61st National 公园 controversy: Why is Indiana Dunes a National 公园?
On February 15 Indiana Dunes 国家湖岸 became Indiana Dunes National 公园, after 103 years of waiting. The 61st National 公园 in the U.S. It’s a big deal, especially for 公园 Nuts like us to get a new addition to that designation to join the illustrious ranks of parks like Yellowstone 和 Yosemite. So of course, it has to come with some controversy.
立法立即添加“Park” to the name of Indiana Dunes 和 thus change the designation was included in the broader border security bill President Trump signed on 2/15. Indiana congressional leaders had been pushing for the designation change to gain greater recognition for Indiana Dunes 和 boost tourism from people who look to visit National 公园s.
D-Merrillville的美国众议员Pete Visclosky说：“这项行动使我们的海岸线得到了应有的认可，我希望进一步建立动力，以改善对我们地区所有环境奇观的开放和公众访问。”
南本德论坛报
美国众议员成龙（Jackie Walorski）说：“印第安纳沙丘将成为我们州的第一个国家公园，我感到很兴奋。” “印第安纳州沙丘国家湖岸地区长期以来一直是印第安人放松，探索和享受大自然所提供的一切的宝贵场所，也是我们当地经济的强大动力。印第安纳州沙丘国家公园将吸引来自全国各地的更多游客，从而增强印第安纳州的经济并促进对我们地区至关重要的户外休闲产业。”
So far, this new designation does not change funding, area or anything besides the name. This has a some of the public understandably scratching their heads 和 a few park purists disapproving the so-called degrading 和 devaluing the National 公园s 和 exploiting nature for tourism (because that doesn’t happen in any of our existing National 公园s!).
我们避风港’t been afraid to call out a National 公园 designation when we think it’s undeserving (即使它’s in our hometown, like National 公园 #60）。但是，我们两次去过印第安纳沙丘（请参阅 沙丘冒险 和 我们的情侣周末）并认为它完全应得国家湖岸称号， FULLY deserves the title of National 公园 (see reasons below).
我们发现所有 反对该名称的参数更改令人信服（请参见下面的原因）。
首先，这里’提醒我们模糊，无益的定义’重新考虑直接从 NPS指定页面…
National 公园 –这些通常是具有各种属性的大型自然地点，有时包括重要的历史资产。狩猎，采矿和消费活动未经授权。
国家湖岸 –大湖区的国家湖岸区在性质和用途上都与海岸区非常相似。 （由于这没有帮助，因此在这里’国家海岸的定义–在大西洋，海湾和太平洋沿岸建立了十个国家海岸；有些是发达的，有些是相对原始的。在许多这些地点都允许狩猎。
并提醒您，拥有任何名称的NPS单位的目的是保护公共土地…
Mission: The National 公园 Service preserves unimpaired the natural 和 cultural resources 和 values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, 和 inspiration of this 和 future generations.
//www.nps.gov/aboutus/index.htm
国家公园的名称给予单位最高的保护水平，因为它明确禁止了可能对自然和野生动植物有害的太多商业和休闲人类活动。它还为设备提供了尽可能高的识别度。这种认可的副产品是在其他名称之上的附加保护，因为任何商业，市政或私人利益（印第安纳州沙丘上有很多利益）’可能会试图侵犯更广为人知的湖岸地区或附近地区的自然和野生动植物的人，会更犹豫地向一个国家’精英国家公园。在我看来，现有的国家公园的感知状态并没有随每个国家公园的加入而被稀释，而是将新的国家公园的地位提升到了我们国家对所有国家公园的不可动摇的崇敬。
Why is Indiana Dunes a National 公园? It deserves the fullest protection 和 thus deserves to be the 61st National 公园 for the following reasons (in order if importance)….
