Meadow Reports
National Park Service Policy: Do Harm First, Pretend to Fix it Later
We've compiled representative meadow reports that illustrate the ongoing damage to fragile high altitude meadows from grazing by packer livestock in Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks.
The National Park Service (NPS) was created by the Organic Act of 1916. In the preamble of that act is a single succinct sentence that describes the mandate of the Park Service:
"... to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired [emphasis added] for the enjoyment of future generations."
The policies at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks lead invariably to damaged, degraded, polluted, seriously impaired meadows. Nothing that the NPS does concerning meadows is proactive; everything is reactive. First, the meadows are harmed. Second, they are "rested." Third, once they are deemed to have been "rested" enough, they will be harmed anew. The NPS dismisses these environmental atrocities with the slogan of "acceptable damage." The slogan has no definition. It is just Policy.