Park Service changes stance on recreation

WASHINGTON – The National Park Service has backed off of a proposed new management policy that critics said would have shifted the agency’s priorities toward recreational use of the parks and away from preservation.

The agency released a draft proposal for revising its management policy Tuesday, scrapping one that had been criticized by environmentalists and some of its own employees.

The previous draft, authored by Assistant Deputy Interior Secretary Paul Hoffman earlier this year, proposed softened guidelines on what activities are allowed in parks. Hoffman’s proposal placed more emphasis on recreational use of the parks, the groups said.

Hoffman’s draft would have expanded the use of snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles on federal land. And it proposed that in order for activities to be prohibited in parks, they must be something that “irreversibly” harms the parks instead of only harming them.

Park Service officials said the new draft would leave current snowmobile and off-road regulations in place, and the word “irreversibly” has been removed.

Environmentalists said Tuesday they were still going through the new document, which is more than 200 pages long. But most said they were cautiously optimistic that the new guidelines would be closer to current regulations and not as damaging to public lands as the Hoffman draft.

The Park Service will receive comments on the policy for 90 days.