Treehuggers International » National Parks Conservation Association

National Parks Photographer Ian Shive

tommy — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:01:08 +0000

The iconic vista of the Teton Range and the Snake River is the cover of Ian Shive's new book.

Fresh from giving a presentation to lawmakers at the Capitol in Washington D.C. and meeting with newly-confirmed National Park Service chief John Jarvis, conservationist and outdoor photographer Ian Shive talks about his new book The National Parks Our American Landscape.

Merced River in Yosemite Valley.

After years of assignments and photography work with the National Parks Conservation Association and other environmental outlets, Ian’s book pulls together some four years of photography work and travel around the country, along with essays by the editors of the NPCA’s National Parks magazine, who detail their experiences collaborating with Ian Shive in their Washington offices and in the field.

While Ian discusses his photography technique and connection to the outdoors, he and Tommy also talk about the effect of climate change on National Parks and America’s special places, the fear-based culture of the outdoors which has grown out of extreme sports and irresponsible media, the work Ian’s new multimedia center Wild Collective is doing to spread the word about parks and conservation on the web, his Wild Exposure show on Al Gore’s Current TV, and Ian’s meetings with lawmakers and park officials.

While it’s hard to imagine we’ll be returning to the days where presidents camp with conservationists, as President Theodore Roosevelt did with John Muir at Yosemite 100 years ago, the good news is after years of neglect, slashed budgets, and a growing backlog of urgent projects and maintenance, our nation’s National Parks are finally on the receiving end of urgently-needed funds. As our nation begins to re-invest in our National Parks, public awareness about the value of National Parks has also increased over the past year, thanks in no small part to the recent Ken Burns series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea on PBS.

A lonely tent on the brilliantly-lit slopes of Mt. McKinley in Alaska's Denali National Park.

Guns In National Parks

daley — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 22:11:36 +0000

Yosemite and Half Dome: Is it time to lock and load at America's National Parks?

Michael Cipra from the National Parks Conservation Association’s Desert Field office in Joshua Tree talks about the danger to rangers, wildlife, and the public with the introduction of firearms into National Parks after a long-standing prohibition on loaded weapons, first made law in the 1930s and upheld by President Reagan in 1981, was curiously repealed.

An 11th hour amendment added to the 2009 Credit Card Reform Act to allow loaded firearms in National Parks and other National Park Service lands has passed Congress, and the entire legislative package, complete with the guns-in-National-Parks provision, has regrettably been signed into law by President Obama.

We at Treehuggers International are exceedingly disappointed in Congress’ unwillingness to have a public debate on the matter of firearms in National Parks, and at President Obama for signing the package into law in what appears to be an act of pure political concession.

While hunting is appropriately allowed in some National Parks and wildlife refuges, we at Treehuggers International, along with citizens’ groups, conversation organizations, and retired park rangers, can’t think of a more reckless move than to allow loaded weapons in National Parks in all seasons, especially in areas where conservation is the guiding principle, not an afterthought.

80 Percent of California State Parks to Close

daley — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:11:33 +0000

Desert Valley at Anza-Borrego erupts into a riot of color in the spring.

California’s State Parks are the envy of the nation, but they are facing grim times as Governor Schwarzenegger intends to close, padlock, and mothball 80% of California’s State Parks by the end of the summer in order to help pay down the state’s $24 billion dollar budget deficit. 80% of California’s duly revered state park system comes down to 220 out of 279 properties, and the volume and quality of the parks set to be closed is staggering. It’s not even a matter of which parks will close, but which ones will remain open.

In San Diego County, the current home of Treehuggers International, nine parks and beaches are set to be padlocked including: Palomar Mountain State Park, Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, Torrey Pines State Beach, Torrey Pines State Reserve, Border Field State Park, Silver Strand State Beach, Carlsbad State Beach, San Pasqual Battlefield State Park, and perhaps most impossibly of all, massive Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the biggest state park in the nation.

So far, the projected fiscal savings are coming up as microscopic. The annual budget for state parks makes up less than one-tenth of one percent of the entire state budget, while at the same time, for every one dollar from the general fund which goes into California State Parks, a full $2.35 on the dollar goes back into the local economies of communities around parks, and state parks generate $4.3 billion dollars annually.

The price tag for closing the parks down, only to eventually re-open them, does not result in a net savings. So why close them in the name fiscal responsibility? Even as the illogical nature of the proposal is becoming clear, communities around the state are bracing for a financial calamity with park closures, so keep writing those letters and making calls to your state legislators.

Making special in-studio appearances for this urgent edition of Treehuggers International are Traci Verardo-Torres, the Legislative and Policy Director at the California State Parks Foundation, and Michael Cipra, the California Desert Program Manager at the National Parks Conservation Association’s California Desert Field Office in Joshua Tree.

For more information and to take action, click HERE.

Big Basin Redwoods State Park

Treehuggers International » National Parks Conservation Association

National Parks Photographer Ian Shive

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Guns In National Parks

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80 Percent of California State Parks to Close

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