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Summary:
9 of the 12 members of the advisory board for the National Park Service resigned because of Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke. The board members stated Zinke ignored their requests to meet and has "set aside" protection of the National Parks.
The Board chairman, Tony Knowles, stated in his letter that "Our requests to engage have been ignored and the matters on which we wanted to brief the new department team are clearly not part of its agenda. I have profound concern that the mission of stewardship, protection, and advancement of our National Parks has been set aside."
Knowles has also informed the media that the board has yet to convene since Trump took office, despite regulations, and the board has been left out of recent decisions about the park systems.
Along with Knowles, Gretchen Long, Paul Bardacke, Carolyn Finney, Judy Burke, Stephen Pitti, Milton Chen, Belinda Faustinos, and Margaret Wheatley have also resigned, leaving only 3 members.
The Board chairman, Tony Knowles, stated in his letter that "Our requests to engage have been ignored and the matters on which we wanted to brief the new department team are clearly not part of its agenda. I have profound concern that the mission of stewardship, protection, and advancement of our National Parks has been set aside."
Knowles has also informed the media that the board has yet to convene since Trump took office, despite regulations, and the board has been left out of recent decisions about the park systems.
Along with Knowles, Gretchen Long, Paul Bardacke, Carolyn Finney, Judy Burke, Stephen Pitti, Milton Chen, Belinda Faustinos, and Margaret Wheatley have also resigned, leaving only 3 members.
Questions:
1. Why do you think Zinke wad "freezing out" the former board members?
2. What do you think the National Park Service will do in response to the protest/resignation?
7 comments:
If I was on the advisory board for the National Park Service, I would quit as well. I am honestly disgusted that Trump's pick to lead the National Park Service is that irresponsible such that a full year after Trump was nominated he still has not convened the entire National Park Service for a meeting. It is clear that Zinke is not placing importance on the preservation of national parks. Instead we should have third party organizations such as Greenpeace and other environmental conservation agencies to step in and take over control since the National Park Service is not working to provide protection. If necessary, these third-party organizations ought to file a lawsuit against the National Park Service for failing to carry out their mission and job.
I agree with Frank in that Zinke is incompetent, or in the very least not interested in, carrying out the proper function of the National Park Service. It is obvious that he, along with Trump (and likely because of Trump's agenda), has decided to push aside the NPS for political gain - probably by privatizing the use of public park lands. This isn't the only department to face resignations in the face of the Trump administration, although I don't believe resigning is the proper way to resist or influence the Trump administration. It would be a fair guess to say these resignations will have no effect on changing Zinke's methods or outlook. Moreover, handing over control to third party candidates may not be the best idea, but lawsuits against the NPS for failing to carry out their mission and job, as proposed by Frank, would be a good move in trying to force the NPS's hand to actually serve our parks.
Judging by Zinke's record of allowing lead bullets, shrinking national monuments, and trying to legalize the importing of elephant trophies, I imagine this man didn't fail to meet with the board members because he was too busy. He doesn't like the idea that the government would set land aside from development, and he has no desire to meet people who do. Zinke doesn't seem to be willing to let anything or anyone get in the path of his privatization campaign, so he naturally would have no need to meet with environmentalists. They were justified in quitting, as their membership isn't going to have any effect, at least not for the remainder of Zinke's tenure.
Zinke has made it so National Parks are no longer a national priority, or even an issue at all. As the head of the department, he should be trying to protect National Parks, but instead has drastically decreased the area of parks and deregulated the important rules that affect the parks. The department hasn't followed what they're supposed to do, and Zinke has destroyed hope for national parks. I just don't think the Trump Administration cares enough about the environment and national parks, and Zinke is part of the problem. Like Frank said, if I were in the national parks department, I would quit as well. In an administration that cares so little for the natural world, however, the department is vital in protecting our country from Trump's administration.
Zinke's incompetence as the Secretary of the Interior throughout his first year in office causes great concern. He is not carrying out his role to protect the national parks in the United States, as he is trying to open them up for commercial development by big businesses. While this may be a major Republican view, it causes concern for many liberals, which I assume is what those nine members are. They were thus, justified in quitting and the freezing out was clearly done by Zinke in order to place board members that have similar conservative views in the National Parks Services to get what he wants.
Building on the comments above, quitting was the right choice for the people because it raises awareness on Zinke's incompetence and will hopefully influence him to change his mind and stance on how the National Parks system should be run.
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