{"id":589,"date":"2025-05-26T11:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T11:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sewellconsultancy.com\/?p=589"},"modified":"2025-06-02T03:10:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T03:10:58","slug":"secretary-burgums-cuts-to-national-parks-would-be-the-worst-idea-we-ever-had-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sewellconsultancy.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/26\/secretary-burgums-cuts-to-national-parks-would-be-the-worst-idea-we-ever-had-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"Secretary Burgum\u2019s cuts to national parks would be \u201cthe worst idea we ever had\u201d (Letters)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cuts to national parks would be “the worst idea we ever had”<\/h4>\n

In 1983, author and historian Wallace Stegner wrote<\/a>, “National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.”<\/p>\n

Efforts are currently underway in our government to destroy our system of national parks. This is the worst idea imaginable.<\/p>\n

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is proposing a reduction in the park operating budget of $900 million<\/a>. Current funding for the National Park Service stands at $3.1 billion. The effects of such a reduction would be catastrophic.<\/p>\n

To address the effect of such a reduction, the secretary is proposing some parks be categorized and managed as state parks.<\/p>\n

Staffing reductions have already been made. Some 1,700 of the over 20,000 employees have already been removed with some 1,500 more possibly to be cut under the provisions of a reduction in force expected to be announced later this month.<\/p>\n

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Congress almost sold off 500,000 acres of Western public lands. What could that mean for Colorado?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Such actions cannot be absorbed by the National Park Service without a dramatic effect. The National Park Service, as we know it now, will be decimated.<\/p>\n

Over 300 million people visited the national parks in 2024. Visitor spending in communities near national parks provides a benefit of over $55 billion to the nation\u2019s economy and supports over 415,000 jobs. Why destroy an agency that provides such a benefit to our economy, to say nothing of the value it brings in preserving our nation\u2019s heritage?<\/p>\n

We cannot let America\u2019s best idea be replaced with America\u2019s worst idea!<\/p>\n

Donald Falvey, Lakewood<\/em><\/p>\n

Editor’s note: Falvey has served as the superintendent of Zion and Badlands National Parks and in various positions at the Denver Service Center in Lakewood for several years, beginning in 1972.<\/em><\/p>\n

Public lands sell-off would set the stage for sweetheart deals<\/h4>\n

Re: “GOP pushes to sell off public land,” May 8 news story, and “Congress almost sold off 500,000 acres of western public land<\/a>,” May 23 news story<\/p>\n

In the late of night, Republican corporate cronies in the U.S. House of Representatives added a public lands giveaway provision to their sweeping tax cut package for the rich. It would have mandated the sale of thousands of acres of our public lands to big business. Make no mistake; this would just have set the stage for future mass sweetheart deals to sell off huge tracts of our national forests, wildlife refuges, and national monuments to mining, drilling, logging and wealthy land developers.<\/p>\n