Twenty Eighteen was an interesting year for national parks and public lands. The year saw massive fires, resignations and restructurings, massive visitation, death, idiots, and two government shutdowns.10. Government Shutdown. No we are not talking about our current shutdown. It's hard to believe but a year ago at this time, the government was also shutdown, closing parks and public lands. Parks like the Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Bell were completely closed, while other parks like Yellowstone were semi-open.
9. Advisory Panel Members Resign The past year saw politics significantly impact park management. In January 10 of the 12 members of the federally charged National Parks Advisory Board resigned in protest. Former Alaska Governor Tony Knowles, Board Chair wrote the president in protest stating the committee members "have stood by waiting for the chance to meet and continue the partnership . . . as prescribed by law." Knowles went on writing "We understand the complexity of transition but our requests to engage have been ignored and the matters on which we wanted to brief the new Department team are clearly not part of its agenda."
8. Record Visitation The National Park System saw nearly record breaking visitation in 2017 with 330,882,751 visitors. This number was nearly identical to 2016 numbers and show that American's love affair with their national parks continues.
7. Park Leadership Restructured Along with advisory panel members resigning, several high profile park officials were reassigned causing some to tender their resignation. Several park experts speculate Trump Administration officials were trying to remove park leaders that would oppose the the president's attempts to loosen restrictions on hunting, access, and resource extraction.
6. Summer of Fire Fires across the country burned millions of acres this past year. National Parks were not immune from these infernos including Yosemite and Glacier. Meanwhile, Santa Monica Mountains national recreation area saw nearly 80 percent of its landmass consumed by fire this past year.
5. Grizzly Bears back under federal protection A federal judge threw out the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's plan to delist Yellowstone bears and permit Grizzly bear hunts in Idaho and Wyoming. The judge questioned the FWS' Grizzly bear population estimates stating the rejected plan limited the federal government's used of best available science.
4. Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park reopens Hawaii Volcanoes closed in May after initial eruptions from Kilauea volcano. These were followed over the next several months by several earthquakes and continued eruptions which cause significant damage to park roads and trails.
3. Death and missing hikers The national park system appeared to see a rash of deaths and people going missing this past year. The death toll included a couple who plunged to their death while taking a selfie on top of Yosemites' half dome. Meanwhile Yellowstone seemed to see the lion's share of visiting idiots who taunted bison, walked on Grand Prismatic, and looked into Old Faithful.
2. Zinke Resigns Amid scandal and investigation the two year tenure of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke came to an end. According to the Washington Post "During his tenure, Zinke came under at least 15 investigations, including: inquiries into his connection to a real estate deal involving a company that Interior regulates; whether he bent government rules to allow his wife to ride in government vehicles; and allowing a security detail to travel with him on a vacation to Turkey at considerable taxpayer cost."
1. Government Shutdown Take 2 In a case of bad deja vu, the federal government and national parks closed for the second time in twelve months. However, several parks remain open to the public despite a lack of staff and closed facilities. This has lead to a rash of vandalism, trash, trespassing, and other and human waste.
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Sean Smith is an award winning conservationist and author. He is a former National Park Ranger at Yellowstone, Glacier, and the North Cascades. He is a TEDx speaker, and private pilot. He graduated from the University of Washington in 1989 with a degree in Political Science. He got his master's in Natural Resources Management from Central Washington University in 1996. He currently runs Washington State's efforts to reduce and eliminate toxic chemicals from consumer products and serves as the Mayor Pro Tem of Covington.
He has been writing stories and books since he was a child and currently writes national park thrillers from the shadow of Mount Rainier.
All his novels can be found here: Mr. Sean D Smith
