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Public lands in the media spotlight

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Public lands in the media spotlight

posted Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009 3:50pm

See more on: Blogs, National Parks, Colorado

Last weekend's nationwide observance of National Public Lands Day was a chance for many citizens to get involved in public service projects at their favorite parks – including many here in our state

PBS timed the debut of the new Ken Burns film, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," to coincide with this heightened awareness of our national parks.

And tomorrow night at 7, Rocky Mountain PBS is also bringing you a related film, Forever Wild, which tells the engaging stories of people who have done the heavy lifting to establish and maintain wilderness areas in our country. Robert Redford hosts the special, and you'll learn about such heroes as a trio of Colorado women known as "the Maroon Belles," pioneers in building grassroots support for environmental protection, and how they directly influenced major wilderness legislation.

This week we're also interested in hearing from you, about whether the state of land preservation in Colorado is on the right track. Is there a local project near you that deserves attention? Are you involved, personally, in maintenance or conservation of public lands?

On "Colorado State of Mind" this week our guests talk about one big aspect of the public lands debate – whether there is enough protection in federal or state regulation to keep roads from being built in the most unspoiled acreage in Colorado. You'll recall the administrations of both President Clinton and President Bush issued federal rules about this, and they weren't in agreement. Tune in Friday evening at 7:30 for a discussion on where things stand now, and let us know your thoughts on the debate here on Panorama.

-Cynthia Hessin, Rocky Mountain PBS

Tune In

Colorado State of Mind
"Environmental Protections "

What's your point of view?

carol secor
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 › 11:28pm
I believe Eagle Rock School in Estes Park is a terrific example of public land use, preservation and conservation. All students are provided an education in return for a commitment from each student that they will become environmental stewards of the planet. Each student spends many hours giving back to the public land they lease for their campus and also working tirelessly in and around Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. Through their relationship with the land around them, they learn there is truly something larger in life than themselves.
Carol Secor, mother of ERS-14 Graduate, Ruth Secor Katz

Nan Gerding
Thursday, October 1, 2009 › 3:05pm
The Ken Burns series is just excellent.We have been looking forward to this series and are not disappointed. My only comment is that many people cannot watch T.V. from 8-10 every night 6 nights in a row(especially school age kids and some working folk) Nor can everyone record this wonderful and educational program. I was hoping it would be shown as a 2 hr. series on Sunday evenings. We hope all those who do watch, will appreciate even more the past and support the future in every way, in order to retain "America's Best Idea: The National Parks".

Dave Kline
Sunday, October 4, 2009 › 11:19am
At the top of Monument Hill along I-25 about a half mile west is a formation called Elephant Rock. It was photographed by William Henry Jackson during the Hayden Expedition in the mid 1800's. As far as I know it's in private hands. When you drive along the road next to it you get a sense of awe from it's size and majesty. But you can only get so close to it and on one side is someone's home. On the other side it's undeveloped but I expect one day it will be and the loss of it's natural state would be like putting a factory in Yellowstone. In our never ending drive to let the developers build everywhere this needs to be preserved before it's too late. This needs to be looked at in Colorado's state of land preservation.

ed spargo
Monday, October 5, 2009 › 12:36pm
Making the Best Idea Really Good

Ken Burns and PBS deserve much praise for their series on the National Parks. Their focus on the personalities in the struggle for the Parks was quite interesting and the photography of course superb. For me, the high point was the many testimonies and tributes, always sincerely, often poetically expressed, on the importance of wilderness. Again and again, the natural silence of wilderness was mentioned and held up as almost a religious value: escaping man's works and his noises, thereby being restored.
However, as I watched the shows, I said to myself every time the silence of Yosemite or Grand Canyon was reverently extolled, "Have these people been out there lately and really listened?" If they had they would have heard commercial jets on their way across the continent, over just about all the Parks and Monuments. It is not an exaggeration to say that quiet as a wilderness value exists only in the fond recollections of a previous generation. This unrestricted use of the wilderness as a convenient route for air travel is on a par with the various exploitations which the establishment of the Parks was intended to prevent. If maintaining silence is in fact part of the NPS mission, there's a serious enforcement gap.
Restoring silence to the Parks is the environmental challenge for the century. It begins with the question, "Why is there air traffic over the Parks and Monuments?", and proceeds from the answers. Concepts such as "Civilization" and "Beauty" will no doubt come into play. We have come so far with preservation and protection, and small noise issues like helicopters and ATV's have been dealt with, yet the big noise issue, the jets, has not even been recognized. Until now.
I think we need 21st century versions of Muir and T. Roosevelt for soul and clout, respectively. The existing conservation organizations have been marvelously effective, but none can individually take this on. Charismatic and powerful leadership, where are you? We need you to make the best idea, the Parks, really quiet and so really good.