Cheney vote on federal public lands irks sportsmen

[2naSalit]

7. Both Parks are in Wyoming

which thrive predominantly by extractive industry from mining and ranching, fuel extraction - oil, natural gas, coal, some timber harvest and in recent decades tourism. Much of the state is public lands (NF, BLM, NP, and military as well as a couple Indian Reservations, the largest is Wind River (about the size of YNP). Public lands in the US are owned by we the people (citizens) and administered by the federal government in order to ensure that they are manged for the benefit of the citizens in perpetuity.

Congress decides on their funding, for decades they have been cutting funds when all these administrating agencies need more personnel and operational funds... look at the increase in visitors to the parks recently, it's insane to think that a small group of employees can manage over 4 million people who have no idea where they are, what is required just to keep themselves safe and how to enjoy a sensitive ecosystem respectfully, it's a major undertaking and severely stunted by lack of funds to hire more concierge, I mean staff.

I work for some of these agencies and live very close to the parks, a couple wilderness areas and a huge national forest where there are grizzly bears, wolves, lynx and bison among many other species. It is the only place in the lower 48 states where there exist all the animals that were here before we trashed everything else... a complete ecosystem and it's in danger and will soon crash if we don't solidify its protection in perpetuity. This Congress will trash it in with a vote at 2am and nobody will be able to stop them from voting.