Michael Kilian’s “Lack of funding imperils parks” (Page 1, Oct. 10ok) accurately reports symptoms but fails to diagnose the disease that plagues our public lands: Politicians care more about grabbing than they do about maintaining what they have. It’s all about quantity rather than quality.
During its reign, the Clinton-Gore administration has set aside tens of thousands of acres as “national monuments,” and millions more as permanently “roadless.” Although in-the-trenches foresters protest, the D.C. politicians intend to prevent road construction and maintenance on those lands, leaving them unprotected against catastrophic forest fires.
Nearly 40 percent of the land in the United States is owned by the government. That’s the disease that plagues our public lands. The cure? Return that land to private owners.
