National Parks Forever: Fifty Years of Fighting and a Case for Independence

by Jonathan B. Jarvis, T. Destry Jarvis, Christopher Johns (Foreword by)

Overview

Two leaders of the National Park Service provide a front-row seat to the disastrous impact of partisan politics over the past fifty years—and offer a bold vision for the parks’ future.
 
The US National Parks, what environmentalist and historian Wallace Stegner called America’s “best idea,” are under siege. Since 1972, partisan political appointees in the Department of the Interior have offered two conflicting views of the National Park Service (NPS): one vision emphasizes preservation and science-based decision-making, and another prioritizes economic benefits and privatization. These politically driven shifts represent a pernicious, existential threat to the very future of our parks.
 
For the past fifty years, brothers Jonathan B. and T. Destry Jarvis have worked both within and outside NPS as leaders and advocates. National Parks Forever interweaves their two voices to show how our parks must be protected from those who would open them to economic exploitation, while still allowing generations to explore and learn in them. Their history also details how Congress and administration appointees have used budget and staffing cuts to sabotage NPS’s ability to manage the parks and even threatened their existence. Drawing on their experience, Jarvis and Jarvis make a bold and compelling proposal: that it is time for NPS to be removed from the Department of the Interior and made an independent agency, similar to the Smithsonian Institution, giving NPS leaders the ability to manage park resources and plan our parks’ protection, priorities, and future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226819082
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	06/03/2022
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	659,526
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Jonathan B. Jarvis was the eighteenth director of the National Park Service, serving from 2009 to 2017. He served for forty years with the NPS as ranger, biologist, and park superintendent in eight national parks.


T. Destry Jarvis has had leadership roles at the National Parks Conservation Association, Student Conservation Association, National Park Service, and National Recreation & Parks Association. Currently, he is vice president of US/ICOMOS, the US National Committee for the International Council on Monuments and Sites, better known as the World Heritage Program.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Chris Johns
Preface

Introduction and a Brief History of the National Parks: 1872-1972
One. Growing the System and Telling a More Complete Story
Two. Alaska: Doing It Right the First Time
Three. The Politics of Park Policy
Four. Using the Best Available Science
Five. Ecosystem Thinking Requires Collaboration
Six. Interference in the Mission
Seven. Independence: Finding a Sustainable Future for a Perpetuity Agency

Notes
Bibliography and Further Reading
Index of People and Places

Editorial Reviews

"In this self-described 'dual memoir,' Jonathan and Destry take turns making the case—and then synthesize their viewpoints—that the National Park Service needs to be independent from the political 'whipsaw' of Washington politics, making it more like the Smithsonian Institution. . . . By providing both historical and personal context to the NPS’s politicization, the Jarvis brothers make a powerful case."

American Scientist

"The text offers a readable, well-organized argument for the independence proposal, illustrated by selected black-and-white photos. Readers interested in the US government's interface with conservation will appreciate this book. . . . Recommended."

Choice

"There’s an argument that can be made, one backed by evidence, that the past fifty years have seen the most egregious attempts to subvert the mission of the National Park Service to preserve and protect natural resources unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. That argument is clearly laid out in National Parks Forever. . . . A rich collection of institutional knowledge from within the machinations of government and from within the National Park Service."

National Parks Traveler - Kurt Repanshek

"This book is compelling reading for all conservation biologists to emulate positive aspects and avoid pitfalls when developing an effective and self-sustaining park system."

Community Ecology

"Offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the park service."

E&E News:Greenwire - Rob Hotakainen

"There’s an argument that can be made, one backed by evidence, that the past fifty years have seen the most egregious attempts to subvert the mission of the National Park Service to preserve and protect natural resources unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. That argument is clearly laid out in National Parks Forever. . . . A rich collection of institutional knowledge from within the machinations of government and from within the National Park Service."

National Parks Traveler

"Advice to writers is to write what you know, and few know more about America’s recent national park history than the brothers Jarvis...Jon brings the perspective of a veteran National Park Service insider, and Destry’s decades of lobbying and political work on park issues from outside the park agency complements Jon’s and makes for a most insightful combination of perspectives."

Rewilding.org

2022-01-12
An earnest plea to move the National Park Service out of the highly politicized Department of the Interior and make it an independent agency.

Jonathan, former director of the National Park Service, and his brother T. Destry, vice president of the U.S. National Committee for the International Council on Monuments and Sites, tell a story that begins well but seems headed for an unhappy ending. Americans love their national park system and consistently rank it as one of the most popular federal organizations. For more than 50 years after its founding in 1916, this love was universal. Professionals managed the system and lobbied Congress for additions. The period from 1964 to 1970 marks the last golden years when many parks were established and the agency recommended sites for future local, state, and federal parks. Today, “the NPS is now only allowed to study new parks when specifically authorized by Congress.” The authors blame the system’s deterioration on political polarization, especially the conservative shift with the election of Ronald Reagan. The NPS is a federal program, and conservatives believe that, like most federal programs, the NPS is bloated, inefficient, and discouraging to private enterprise. Since the election of Reagan and the Bushes and, worst of all, Trump, the Secretary of the Interior and his or her powerful assistants have mostly been political appointees with little interest in conservation and intense hostility to the NPS. They propose no new parks and support efforts at “development,” meaning logging and oil drilling. While their ongoing efforts to set up a “park closing commission” to remove those that do not receive high visitation have so far failed, they have successfully shrunk the budget and downsized the department by forcing out skilled employees. The authors have facts on their side, but their text—almost entirely devoted to legislation, White House politics, efforts of national conservation organizations, and their job experience—will persuade readers without inspiring them to take to the streets.

A knowledgeable account of the trials of the National Park Service that would work better as a polemic.

Kirkus Reviews

"Painful history plus a roadmap for change equals a compelling book."

Revelator

The history retold by these two brothers, each outstanding in their lifelong dedication to Parks, is compelling and instructive, as well as a very good read. But their lessons learned and call for independence must be enacted if the parks are to survive. I advised NPS leadership for eight years; I witnessed that a major priority is to ensure that the full history of Americans is preserved in the places where that history unfolded. If NPS remains a political football, we will lose not only magnificent landscapes but the hundreds of parks that tell the true stories of America’s past. At this time when our history has become violently politicized, we must depoliticize the one federal agency that knows how to memorialize the truth for future generations.

Margaret J. Wheatley

In careers spanning half a century, both Jon and Destry Jarvis personally witnessed how the National Park Service became a partisan battleground for competing political ideologies, with policies ricocheting back and forth every time a new administration came to power. Filled with detailed firsthand accounts and insightful analysis, National Parks Forever not only chronicles the sorrowful result, but also points to a way to rescue ‘America’s best idea’—and make it even better.

Dayton Duncan