The article is written by a journalist that has NO CLUE about public lands and their management and history. It just gets people mad, particularly those without knowledge of public lands.
"Hunting is currently allowed across about 51 million National Park Service acres spanning 76 sites, although only about 8 million of those acres lie in the contiguous United States with the rest in Alaska, according to the NPS website. Fishing is allowed in 213 sites. NPS sites typically adopt state hunting and fishing regulations although they can impose restrictions that go beyond them to protect public safety and wildlife resources, like prohibiting shooting along a trail or near buildings."
They do not. That have much more management authority than the Forest Service or BLM. And they do exercise it, sometimes for good reason.
Full disclosure. I worked for the National Park Service doing a recreational carrying capacity study for a National Recreation Area that they managed. I also lived next door to the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area for three years.
I did duck hunt the Lake Roosevelt NRA for ducks while I lived there.
Here is a brief history of "boondocking" or dispersed camping on Federal public lands. Notice that the National Park Service was designed to served the interests of the Elites in this country. The history of Forest Service and BLM lands is different. Worth a quick read on why the agencies are so different.
https://usbackroads.blogspot.com/2010/03/short-history-of-boondocking.html
Here is the my overview of the NPS:
https://usbackroads.blogspot.com/2010/12/national-park-service.html
My comment was
"The National Parks are famous for their rules and regulations. In many ways the Park Service is the agency of NO. The best mindset for visiting the National Parks is to think of them not as wildlands, but as a museum. A very pretty and large natural history museum in most cases. Walk carefully between the lines, speak softly, and do not use flash and you will be all right."
Unfortunately, Congress decided to let the National Park Service manage National Recreation Areas, and other lands for which they as an agency are ill-suited. When I worked for them, the Rangers and Staff HATED working on National Recreation Areas. They viewed them as National Parks. National Recreation Areas have a mandate to provide recreational opportunities to the public which owns them. The National Parks are there to preserve the natural landscape while ALLOWING for public use.
I really don't know how ANYBODY can think of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area as a National Park.
And it should not be managed by the National Park Service.
Don't worry about hunting inside the National Parks. Not going to happen.
However, the National Parks would like to get rid of fishing inside the parks.
Probably will not happen, but given their history of catering to Elites I could see a nation-wide ban on fishing, except for floating line only, no bobbers, and at the end of the floating line there must be a dry fly. It must not sink below the water line. That will get you a ticket and fine. Use plenty of floatant.
Anyway, the article is much ado about very little. Written by a clueless individual.
