Parks face big test of preservation vs. use

* Settling a controversy over "thrill craft" like Jet Skis, snowmobiles, and dune buggies. They're scheduled to be phased out of dozens of parks, but now face delays from the administration.

One hint of Mainella's leanings can be found in her enthusiastic involvement with Florida's landmark "Preservation 2000" campaign. It's the most ambitious state-funded land-acquisition program in the US. The $3 billion fund is used to purchase lands as buffers against development - to protect the freshwater supplies, ecosystems, open spaces, and the survival of imperiled plants and animals.

Florida, to be sure, is not the United States. Some 16.7 million people visited Florida parks last year, compared to nearly 290 million national park visitors. The state portfolio of nature parks and cultural sites encompasses some 500,000 acres. The national park system, at 83 million acres, is larger than many European nations.

Although Mainella's dedication to safeguarding ecosystems earned her praise from groups like Audubon of Florida, she also has been an adviser to outdoor-recreation groups whose associates are suing the federal government to overturn bans on thrill craft in national parks.

The Bush administration also proposed a freeze on creating new national parks, and it has remained noncommittal to funding the agency's Natural Resource Challenge, intended to promote more scientific research in parks.

Significantly, Mainella has received the backing of Park Service rangers, whose morale has declined due to budget cuts and poor living conditions. "We're absolutely thrilled the nomination brings such a highly qualified person to be our new director," says David Barna, an agency spokesman in Washington.

In Florida, Mainella has has amassed a record of promoting public and private partnerships, and she has been complimentary of Disney's ability to accommodate large numbers of people.

But not everyone welcomes an expanded commercial presence in national parks, be it trinket shops or corporations donating money with the implicit understanding that they can use backdrops to promote products. "Our public lands and national parks are places Americans can go to escape commercial influences that are inescapable everywhere else," says Scott Silver of Wild Wilderness in Bend, Ore. "National parks should be seen as the antithesis of Disney World, rather than being treated with the same eye to commercial profit."

So far, Mainella has given no indication that she intends to adopt Disney as a model to resolve the paradox of accommodating more people while yet reducing human impacts. And her defenders say she finds far more affinity with efforts to restore the Everglades than in exploring the Magic Kingdom.

"She has difficult decisions to make that will help shape the character of national parks in this country for decades to come," says Don Barry of The Wilderness Society.

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Monitor

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