Conservation or Big Beautiful Ballrooms?

[El Jason]

That's cool for the next few years, but what if you don't like the next President? A better alternative is just put a sticker on it.

https://www.npr.org/2026/01/09/nx-s1-5672341/national-park-updates-guidelines-stop-visitors-defacing-trump-picture-pass

 

[Bonasababy]

The Clinton 90s had the enormous tailwind of the dot com boom.

What a lot of people don't know about Clinton is that he resisted a lot of calls for progressive moves from within his party. The reason Dems have done far less to increase the national debt over the recent decades is because they left the Fed alone and listened to budget advisors. Republicans are still working off the trickle down theory from the Reagan years that has been proven a failure again and again. I suspect most top republicans know it won't work and has never worked but they think (with justification) that they can sell tax cuts to anyone. People who seem to understand that taking less in will wreck their household budget just can't see the same for government.

 

[INMT]

That's cool for the next few years, but what if you don't like the next President? A better alternative is just put a sticker on it.

Because this is the first time in history a sitting president has insisted his mug is on a parks pass.

I doubt another pompous a$$ like him
will come along.

 

[Hunting Wife]

I just grok'ed this, and it looks like this money is strictly for security upgrades for SS and hardening the target following the third assassination attempt, and cannot be spent on anything else. A lifelong friend of mine in the Special Ops community outlined how 5 or 6 guys could have carried out an End of Governance operation; the entire leadership structure of our country suddenly gone. I guess I don't think a billion is all that much to prevent that.

This administration has shown zero concern about spending money, reallocating money, redirecting money appropriated by Congress however they damn well please. I have a feeling more will go to gold guilding and gaudy finishes than security.

I also suspect security might cost a lot less if the people appointed to head up the security agencies and law enforcement agencies were actually qualified to do those jobs.

View attachment 407647

Fee title acquisitions (at least in my experience here) have been frowned upon my entire career. That’s not new, and honestly I agree that adding fee land without supporting the staffing and funding required to manage it just makes things worse throughout the entire system. Sucks, but that’s the reality we live with. Also, fee acquisitions usually need to be approved by county commissioners, state Wildlife Directors, and Governors and that is a tall order.

As far as using LWCF funding for easements, it’s one of several pots of money that standard easement programs are funded with. But each pot of money comes with different rules, through agreements made with various state governors.

For example, USFWS can’t use Mig Bird dollars (Duck Stamp dollars) to acquire grass easements in ND. So most of that funding goes to South Dakota, and a little to Montana (and others, but large portion is in PPR) for grass easement acquisition. Other pots of money then are used to buy grass easements in ND.

But as time goes on, more strings are getting attached to each funding source. LWCF is just the latest example of this. The Department has now directed that any easement acquisition using LWCF funding must first be approved by County Commissioners, then the Governor. We usually need no outside approval for easement acquisitions, so that really puts a damper on using that money in a state that is hostile to easement programs.

 

[marshman]

How about the next round...monuments . Maybe I'm naive, but monuments are not usually promoted by the person themselves.
Did Lincoln build the Lincoln Memorial for himself?
In the meantime, I can't stand the idea of a National Park pass with the picture of DJT, nor do I want a passport with that clown on it.

I didn't want a damn pass with his mug shot on it either, what a way to ruin a day in our parks.
Thank goodness I am a senior, the lifetime pass has a ram on it.

 

[Hem]

I didn't want a damn pass with his mug shot on it either, what a way to ruin a day in our parks.
Thank goodness I am a senior, the lifetime pass has a ram on it.

Ha...good stuff @marshman
I havent bought a pass but maybe I am senior status now.
I will embrace it this time.