Scott Socha, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the National Park Service, is ‘completely unqualified’ for the job, said Center for Western Priorities Deputy Director Aaron Weiss in an interview with Arizona’s KJZZ.
Socha currently works for Delaware North, a hospitality company that operates hotels and snack bars at several national parks. This experience, Weiss argues, does not meet the legal requirement that the National Park Service’s director have “substantial experience and demonstrated competence in land management and natural or cultural resource conservation.”
What Socha does have experience in is profiting from exclusive concessionaire contracts in national parks. Weiss points out that this “dollars and cents” approach aligns well with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s “balance sheet” approach to national public lands. However, this approach is wildly out of step with how Americans want national parks to be managed: to protect irreplaceable wildlife habitats, recreation opportunities, cultural sites, and other values that can’t be reduced to a number on a spreadsheet.
“This is a woefully understaffed agency and there is no help on the horizon. There is no indication that Secretary Burgum plans to fully staff our parks ever again,” said Weiss. “Those cracks are going to begin to show. And that’s where having someone who has spent an entire career in the privatization business, that’s a huge concern at this moment in time.”
Quick hits
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Quote of the day
Undermining Tribal collaboration undercuts trust, weakens public land management, and threatens the integrity of monuments nationwide. True leadership would strengthen government-to-government relationships, not disregard them.”
—Davina Smith-Idjesa, Navajo Nation member, Inside Climate News
Picture This
Photo of the Week: Window Blind Peak and the San Rafael River, Emery County
Photographer: Adam Hiscock
Window Blind Peak catches first light as it rises dramatically above the San Rafael River. Located near the middle of the San Rafael Swell uplift, the peak consists of Triassic- to Jurassic-age Chinle Formation, Wingate Sandstone, and Kayenta Formation capped by the Jurassic-age Navajo Sandstone.
Featured image: Grand Canyon National Park