Law Great American Outdoors Act

[Rob Battisti]

I bet he initially thought Yo-Semite was in Israel

Truly, an idiot’s idiot

 

[CatchnShoot]

The NPS bison tweets have been making me smirk all year.







I'm glad for this.

Bison Bellows: America's New National Mammal (U.S. National Park Service)

www.nps.gov

Joining the bald eagle as a national symbol, the American bison recently became the United States' first national mammal. After four years of outreach to Congress and the White House, by the Wildlife Conservation Society, its partners the InterTribal Buffalo Council and National Bison Association and 60-plus Vote Bison Coalition members, the National Bison Legacy Act was signed on May 9, 2016, officially making the bison our national mammal. This historic event represents a true comeback story, embedded with history, culture, and conservation.

Less than 100 years ago, the American bison was teetering on the verge of extinction. By the beginning of the 20th century, the species' numbers fell from herds of roughly 40 million to less than 1,000 individuals. The impact on Native Americans was devastating. In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt, William Hornaday and others formed the American Bison Society (ABS) to help save bison from extinction---the first national effort to save an American wildlife species. The U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) also helped reverse the bison's fate. Beginning at Yellowstone National Park in 1872, the park protected its remaining two dozen bison. Today, through immense collaboration with diverse partners, DOI lands currently support 17 bison herds in 12 states, for a total of approximately 10,000 bison over 4.6 million acres of DOI and adjacent lands.

Believe in yourself like visitors who believe they can pet a bison.

That is fucking Gold.

 

[Deorum]

Nice. I'm booking my plane and hotels this weekend. We decided on 2 nights in Vegas, 2 nights at Grand Canyon and 1 night at Death Valley. I'm sticking with the African Rangers for this trip.

I think you've made the right choice. How much influence did where the gf wanted to go play a part? lol. I think two nights at GCNP is perfect because not only are you buying yourself some extra time on the off-chance that bad weather hazes the canyon out on one of those days (I'll pray for clear skies), but it actually gives you enough time to explore and get the perspective from both rims if you opt for that. They are very different experiences with a noticeably different vibe, damn near like two different national parks.

South Rim (7000 ft elevation) boasts an incredible amount of accessibility, available amenities, interpretative exhibits, historic buildings, a full staff of park rangers, and probably the most iconic sweeping overlooks. North Rim (8000-9200 ft elevation) is a lot more remote, far less commercialized, and has drastically fewer crowds with a dense surrounding forest of evergreens and aspens interspersed with lush subalpine meadows. The formations of the canyon (and its side canyons) are more colorful and dramatic. It's wholly worth visiting either, preferably both.

(CC: @Long Dark Blues)

 

[Natural Order]

Yo Semite.

What a fucking idiot.

Gotta like the passing of the bill though, very good stuff to prioritize these rare and treasured lands.

 

[LeonardoBjj]

Believe in yourself like visitors who believe they can pet a bison.

That is fucking Gold.

- Theres people that have pet alligators. And they're more well behaved than pit-bulls!

 

[Deorum]

Believe in yourself like visitors who believe they can pet a bison.

That is fucking Gold.

- Theres people that have pet alligators. And they're more well behaved than pit-bulls!

I *almost* don't blame people for wanting to get close to them. They're an iconic species and rare sight for a majority of people that actually look like they might be approachable and friendly herbivores ("fluffy cows"). In reality, they are incredibly dangerous bulldozers with males weighing up to 2500 lbs and prone to aggressive behavior when startled that will fuck you up. Absolute Beasts.

 

[Mr Holmes]

I think you've made the right choice. How much influence did where the gf wanted to go play a part? lol. I think two nights at GCNP is perfect because not only are you buying yourself some extra time on the off-chance that bad weather hazes the canyon out on one of those days (I'll pray for clear skies), but it actually gives you enough time to explore and get the perspective from both rims if you opt for that. They are very different experiences with a noticeably different vibe, damn near like two different national parks.

South Rim (7000 ft elevation) boasts an incredible amount of accessibility, available amenities, interpretative exhibits, historic buildings, a full staff of park rangers, and probably the most iconic sweeping overlooks. North Rim (8000-9200 ft elevation) is a lot more remote, far less commercialized, and has drastically fewer crowds with a dense surrounding forest of evergreens and aspens interspersed with lush subalpine meadows. The formations of the canyon (and its side canyons) are more colorful and dramatic. It's wholly worth visiting either, preferably both.

(CC: @Long Dark Blues)

Wife now, and she is down. She said she would rather do GC than Zion. I'll have to start investigating the hikes and see which will be good for us. The wife taps out after about 10 miles but she's also some what afraid of height.

