Some thoughts on...

Rangeland deterioration: When you look at many rangelands, it's not easy to see the damage. You don't see the wildlife that isn't there, the vegetation that isn't there, the streams that once ran there. It's not like looking at a clearcut.

Rangeland protection: One of the reasons we haven't seen much improvement is the hold that cowboys have on the American psyche. People think of cowboys as heroes.

The federal land agencies: The agencies had it to themselves for a long time and the results are written on the ground for people to see. Billions of dollars in minerals have been taken out with no return to the federal government. The result is huge open pits all over the west, many of which are producing highly toxic runoff. Ninety-four percent of the primeval forest that once covered the U.S. have been lost, and vast areas of federal rangelands are in unsatisfactory condition, according to the people who are in charge of managing them.

The Parks Service mandate: Instead of taking protection as its charge, the Parks Service has tried to balance protection with visitor use. The result is a whole host of problems, many of which are the result of increased visitation over the last several decades.

Overcrowding in National Parks: Often, when you go to Yosemite, you don't experience a National Park. What you experience is a traffic jam equivalent to any major metropolitan area's traffic jam, and you just happen to be in a park, but what you're doing is sitting in your car, not moving, or you are driving around in your car looking for a parking space, or you are standing in line trying to get a sandwich, with your children screaming because they are hungry and tired. That's not a park experience.

Public awareness: They've done these studies and it turns out most people don't even know that logging takes place on National Forests.

Western Congressmen: The majority of Western Congressmen are exceedingly sensitive, let's put it that way, to a vision of the Old West in which resources are unlimited and all resource demands can be met.

America's Parks: Americans invented the idea of national parks and other countries have national parks because they have copied our idea. Our parks are as familiar to many people around the world as they are to us.

The future: If we do not address the problems at the parks, and I don't want to make this seem like something that will happen tomorrow, but if we do not resolve the problems, there won't be anything to see when people go and visit them.

  Published by the Natural Resources Defense Council -- contact us at nrdcinfo@nrdc.org