- 世界一流的生物多样性y – 8th highest plant biodiversity out of all 419 National 公园s. It is among the most diverse National 公园 Service properties with more than 1,100 native plants 和 a wide variety of other species – fish (71), butterflies (60), dragonflies 和 damselflies (60), mammals (46), reptiles (23), 和 amphibians (18) 和 350 bird species (resident 和 migratory have been identified. Biological diversity was a primary reason for the creation of Indiana Dunes 国家湖岸. Because the national lakeshore is located in several ecological transition zones, the diversity is many times greater than most areas its size. Remnant species from past climatic changes have managed to survive in sheltered habitats. //www.nps.gov/indu/learn/nature/index.htm, //www.nps.gov/indu/learn/nature/animals.htm
- 至关重要的鸟类迁徙 – Located at the southern tip of Lake Michigan, the national lakeshore is an important feeding 和 resting area for migrating birds. Lake Michigan influences the migration patterns of bird species. During the fall migration, southbound birds follow the north-south shoreline 和 are funneled into the Indiana Dunes. The large expanse of open water 和 miles of shoreline also attract large numbers of wintering birds. //www.nps.gov/indu/learn/nature/birds.htm
- 历史意图 – Mather was planning to designate it as a National 公园 in 1916 until WWI broke out 和 stalled those plans. On October 30, 1916, only one month after the National 公园 Service itself was established (August 25, 1916), Stephen Mather, the Service’s first Director, (shown at the far left in the adjacent photo leading a tour of park advocates in the dunes in 1916) held hearings in Chicago to gauge public sentiment on a “Sand Dunes National 公园”. Four hundred people attended 和 42 people, including Henry Cowles, spoke in favor of the park proposal; there were no opponents.The battle for a national park was crippled, however, when the United States entered the First World War. National priorities changed 和 revenues were targeted for national defense, not the development of a national park. The popular slogan “Save the Dunes!” became “First Save the Country, Then Save the Dunes!” As the nation went from a world war into a depression, hopes to save the dunes began to fade. //www.nps.gov/indu/learn/historyculture/index.htm
- 地质稀有度 – The national lakeshore preserves an important remnant of a once vast 和 unique environment, resulting from the retreat of the last great continental glacier some 14,000 years ago. The park landscape represents at least four major successive stages of historic Lake Michigan shorelines, making it one of the most extensive geologic records of one of the world’s largest, fresh water bodies. //www.nps.gov/indu/learn/nature/index.htm
- Natural 和 Geographic Diversity of National 公园s –目前，我们有多少座国家公园以山峰与沙丘为主要景点？山为11个（名称中有9个为山），沙丘为1个（如果算上Kobuk山谷，则为2个，沙丘可以说是众多特色之一）。欣赏山脉可能会更令人惊叹，而徒步旅行更有趣，但是它们真的更有价值吗？ NPS区域系统内的5个州的太平洋西部地区，8个州的山间地区和13个州的中西部地区有多少个国家公园？ 14对16对7。这是印第安纳州’第一个国家公园我们的偏见“spectacular”的风景和大片人口稀少的联邦土地的可利用性使我们的公园系统对NPS偏爱美国西部’同样重要的是中西部自然地区的顶级名称。
- 惊人的人气– Together with Indiana Dunes State 公园 (which it encompasses), the two had 3.6M visitors in 2018, which would make it the 7th most-visited of the 61 National 公园s (comparing it with the latest 2017 visitation data) ahead of Acadia, Olympic 和 Grand Teton. The 2.2M visitors for the Lakeshore along a year before in 2017 would still put it 14th on the new list of the 61 National 公园s ahead of Arches, Shenandoah, Mount Rainier, Sequoia, etc. Indiana Dunes visitation stacks up well against National 公园 peers, but also signifies a need for future support According to //irma.nps.gov/Stats/
- 美丽的风景- 这纯粹是主观的，但是经过两次访问，我认为印第安纳州沙丘不仅仅选中了此框。
The arguments against Indiana Dunes National 公园 status don’t hold up
- It’只是旅游业的营销策略 –没错，有人引用国会和印第安纳州沙丘旅游局的领导人的话说，他们希望新名称能促进旅游业并吸引更多人到公园。因为那个’他们的工作，动机以及他们的选民关心什么。它没有’请勿将上述任何理由置为假。
- 它为N’t beautiful or 壮观 enough –这是我们最美丽的公园吗’我去过150多个单位（包括目前的60个国家公园）’去过吗？当然不。首先，你可以’t compare it to the “Crown Jewels” of Yosemite, Grand Canyon 和 Yellowstone because if that was the standard we would have about 6 National 公园s ever. It has a much more quiet beauty 和 crucial ecological importance similar to Everglades. Second, 壮观 beauty is not a criteria for National 公园s, although that is often what we associate them with.
- 它为N’t big enough –虽然它是第五最小的，占地15067英亩，但比维尔京群岛要大，美属萨摩亚，温泉和盖特威克斯拱门要小。而且，它具有几个位置上的缺点，使其变小并禁止其扩展。这是一个皮包骨头的公园，保护着15英里长的湖岸，被一侧的湖泊（显然）固定，另一侧的I-94（经过一点缓冲）被钉住，并被密歇根州的城镇书记市和加里。它位于印第安纳州港口和印第安纳沙丘州立公园一个人口稠密的地区，也禁止它获得更多的土地。我们认为，这个有限的自然重要领域需要最高保护水平的原因更加重要。
- 它会使整个系统降级 –这听起来很排他。永远不会再有“Crown Jewels” discovered in the U.S. Are we not able to add anymore National 公园s then? Since 2000, 5 other parks have been added: Cuyahoga Valley, Congaree, Great Sand Dunes, Pinnacles 和 Gateway Arch. With the exception of GSDNP, are all understated in 壮观-ness 和 和 in size (all are under 35K acres). I believe we need to accept that we are in a new era of land protection 和 new National 公园s will fit a different mold. As stated above, the perceived statuses of existing National 公园s are not diluted at all with each added National 公园, but rather the status of the new National 公园 is elevated to the unshakable reverence our nation has for all National 公园s.
为什么我们总是必须将一切变成争论？为什么可以’我们所有人都庆祝政府长期以来所做的最不引起争议的事情是什么？我认为我们都应该喜欢这样一个事实，即我们有一个新成员加入了我们最高保护地带。但是也许’s not how we’re built these days.
