National Parks

WOULD YOU BUY A house that sits on a spectacular piece of property with stunning views, and not put aside money to maintain it? That's what our federal government has done.In an ethical contortion that at first glance seems reasonable, our esteemed lawmakers in Congress have abrogated our government's social contract with Americans. When Congress set up our national parks system with the establishment of Yellowstone in 1872, it ensured through the National Park Service that the parks would also be maintained.

MPT tonight offers viewers the chance to experience one of the country's greatest natural wonders without leaving their armchairs."America's Great National Parks" (10 p.m.-11 p.m., Channels 22 and 67) visits Yellowstone, and chances are that, by the end of the hour, you'll want to do the same, not only for the rarely rivaled natural beauty but for the wonders that can be found nowhere else: the geysers, mud pots, fumaroles, hot springs and other gas-and-steam concoctions that together form the greatest concentration of geothermal features on Earth.

DENVER -- Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt favors a policy change that would allow members of the Hopi tribe to remove golden eagles from a national monument in northern Arizona, a move that critics fear could open the door to hunting in national parks.The issue at the Wupatki National Monument near Flagstaff, Ariz., has been percolating since summer, when the Hopi requested permission to take eaglets for use in a religious ceremony. Taking or hunting of animals in national parks is prohibited, but Babbitt said in an interview that he favors allowing an exception in this case.

ASSATEAGUE ISLAND -- Personal watercraft users may be enjoying their last two summers in other national parks, but they'll retain at least a foothold here. The small gasoline-powered boats that look like motorcycles on the water probably will be allowed continued access to the northern tip of the island and a small area near the southern end, said John Burns, chief ranger for the national seashore park. Under a federal court agreement reached April 12, personal watercraft, also known by trade names Jet Skis, Wave Runners and Sea Doos, are to be banned in all 87 national parks by September 2002 -- unless the Park Service can prove, on a site-by-site basis, that they don't harm the environment.

Richard E. Barrans, a retired chemical engineer and World War II veteran, died Jan. 14 of heart disease at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 86. Mr. Barrans, the son of an electrical engineer and an English teacher, was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The family later lived in LaGrange, Ill., where his father worked for Western Electric Corp., and came to Baltimore in 1930 when his father was assigned to the company's Point Breeze works. The family settled on an 80-acre parcel of property on Providence Road near Towson, which they later developed into a tree farm.

Sure, you can sit inside glued to the flat screen while Ken Burns drones on about the beauty of national parks ("First, the earth cooled ..."). But it's better to go out and experience Maryland parks the way 11 million people did last year. The State Park Passport is a lot like the "E Ticket" in the early days of Disney. The laminated card costs $75 for residents and $100 for nonresidents, and it allows unlimited day-use for up to 10 people in a vehicle in all parks, forests and wildlife management areas, from Assateague to Deep Creek Lake.

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Among a flood of last-minute actions by the Clinton administration late last week was a proposal to allow the Hopi Indians to gather hatchling golden eagles from nests at a national monument in Arizona for an ancient sacrificial ritual. A draft rule allowing the practice, which is opposed by many animal protection and environmental groups, had been on hold for months while lawyers at the Department of the Interior weighed laws protecting Indian religious freedoms and those protecting parks and birds of prey.

WASHINGTON -- In the years since Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint scrambled down the presidential faces of Mount Rushmore to flee from bad guys in Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 classic "North by Northwest, " America's national parks have starred in scores of movies.But the nation's grandest parks generally have earned less than extras -- and often nothing -- for their unique roles. And that is remarkable, considering that Hollywood films shot in national parks, including such blockbusters as "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," have grossed more than $3.2 billion.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is about to complete a policy change that will open millions of acres of national parks and forests to strip mining for coal or force the government to buy the mineral rights from the families and energy companies that own them.The policy change, in the form of a new Interior Department regulation that is due to become final shortly after the election, would give coal companies authority to mine a mother lode of coal that now lies beneath 40 million acres of parks, preserves and protected lands in 24 states -- roughly 16 percent of the nation's reserves.