 

[Deorum]

Wife now, and she is down. She said she would rather do GC than Zion. I'll have to start investigating the hikes and see which will be good for us. The wife taps out after about 10 miles but she's also some what afraid of height.

Congrats. She's smart. Zion is both beautiful and often terribly overcrowded these days, thanks in large part to the decade of mass marketing and propaganda put out from Utah's board of tourism and their "Mighty Five" campaign. The Grand Canyon is a UNESCO world heritage site, the most spectacular steep-sided canyon on the planet and the greatest geological wonder of the world. There is no comparison. Hell, superking is planning a whole independent road trip based around it.

I bet he initially thought Yo-Semite was in Israel

Yo Semite.

What a fucking idiot.

Gotta like the passing of the bill though, very good stuff to prioritize these rare and treasured lands.

I think this is what DJT's speech writers were going for.

"The parks do not belong to one state or to one section...Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Grand Canyon are national properties in which every citizen has a vested interest. Who will gainsay that the parks contain the highest potentialities of national pride, national contentment, and national health? A visit inspires love of country; begets contentment; engenders pride of possession; contains the antidote for national restlessness...He is a better citizen with a keener appreciation of the privilege of living here who has toured the national parks." -- Stephen T. Mather (1st Director of NPS, 1917-1929)

 

[Long Dark Blues]

 

[Deorum]

I know. I'm so glad to have them down here.



The condors, too.

 

[Deorum]

I hope it is. But I've become jaded over how little most politicians seem to care about these special places.

The fact of the matter is that the National Park Service has lost somewhere in there ballpark of 15% of its employees over the last decade. And this trend has been going on much longer than that. This has been paired with huge increases in visitation to these same sites.

It is not sustainable. I don't know what it will take to get Washington's attention, but I'm seeing the crumbling from the inside.

Positions that would have been filled in the past are being let sit vacant due to budget problems, while those that are still here are burning out at a rapid pace from being asked to do the work of 3 rangers just to keep basic operations moving.

The saddest part is that we are having major problems recruiting young folks to fill the ranks for the next generation of rangers. Why? Because you can't live on 17$ an hour in the towns that surround many parks.

The GAOA is great. It has brought some major infrastructure improvements to some parks. But these temporary injections of money only mask what's going on in the park service, which is a slow but steady strangulation to death by lack of funding.

A lot of Americans are seemingly unaware that it isn't just the full-fledged national parks and famous natural wonders that the NPS is tasked with managing, maintaining, preserving, and protecting. It also includes literally hundreds of other cultural, historical, and natural sites alike across the country of multiple designations: national battlefields, national historic sites, national historical parks, national military parks, national memorials, national monuments, national preserves, national recreation areas. Everything from Independence Hall, Valley Forge, and Gettysburg to the Lincoln Memorial, Mount Rushmore, and the Statue of Liberty are NPS units.

 

[BFoe]

Is there any chance this can get a nice re-up injection with some executive branch insistence in 2025 for FY26? Does anyone oppose doing so? The GAOA was probably my single favorite piece of legislation passed during the DJT era. The LWCF now has a perpetual source of funding, and that's great. However, the NPS on the whole has long been subject to severe constraints where annual budgetary appropriations are concerned. This is despite the fact that the natural and cultural sites comprising our park system are considered to be a collective national treasure, with the agency itself rated the most favorable entity of the federal government by the American public.

The Great American Outdoors Act (H.R. 1957) is a piece of legislation passed by the United States Congress, signed by President Donald J. Trump, and activated into Public Law (Public Law No. 116-152) in 2020. It has two major components: fully and permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) at $900 million per year, and provide $9.5 billion over five years ($1.9 billion annually) to address a maintenance backlog at American National Parks, including updating facilities to increase accessibility for the general public. At the time, the Associated Press wrote that it would be "the most significant conservation legislation enacted in nearly half a century."

Wait, wasn’t the funding for all of these things in the GAOA supposed to come from oil drilling and mining on federal lands? I’m surprised you’d support this.

 

[Deorum]

Wait, wasn’t the funding for all of these things in the GAOA supposed to come from oil drilling and mining on federal lands? I’m surprised you’d support this.

That's where the inconsistent funding for the LWCF used to come from and was dependent on before the GAOA was passed. The DM&R backlogs at NPS units are a separate thing, and the Act authorized an additional $9.5 billion on top of the park service's paltry annual budget to help address it. If I had my way, the entire backlog would be dealt with immediately, with the NPS funded at $20b minimum annually thereafter. As it is now, that's more than the entire allocation to the Department of the Interior as a whole.

