The lighthouse at Fire Island National Seashore in New York

Conservation group lists America's most endangered national parks

Threatened sites include mountains, seashores, home

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By Thurston Hatcher
CNN

(CNN) -- Pollution, development and a lack of funding pose some of the biggest threats to the United States' national parks, with Alaska's sprawling expanse of parklands heading the list of endangered sites, a conservation group said last week.

Unveiling its annual list of America's most endangered national parks, the National Parks Conservation Association called on the administration of President George W. Bush to protect the nation's parks.

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The Conservation Association, a Washington, D.C.-based organization established in 1919, said it hoped to draw attention to problems facing all 384 locations in the system by highlighting 10 needing immediate attention.

Frederick Douglass' home, Fire Island

Concerns about development, oil exploration and snowmobiles landed Alaska's 55 million acres of national parks atop the conservation group's list. It cited a proposal to cut a 90-mile railroad line through part of Denali National Park, along with the growing use of snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles in the parks.

Big Bend National Park in Texas

Big Bend National Park in Texas was second on the list. Emissions from coal-fired power plants in Texas and northern Mexico have diminished scenic views in the park, while water diversions have harmed the Rio Grande, the group said.

The only house on the list is the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site in Washington, D.C., home of the 19th-century African-American abolitionist. Badly needed renovations of the deteriorating structure and its furnishings will cost $2 million, the association said.

The group also takes aim at a planned $100 million beach replenishment program at the Fire Island National Seashore off Long Island, New York. The plan, designed to protect homes built on the dunes, will accelerate erosion and disrupt nesting of the endangered piping plover shorebird, the group said.

Here's what the National Parks Conservation Association said about other parks on the list:

• Glacier National Park, Montana: The park is threatened by mining, timber harvesting and development, and its historic hotels and main road are deteriorating.
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee/North Carolina: Coal- fired power plants are polluting the park, diminishing views and damaging plans and animals.
• Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona: Visitors are disturbing or stealing as much as 12 tons of petrified wood each year.
• Florida parks: Despite Congress' passage last year of the Everglades Restoration Act, the quality and flow of water remain a concern at the Everglades Biscayne National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve.
• Stones River National Battlefield, Tennessee: The 570-acre park only protects a portion of the 4,000-acre Civil War battlefield, which includes the graves of more than 6,000 Union soldiers. A highway interchange and development threaten the park.
• Yellowstone National Park, Montana: Snowmobiles pollute the air and disturb wildlife, and the last free-roaming bison herd in North America is threatened by a policy allowing bison to be shot when they leave federal land.

Denali National Park is one of Alaska's endangered areas

Focusing on problems

"We are approaching a turning point with our national parks where we will lose the ecological integrity of many of our parks if we don't take action in the near future," National Parks Conservation Association President Tom Kiernan said in a telephone interview.

It's unclear whether the Bush administration is a "friend or foe" of the national parks, Kiernan said. He commended Bush's pledge of $4.9 billion to protect parks, but suggested other moves could endanger sites -- a recent reversal on carbon dioxide emissions, the renewal of leases at the "Stiltsville" community in Biscayne National Park and the possible diluting of a snowmobile ban at Yellowstone National Park, to name a few.

"It's a very mixed record, and we are pretty worried," Kiernan said.

Spokesman: Bush 'definitely a friend'

The president is concerned about the parks and their natural resources and there will be an increase in the proposed Park Service budget, said John Wright, a spokesman for the U.S. Interior Department.

"I would say that the president is definitely a friend of the national parks," he said.

Park Service: Problems exist

While the National Park Service doesn't agree with the conservation group on every issue, it applauds the association for focusing public attention on the parks, a spokeswoman for the federal agency said.

"We always feel that, anytime this kind of thing is raised, it's a good thing, because parks do have a lot of problems," said Elaine Sevy.

Off-limits: Snowmobile ban looms at Yellowstone
October 12, 2000
Snowmobile groups sue NPS over Denali ban
August 10, 2000
Earth Matters: Yellowstone, Smokies on list of endangered U.S. parks
April 5, 2000

National Parks Conservation Association
National Park Service

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