PUBLIC LANDS: House lawmakers blast NPS official over 'worst,' 'dumbest' testimony
Henry Gass, E&E reporter
E&E: Thursday, February 27, 2014
Republican members of a House Natural Resources subpanel yesterday harshly criticized a National Park Service official who objected to renaming a peak in Yosemite National Park, saying the agency should be "ashamed" of some of the "dumbest testimony" they'd ever heard.
At issue was a bill (H.R. 1192) from Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) to redesignate Mammoth Peak as Mount Jessie Benton Frémont, after one of Yosemite's earliest advocates.
Victor Knox, the Park Service's associate director for park planning, facilities and lands, testified that there was not a strong enough connection between Benton Frémont and the mountain to justify renaming it.
"To be permanently commemorated in a national park is a high honor, affording a degree of recognition that implies national importance. For that reason, NPS policy generally discourages the use of ... the commemorative naming of landscape features," Knox said in written testimony.
"While Jessie Benton Frémont was among the early supporters of protecting Yosemite Valley, there is no evidence of her having a connection to Mammoth Peak," Knox said.
But Knox faced tough questions from McClintock and subcommittee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) about the issue, including why Benton Frémont had any less connection to the peak than a skier and a geologist had to other peaks in the park named after them.
McClintock noted that Mount Andrea Lawrence and Mount Dana were named after Olympic alpine skier Andrea Mead Lawrence and Yale geologist James Dwight Dana. Lawrence also was a supervisor of Mono County near the park for 16 years. NPS didn't object to either redesignation at the time, with Mount Andrea Lawrence named as recently as January 2013.
"The inconsistency, Mr. Knox, is absolutely staggering," said McClintock. "It's so manifestly self-contradictory that the only conceivable explanation ... for your opposition is simply rank partisanship."
McClintock asked how the decision on Mount Andrea Lawrence was consistent with NPS opposition to the current bill. "I'm actually not familiar with the specific naming of that mountain," Knox replied.
Knox said there could be better ways to recognize Benton Frémont, including exhibits and waysides in the park. "We do recognize Ms. Fremont's important contributions to the creation of Yosemite," said Knox. "What we don't see is the connection between her and the mountain."
Asked the historic significance of Mammoth Peak, Knox said, "I assume it's about the size of the peak."
Bishop called Knox's testimony some of the "dumbest testimony I've ever heard."
"[It] is some of the worst research and some of the worst bit of logic I've ever heard, and the Park Service should be ashamed," added Bishop, chairman of the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation.
Ore. land controversy
During the hearing on nine public lands bills, Michael Nedd, an assistant director at the Bureau of Land Management, also came in for some harsh questions concerning H.R. 3366 from Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.). That bill would lease land through BLM to the Oregon state government in order to establish an agricultural research center.
Nedd said BLM could support the bill only if it were amended to require conveying the land to Oregon at fair market value "for the interest on behalf of the American taxpayer." Nedd added that under the bill, the government would also be releasing reserved mineral interests on the land.
Bishop criticized that testimony, saying, "The fact [Oregon] has to pay for it so the federal government can get something back for it is abhorrent."
Memorial for the '100 Hour War'
The subcommittee also discussed authorizing the establishment of memorials in Washington, D.C., to operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield, and to John Adams, the second president of the United States.
Scott Stump, president of the National Desert Storm War Memorial Association, said a memorial would be important in recognizing veterans of a war few remember and many trivialize. While Operation Desert Storm mobilized 600,000 American troops and featured the largest coalition of foreign armies since World War II, it is still well known as the "100 Hour War" for the swift expulsion of Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
"The blessing and the curse of Operation Desert Storm was that its rapid and overwhelming success has made its recollection no more than a fuzzy and distant memory for most," said Stump. "No war should be judged on the number of casualties or how long it was."
