BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 7, 2025
National parks are a beautiful reflection of our country’s magnificent national and cultural heritage. Their protection is a high form of patriotism and worldwide source of inspiration. National parks also generate significant revenue for national, regional, and local economies. National parks are a good deal for America. Nevertheless, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum is eliminating resource specialists, who provide protection for all 400-plus national park units. Our national parks are constantly under siege. Those wishing to develop, prospect, mine, hunt, trap, harvest, irrigate, and generally extract something from nature’s last refuges are persistent and powerful. To save money cut questionable subsidies that give away public resources at below market rates for water, timber, grazing fees, and oil, gas and mineral extraction. ~ Michael Soukup, National Park Service chief scientist, 1995 to 2007, Blue Hill