For folks who enjoy birding on Roosevelt Island in DC - be aware, the Chairman of the House Resources Committee, Rep. Pombo, is circulating a draft of a 285 page Bill that among other things, proposes selling off National Parks that recieve fewer than 10,000 visitors per year. In the bill they suggest selling off DC's Roosevelt Island's 91 acres to developers. Say goodbye to the nesting Ospreys wintering Bald Eagles if this goes through.
See this link for more on the story from the San Francisco Chronicle.
- Denise Ryan
More Info:
Draft House Resources Committee legislation would put 15 national parks up for sale, allow offshore oil and gas drilling in now-restricted waters and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to petroleum exploration, according to a copy of the measure obtained by E&E Daily.
The draft proposes removing the 91-acre Theodore Roosevelt Island from the park system and selling it to commercial or residential developers, as well as requiring land be made available for a vehicle bridge to the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The island is in the Potomac River between Washington, D.C., and Arlington, Va.
The draft proposes selling 15 parks "for energy or commercial development" if they receive fewer than 10,000 visitors a year. They are:
*Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, Texas.
* Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, Alaska.
* Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Alaska.
* Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Alaska.
* Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site, California.
* Fort Bowie National Historic Site, Arizona.
* Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, Massachusetts.
* Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska.
* Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.
* Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, Washington, D.C.
* Minute Man Missile National Historic Site, South Dakota.
* Noatak National Preserve, Alaska.
* Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Monument, Pennsylvania.
* Thomas Stone National Historic Site, Maryland.
* Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Alaska.
6 comments:
Macombs Dam and Mullaly Parks across the street from historic Yankee Stadium in Bronx, NY may be destroyed until we rise up and voice our concerns. The Yankees want to build a new stadium on top of these parks. If these parks are seized by business, is any park really safe? Find out more at www.yankeesstayhome.com and www.saveourparks.blogspot.com
Congressman Pombo's mouthpiece at the House Resources Committee, Brian Kennedy, says the committee is not serious about putting national park units up for sale. If not, why'd they propose it? Nothing better to do with their time?
Also, if you recall, when the Interior Department's Paul Hoffman rewrote the National Park Service's Management Policies earlier this summer his work was shucked off as a "devil's advocate's" approach to seeing whether the policies needed updating.
Perhaps I'm paranoid, but with these two events occuring so closely together, and with Congressman Tom Tancredo, R-Colo, calling for the Interior Department to sell 15 percent of its lands to help fund Hurricane Katrina relief, I'm inclined to think it's more than a coincidence.
What's equally disappointing is that the Democrats seem to be sitting on their hands with duct tape over their mouths. Where's the outrage?
---www.nationalparkstraveler.com
Daniel Snyder could buy it...and chop down all the trees. :)
Washington Cube Was Here. #26.
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