 

[BFoe]

That's where the inconsistent funding for the LWCF used to come from and was dependent on before the GAOA was passed. The DM&R backlogs at NPS units are a separate thing, and the Act authorized an additional $9.5 billion on top of the park service's paltry annual budget to help address it. If I had my way, the entire backlog would be dealt with immediately, with the NPS funded at $20b minimum annually thereafter. As it is now, that's more than the entire allocation to the Department of the Interior as a whole.

But—and correct me if I’m wrong, because this is more your wheelhouse than mine—LCWF was funded from mining and drilling offshore, wasn’t it? GAOA funded by domestic drilling/mining.

I guess we can always carve up Bears Ears and try and sell drilling rights to a foreign country again

 

[LeonardoBjj]

I *almost* don't blame people for wanting to get close to them. They're an iconic species and rare sight for a majority of people that actually look like they might be approachable and friendly herbivores ("fluffy cows"). In reality, they are incredibly dangerous bulldozers with males weighing up to 2500 lbs and prone to aggressive behavior when startled that will fuck you up. Absolute Beasts.

- Going close to a adult is tupid. But i could rise one since he was a baby?

 

[Deorum]

But—and correct me if I’m wrong, because this is more your wheelhouse than mine—LCWF was funded from mining and drilling offshore, wasn’t it? GAOA funded by domestic drilling/mining.

I guess we can always carve up Bears Ears and try and sell drilling rights to a foreign country again

You're not wrong. The energy sector royalties paid into the Treasury have just been repurposed for much better, desperately needed priorities. It wasn't the result of shady sleight of hand DJT/GOP machinations, though. The GAOA actually has its origins with John Lewis, the former 1960s civil rights activist and MLK peer turned congressman who died in 2020.

And to be clear: I've never been anything short of a full-fledged proponent for a robust domestic energy sector, which presents an interest dynamic that flirts with direct contradiction and conflict to my otherwise passionate conservation advocacy, doesn't it? I'm aware. The matter of whether an area of land should be exploited necessitates striking a balance based on assessment of a site's natural aesthetic, geological, and ecological values.

 

[Deorum]

- Going close to a adult is tupid. But i could rise one since he was a baby?

 

[LeonardoBjj]

- Love this channel videos about sharks.

 

[Deorum]

Next summer we have the Grand Canyon road trip planned for my eldest's 25th and my youngest's 16th birthdays! Trying to convince them on October, as I'm dreading summer temps. But the girlfriend wants to do it for the kid's birthdays (July and August).

There's actually a fair chance of early snow storms to roll in during October. People tend to assume the GC is all desert landscape with a hot desert climate. It is not. The NR in particular is up in the high country, and gets over 150 inches a year on average. In 2023, it got 250.



Recommend:

Official Guide to Grand Canyon's North Rim

Just ten miles across the abyss from the busy South Rim, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is a world unto itself. Those who make their way here are…

www.grandcanyon.org

The proceeds from store sales go towards a great cause, one of the very few organizations that I donate to on a monthly basis.

 

[Deorum]

We are flying out to Chicago to pick up my eldest, renting an RV, and road trippin' down Route 66 from there.

...You're also gonna have the opportunity to see and do so much other stuff on the Arizona leg of that Mother Road R66 road trip before you make your way up to GCNP. I can vouch for all of these, and you'll hit them one after another traveling westbound.

Petrified Forest National Park is an American national park in northeastern Arizona. Named for its large deposits of petrified wood dating from the Late Triassic Epoch 225 million years ago, the park covers about 346 square miles (900 square kilometers), encompassing semi-desert shrub steppe as well as highly eroded and colorful badlands. The park's headquarters is about 26 miles east of Holbrook along Interstate 40, which parallels historic U.S. Route 66. The site, the northern part of which extends into the Painted Desert, was declared a national monument in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt and became a national park in 1962.



Meteor Crater, or Barringer Crater, is an impact crater about 37 mi (60 km) east of Flagstaff and 18 mi (29 km) west of Winslow in the high desert of northern Arizona, United States. Meteor Crater lies at an elevation of 5,640 ft (1,719 m) above sea level. It is about 3,900 ft (1,200 m) in diameter, some 560 ft (170 m) deep, and is surrounded by a rim that rises 148 ft (45 m) above the surrounding plains. The Lunar and Planetary Institute, American Museum of Natural History, and other science institutes proclaim it to be the best-preserved meteorite crater on Earth. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1967.



Lowell Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. It was established in 1894, placing it among the oldest observatories in the United States, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965. It was at the Lowell Observatory that the dwarf planet Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. Lowell Observatory's astronomers conduct research on a wide range of solar system and astrophysical topics using ground-based, airborne, and space-based telescopes. The Observatory has been named one of "The World's 100 Most Important Places" by Time Magazine.