June 28, 2003

No help required, thanks

Remember Yellowstone National Park? The first national park ever created? The park Batty (go see her photos) just visited? Well, the Bush Administration says that it no longer merits endangered status on UNESCO's World Heritage List. It was declared endangered in September of 1995 for water, sewage, and mine-related problems.

"Yellowstone is no longer in danger," Paul Hoffman, an Interior Department official, wrote in an April 7 letter to the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

But there is one hitch: The professional staff appears to disagree with the administration's assessment that the government is addressing all the problems that put Yellowstone on the endangered list in 1995. A draft report by the staff earlier this year identified continuing threats to the quality of the park's streams, bison herd and cutthroat trout populations -- and to visitors' overall experience of the park.

The final report sent to the international committee by the Bush administration had toned down or deleted these concerns. Copies of both reports were provided to the Los Angeles Times by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, a regional conservation group.

Hoffman, deputy assistant interior secretary with responsibility for the national parks, said in an interview that the administration was not trying to "sugarcoat" Yellowstone's condition. He stressed that the serious threats to the park had been or were being addressed.

Well, maybe so, Mr. Hoffman, but given the Administration's editing of the EPA's climate report, forgive me if I don't believe you.

"Tinkering with scientific information, either striking it from reports or altering it, is becoming a pattern of behavior," said Roger G. Kennedy, a former director of the National Park Service. "It represents the politicizing of a scientific process, which at once manifests a disdain for professional scientists working for our government and a willingness to be less than candid with the American people."

Anyone remember Adlai Stevenson being called a "pointy-headed intellectual?" This Administration doesn't like science or scientists unless their views conform to its own world view, and it's not reluctant to suppress alternate opinions and facts if there's a disagreement.

This is Yellowstone, the oldest national park in the United States, and we don't want to fix the damn sewer problems? What the hell kind of stewardship is this? This should infuriate every individual who has ever been to a national park; your favorite one could be next.

Posted by Linkmeister at June 28, 2003 02:48 PM
Comments

I was at Yellowstone after 1995. It needed work then...
The administration is hiding stuff about the environment..
Its sneaky, sneaky...
Time magazine states that this line:
"Climate change has global consequences for human health and environment" written by the EPA in its draft form was changed by the White House along with other references to global warning risks by replacing them with innocuous language...
How very, very sad......

Posted by: toxiclabrat at June 29, 2003 04:38 AM

I anticipate a brief visit to Yellowstone in a bit over a week! Staying on the main tourist routes, I suspect I won't see much that's in danger, but I'll keep an eye peeled.

With the Dubya administration's track record on environmental issues (and so many others, of course), why would anyone, anywhere believe a single damn word they say about the status of Yellowstone's environment?

Posted by: N in Seattle at June 29, 2003 03:48 PM

Particularly the UN.

Posted by: Linkmeister at June 29, 2003 03:56 PM