Selling America’s natural heritage?

During this season of giving thanks, the natural beauty, history and cultural resources preserved in our national parks have been on my mind – inspired by recent visits to a dozen exceptional parks from Georgia and North Carolina to Utah, California and Hawaii.

I am so thankful for the leadership of people like naturalist and author John Muir and President Teddy Roosevelt, both eloquent and persistent advocates for public land. One hundred years ago, Roosevelt knew that protecting forests and wild places was as important to the future of our country as having a strong military. He acted on that vision by setting aside hundreds of thousands of acres of national forest lands and spectacular landscapes.

A few months ago, I stood on Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park where, in 1903, Muir and Roosevelt gazed down into the valley, observing a scene that I could still see today: the Merced River flowing through meadows after plunging down Nevada and Vernal Falls. During the four days that the men spent together, they discussed how to preserve iconic landscapes, like Yosemite, from development and for the enjoyment of everyone, not just a wealthy few.

Their conversations and actions, and those of other visionaries, led to what has been called “America’s best idea”: a system of national parks, monuments, seashores, recreation areas, historic battlefields and other places now totaling more than 80 million acres. Last year, millions of people across the country celebrated the Centennial of the National Park Service, the agency within the U.S. Department of Interior that is charged with protecting and promoting the 417 units in the park system.

This year has presented a very different attitude from our national government. Celebration has given way to real and justifiable fear that the current administration in Washington wants to sell pieces of our natural heritage to the highest bidder, really any bidder. Harmful proposals have been put forth: to significantly reduce the Park Service’s already meager budget and make bone-deep staffing cuts; to reduce the size of some national monuments; and to make our parks less accessible for the average American by tripling entrance fees.

Appointed by President Trump last spring, Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke calls himself a Teddy Roosevelt conservationist, a laughable comparison, although Zinke does dress like TR in his outdoor apparel.

In April, Zinke ordered a sweeping review of 27 national monuments that were designated or expanded using Teddy Roosevelt’s 1906 Antiquities Act. His stated goal: to identify federal lands to open up for drilling, mining and grazing – lands legally protected as part of our country’s heritage. Despite receiving nearly three million letters from citizens opposed to reducing protections for national parks, Zinke recommended, in September, that the administration significantly shrink four national monuments and modify half a dozen others.

More recently, Zinke proposed to raise entrance fees at 17 of the most-visited national parks from $25 to $70 per vehicle during peak, summer months: places like Grand Teton, Glacier, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Shenandoah and Acadia national parks. The Secretary said that the fee hike would help fix the Park Service’s $12 billion maintenance backlog. However, the Interior Department estimates that the increases would boost revenue by just $70 million per year, while President Trump has proposed slashing the Park Service budget by $400 million next year.

Undoubtedly, the increasing dependence on higher user fees will price out working class people, young people and others from America’s public lands, while failing to provide sufficient funding to fix the maintenance backlog problem.

Are these proposed actions the initial steps to a larger dismantling of Roosevelt’s public lands legacy? Is the real goal to shift responsibility for park and forest financing away from the public to private entities and commercial enterprises? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, get outside and enjoy our national treasures while you can and support the national park system by volunteering, joining park friends groups and taking action.

Visit the National Parks Conservation Association website at npca.org to take action on the proposed park fee increase by the Dec. 22 comment deadline. Help the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, one of three national park units in metro Atlanta, by supporting its friends group, Chattahoochee Parks Conservancy, at chattahoocheparks.org.

Give thanks. Show your park love.

Eco Briefs

The Captain Planet Foundation’s Benefit Gala will be held on Friday, Dec. 8 at the InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta from 6 to 9:30 p.m. “Avengers” actor Mark Ruffalo will receive the Superhero for Earth award. Single tickets are $750, $1,500 per couple, and corporate tables start at $5,000. The charitable evening will raise funds for the Foundation’s programs, which promote and support hands-on environmental education projects in K-12 schools in all 50 states and 25 other countries. Funds will also support Project Learning Garden, which is over halfway to its goal of having a learning garden in 525 City of Atlanta, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett public elementary schools by 2020. For more information or tickets, visit captainplanetfoundation.org/benefitgala.

Bring One for the Chipper, the state’s annual Christmas tree recycling program, will gear up after the holidays. Each year, Keep Georgia Beautiful works with private sponsors to organize the recycling event. The Chipper program involves hundreds of Georgia communities and thousands of volunteers. Since its inception, the program has recycled an estimated 6 million Christmas trees. The mulch from these trees has been used for playgrounds, local government beautification projects and individual yards. To find out where to drop off your tree, visit keepgeorgiabeautiful.org.

Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Downtown Atlanta has been recognized as the first professional sports stadium in the world to achieve LEED Platinum certification – the highest level of certification possible for a sustainable building.

WSB-TV and The Trust for Public Land has named Stephen Causby as Atlanta’s 2017 Cox Conserves Hero. Park Pride, Causby’s nonprofit beneficiary, received $10,000. Causby led the grassroots transformation of an overgrown lot on English Avenue. The lot is now boasting picnic areas, garden beds, a mural, a playground, newly sodded play fields and a brand-new community center. The two runners-up will each received $5,000 for their nonprofits of choice. Michelle Rice selected East Atlanta Community Association as her nonprofit of choice; Dale Higdon chose Georgia Piedmont Land Trust.

Atlanta Audubon Society has received a $20,000 grant plus $20,000 in matching funds to restore bird-friendly habitat at the Land O’ Lakes unit of Blue Heron Nature Preserve in Fulton County. The project is funded by Southern Company, the parent company of Georgia Power, and the U.S. Forest Service through a 2017 Five Star and Urban Waters grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The goal is to create bird-friendly, native, urban habitat that provides quality foraging, nesting and stopover habitat. A total of three acres will be restored along Mill Creek, part of the Peachtree Creek watershed.

The Decatur Housing Authority and the City of Decatur were recently honored by Southface Energy Institute and the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association with the 2017 Partner of the Year Award at the annual EarthCraft Celebration of Excellence event. DHA and the City of Decatur recently worked in partnership to develop Trinity Walk, an innovative affordable housing community in the heart of Decatur. The Trinity Walk apartments were constructed to EarthCraft green building specifications.