the park service?

Answers? "Triangulation" and "all of the above energy strategy."

Beyond that, Jimmy Carter was arguably the last real environmentalist Democratic president. At a minimum, he knew how the Corps of Engineers lied about claims for dam benefits and he probably suspected BuRec did the same. He strikes me as more of an outdoorsman in general than either of his successors.

Hypercapitalism, Yosemite, the National Park Service and lawsuits

Early this month, I blogged about how Yosemite National Park needs to get "greener," noting specific things like lack of modern water facilities, no solar panels on buildings, etc. This is a hit-and-miss issue, as I noted; Zion, for example, is an exemplar of sorts within the whole National Park Service.

Speaking of ....

Yosesmite's parent was sued two months ago by the Delaware North concessionnaire company.

Why?

(It) claims it was owed big-time for its intellectual property investments at Yosemite. These include the historic Ahwahnee hotel, Curry Village and Badger Pass, names for which the company holds trademarks. 

 Formally known as DNC Parks and Resorts at Yosemite Inc., the Delaware North subsidiary argues that the government mishandled the intellectual property question, breached a contract and likely cost the company its shot at keeping the Yosemite business.

Now, regular readers know that I reject over-the-top claims of “privilege.”

But, there are real issues of privilege, or to put it another way, in this case, cultural appropriation.

Let's look at this more.

To be frank?

It's bullshit that DNC claims it owns name like "Ahwahnee" unless it can prove that this is an uninterrupted chain of custody from builder of hotel and that this is a made-up name by that person.

Rather, since it's an actual American Indian word, and an everyday one, the trademark to me seems questionable; and if there's any suing, the Yokuts should sue DNC, which I would love to see.

The other names? 

Given that Badger Pass Ski Area existed before DNC took it over, and that "Badger Pass" itself is a generic name for a place name, I'm not sure how that's trademarkable, even if some court granted it. That said, if it WAS trademarkable and the NPS has been dumb enough here and elsewhere, to give vendors inside national parks such trademarks, rather than retaining ultimate rights itself, we have another problem, Houston.

An open letter to Yosemite National Park

Twlight, near the start of the Mist Trail

The recent vacation of mine was, by my count, the fourth time I've visited Yosemite, including my second trip to upper Yosemite.

While its natural beauty is still great, despite the ongoing California drought, the park's management is behind the curve in a number of ways.

Here's more.

First, it needs to start installing the water bottle fillers that several other parks have. In my last two vacations, I’ve seen them at Canyonlands, Rocky, Arches, and Yosemite’s southern neighbor, Sequoia, as well as Lassen.

For the unfamiliar, this is like a water fountain, but it pours from the top down into the top of a water bottle or CamelPak. It has an automatic cutoff when a person removes the bottle or bag. And, by being built into a wall, it’s better insulated against cold weather.

I saw none in Yosemite. And, beyond that, at the park services complex at the end of the Yosemite Valley road, I saw relatively few water fountains of any type.

Second, I also “saw none” in terms of solar panels. (This was true at other California national parks, too.) I’m not saying that parks should go out of their way to install them, but, when roof repairs are needed, you better do this!

Zion is, for me, the epitome of this. When it built a new visitor center, it incorporated several active and passive solar features, and for summer temperatures, also built it with breezeway designs and other passive cooling features.

And, ditto for concessionaires. (I’ll have a separate blog post soon about a concessionaire lawsuit against the National Park Service over Yosemite.)

Speaking of concessionaires, and that lawsuit (over a change in concessionaire contract), Yosemite is too pricey. Look, I know that national park concessionaires have some freedom to charge more by both the nature of their service, and in some cases, parks being isolated.

But, $14 for a chili dog at the Ahwahnee Hotel’s snack bar or whatever? Ridiculous. (Not to mention the $475 as cheapest lodging stay at that hotel.) And, not to pick on it, but Curry Village (also operated by the same concessionaire) wasn’t a lot cheaper. Even it was high by national park standards. And, I’ve eaten meals at the El Tovar on Grand Canyon’s South Rim, the lodge at GC’s North Rim and the Old Faithful Lodge at Yellowstone, among others. If the change in concessionaires lowers prices, it’s a good deal right there.

That said, having written this summer about the decline and fall of the National Park Service, I'm not holding my breath over much of this.

(And, no, despite another recent post, and more to come, I'm not in an "I hate California" mood.)

