Commercialization of our National Parks
From Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
The
National Park Service is getting ready to adopt new policies that would
dramatically increase the commercialization of our National Parks.
Under the new plan, the Park Service would aggressively seek corporate
sponsorship of park projects and facilities. In return for financial
sponsorships, the plan will give corporate donors naming rights to park
facilities (but not the parks themselves) and allow use of National
Park symbols and personnel in advertising.
Please
take a moment to tell the Park Service not to pollute our national
treasures with advertising and corporate sponsorships. Comments should
be sent to partnerships@nps.gov. Please act today – the deadline for comments is December 5.
NATIONAL PARKS TO SEEK CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS — Corporate Funds Will Alter Park Landscapes and Sway Policies
Washington,
DC — In a quiet but far-reaching change, the National Park Service is
poised to adopt a new policy of aggressively seeking corporate
sponsorship of park projects and facilities. In return for financial
sponsorships, the plan will give corporate donors naming rights, use of
National Park symbols and personnel in advertising and much greater
influence over park managers, according to public comments filed today
by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
“This
starts a slow motion commercialization of the national park system,”
stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “What will be allowed stops
just short of licensing ads for ‘The Official Beer of Yosemite’ or ‘
Old Faithful, Brought to You by Viagara.’”
The Park
Service has put forward a draft directive encouraging active pursuit of
potential financial donors and repealing the agency’s current passive
posture of merely accepting donations. Public comment on the plan
closes this week. Interior Secretary Gale Norton has hailed the plan as
an “exciting” new approach for broadening the funding base for national
parks.
Park managers would be encouraged to offer packages that attract big corporate donors, including –
Liberalized
naming rights for trails, benches, rooms and other facilities (but not
parks themselves), as well as display of logos and slogans on park
literature, computer screens, and plaques; Exclusive
media advertising rights to the official NPS Arrowhead symbol, the term
“Proud Partner” of the National Park Service and the use of uniformed
park employees in ads; and Flexibility to negotiate customized recognition deals that “meet the needs of individual donors.”
The plan
jettisons bans against accepting or soliciting donations from vendors,
concessionaires, permittees and others doing business with a park.
Alcohol, tobacco and even gambling companies would also be eligible
park sponsors. The only up-front review of major gifts would be a
subjective “totality of circumstances” test applied by top officials to
determine whether the donation is “appropriate.”
The plan
is designed so that private donations develop into a much more
significant factor in overall park budgets, as well as high-profile
capital projects and improvements. Currently, the Park Service raises
an estimated $17 million from outside sources each year.
“This is
a thinly disguised scheme to subject the public commons to corporate
branding campaigns,” added Ruch, pointing to related effort by both the
Bush administration and House Republicans to sell naming rights of
certain park facilities, as well as some parks in their entirety. “Will
anyplace be off-limits to the Nike swoosh or the McDonald’s arches?”
Read the PEER comments on the proposed donation solicitation policy
Compare the proposal with current restrictions
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