National Parks Advisory Committee Shut Down

Above, Lassen Peak at Lassen Volcanic National Park. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

When the Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee made some recommendations on national park campgrounds, it caused quite a stir.

Well, the committee is no more.

RVtravel.com reported:

When the Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee, the brainchild of former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, recently brought forward a series of recommendations on “modernizing” National Park campgrounds, it caused quite a stir. Perhaps the expression “In with a bang, out with a whimper” could be raised now. The committee, as of November 1, is no more. 

Park Service officials didn’t make a lot of fanfare about it. In fact, the demise of the committee was not made public until last Tuesday, and only after National Parks Traveler, an “editorially independent, nonprofit media organization dedicated to covering national parks and protected areas,” as it describes itself, ran an editorial critical of the committee’s efforts at “modernization.” 

After the editorial hit the internet, the Park Service quietly informed the organization, “‘The Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee was terminated on Friday, November 1. The ORAC was created by Secretary Zinke in 2017, and like any Federal Advisory Act group, was simply an advisory body to the Department of the Interior and the Secretary of the Interior,’ read a prepared statement from David Vela, the de factor director of the Park Service.”

The "fit hit the shan" when some recommendations were revealed such as food carts, enhanced Wi-Fi and private industry being involved in park management. None of these will be acted on.

To read more, go here.