NewsHour Backgrounders
March 9, 1997:
Interesting coalitions have developed around the fight for rights to the water flowing down the Animus and the La Plata rivers in Colorado.
March 3, 1997:
Spencer Michels reports on efforts to rebuilt Yosemite National Parks after this year's devastating floods.
April 30, 1996:
Tom Bearden reports on efforts to restore the Colorado River's eco-system by flooding it.
Browse the NewsHour's index of environmental issues.
Outside Links
National Park Service
History of the National Park Service
Interior Sec. Bruce Babbitt
Department of the Interior
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Ever since it's creation on August 25, 1916, the National Park system has been the focus of pitched battles between those wishing use the parks' natural resources, those wanting to make the parks accessible to tourism and those wanting to preserve as the parks as untouched refugees from humanity. Passions run deep on all sides, and balanced solutions acceptable to all have often proved elusive.
The man President Clinton has tapped to find balanced answers is Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. A former governor of Arizona, Babbitt came to the office with a strong environmental record when he was appointed in January, 1993. Since then, he has been involved in many bitter controversies involving grazing, mining and timber rights on federal lands, and has often battled congressional Republicans over how the 80.7 million acres now controlled by the National Park Service should be managed.
One of the central controversies is how the natural resources within the National Park system should be maintained. For example, flooding this January decimated Yosemite National Park in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains, causing $178 million in damage. The park service and environmentalists, though, see the flooding as an opportunity to re-design the park. By moving buildings to higher ground, limiting auto traffic, and building a mass transit system, park officials believe they can preserve the park's natural beauty and still accommodate the 17,000 visitors that enter Yosemite during its peak summer days. But critics contend that the plan will hurt tourism and that the private sector was included enough in the developmental stage.
Sec. Babbitt has also been a part of a debate about what to do with buffaloes living in Yellowstone National Park. Cattle ranchers from Montana and neighboring states believe that the bison herds are infected and demand that the animals be destroyed if found outside the park's borders. Environmentalists, however, see the killing as mindless slaughter.
Our Forum asks: Can the National Park Service balance the needs of tourists and environmental concerns? Should the National Park System be expanded or reduced? What the most pressing issues facing the nation's parks today?
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