2002-2003 Archives     2004 Archives


"Increase exclosure areas." - National Park Service, page 67. http://www.nps.gov/acad/rm/docs/pdf/visitoruse/finalrpt.pdf [Visitor 'friendly'?]

Large-scale partnerships are crucial as we confront shared challenges. Not only do air, water, and land animals freely pass over boundaries, but migratory species may move incredible distances over, through, or near not just one but many countries. Birds, bats, and butterflies sometimes travel prodigious distances. Our "Park Flight" partnership recognizes that many nations must co-manage migratory species, and that protected areas have a common stake in the return of those species from travels throughout their life cycle. "Park Flight" is a partnership between the U.S. National Park Service, American Airlines, our National Park Foundation, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, USAID, and the University of Arizona, that so far has developed cooperative projects with Mexico, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. It is an approach that expands the scale, function, and utility of the "sister" park relationships that we have all shared around the world. We need to expand that program to marine species, such as whales, seals and many fishes that are often just as mobile. All such species require coordinated responses to maintain the dynamics that make their return every year to our parks possible in a changing environment. - Fran Mainella, Director, National Park Service, September 2003, excerpted from a speech about Park Flight at the IUCN's Fifth World Parks Congress, Durban, South Africa.

"The term willing buyer, willing seller is meaningless. Everyone is willing to sell at some price. - William Kriz, chief of the National Park Service's Land Resources Division.

"Who will gainsay that the parks contain the highest potentialities of national pride, national contentment, and national health? A visit inspires love of country; begets contentment; engenders pride of possession; contains the antidote for national restlessness ... He is a better citizen with a keener appreciation of the privilege of living here, who has toured the national parks." - Stephen T. Mather, NPS (National Park Service) Director from 1917-1929 (That was then; this is now. If you're an inholder, or seek to visit a park using your own vehicle, you may have a distinctly different feeling toward those 'rangers' that make your 'experience.' The Grand Canyon, Yosemite and many others now have NPS employees that have become increasingly hostile to human disturbance of any kind.)