Western wildfires, firsthand

Having coming from California, and firsthand through some smaller wildfires, and ground zero for fighting a biggie, the Rough, I have a new appreciation for the work and cost.

The Rough Fire had a 50-acre command and living center. No, that's not hyperbole.

I was able to leave Sequoia National Park the first night the northern entrance-exit, via Fresno, reopened. Kings Canyon National Park, including the General Grant Grove, remained closed. (I had hoped to go hiking in the actual Kings Canyon portion of the park, but that remained very closed.)

About halfway to Fresno, I drove through the command center for fighting the Rough Fire. It was a vast sprawl of tents (firefighters live in them, and they're usually sleeping in shifts), gear and equipment, vehicles — both personal to drive to a fire site and official firefighting vehicles, supply vehicles for food, fuel, additional firefighting gear and clothes, etc., and more.

And, for the hundreds, even thousands, of actual firefighters and support that are involved with suppression of a Western wildfire that big, it takes 40-50 acres to hold them all.

And, that whole area smelled like a massive barbecue restaurant.

Carpenter ants in Yosemite/Steve Snyder

Later, in Yosemite, the Butte Fire was more knocked down, and I didn't come across too much in the way of smoke problems from it. The Tenaya Fire didn't affect Upper Yosemite too much. But, the National Park Service had a couple of lightning-started fires it had already controlled, and was managing them, as a burn tool, rather than killing them. The carpenter ants at left are grubbing through the Yosemite Fire, near the top of what is putatively Yosemite Creek, but was pretty much dry as a bone. (One pothole a mile east, in the drainage of what NPS maps show as a Yosemite tributary, had a bucket or two of water.)

And, as anybody who follows the West knows, our federal firefighting budget in western lands has skyrocketed. And, they know why. Climate change.

Screw the deniers. And screw the Associated Press who now says it's officially impolite to call them deniers.

Environmentalism makes strange bedfellows

Or outright hypocrisy, in the case of the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, and the aqueduct piping its water from Yosemite National Park to San Francisco. GOP Congressman Dan Lundgren, whose district borders the park, wants the Interior Department to check if San Francisco is doing enough to find other water resources, such as water recycling and rainwater connection.

Nancy Pelosi is leading the opposition to San Francisco actually having to do something.

And, this is why "limousine liberal" is sometimes a stereotype and sometimes not.

Think of RFK Jr. fighting the wind farm offshore of Cape Cod. Or other instances.

It's also a reason to support smaller, non-Gang Green environmental groups that aren't in bed with the Democratic Party. 


It's also why, even if Lundgren is trying to score political points, one should never right Democrats a "liberal blank check."

Back from vacation -- 11 Cali days

that's why my posting has been so light.

Got some great pics at Yosemite, good ones at Kings Canyon and Big Sur and North Coast. Will have them edited, and a few posted, by end of week.

National Parks definitely need more money

Staffing levels are getting ridiculous.

Yesterday, before I flew out here to California, I called Yosemite's main number, trying to get to talk to a ranger about trail conditions in general and, in particular, if the cables to the summit of Half Dome had, perhaps, been set up a week or two earlier than is normal, due to the generally dry to very dry Californian winter.

Went through the phone menu... got the "talk to a ranger" option.
And, after 8-10 rings, and no pick-up,sent back to the main menu.

Science update old and new — lichen, beer, rocks

New lichen species in Yosemite; new beer from old yeast; oldest earth rocks

Yosemite is sporting at least one newly-identified species of lichen. It’s in plain site at such commonly-visited sites as Vernal Falls, Half Dome and El Capitan.

If you’ve been to Yosemite, what you (or I) thought were brightly colored oxidized minerals is actually the lichen. Hmm… wonder if that’s true in other western spots with lots of pouroffs, like Zion.

It has newfound importance, too; lichen are good monitors of air pollution and climate change.

And, it’s not quite so lonesome; in the past two years in Yosemite, scientists have found one new species of orchid and three of bees.

A California brewmeister is using 45-million-year-old yeast for his newest offings. His company? Fossil Fuels Brewing Company.

And, since he’s in California, you can give his — to wax biblical — old yeast in new beer bottles a taste after looking at lichen in Yosemite.

Earth’s oldest rocks are now known to be in Quebec.

Sorry, Sarah Palin and others of young-earth creationist ilk, but more scientific evidence is in that our planet is about 4.5-4.6 billion years old.

The latest? Rocks in northeastern Quebec date to about 4.28 billion years
.