Word: parkes
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Changes have taken place underground as well. In Kentucky's Mammoth Cave, which is 350 miles long, park managers have halted a popular boat ride on an underground river because the disturbance was harming aquatic wildlife, including 12 species of eyeless cave dwellers found nowhere else in the world. Park tour guides have also abandoned a tradition of their forebears, who illuminated recesses of large chambers by throwing torches into them. The kerosene smoke darkened cave walls...
...Yellowstone Park, the return to nature means restocking a controversial animal. In June the Clinton Administration approved a plan to reintroduce 30 gray wolves into the park. The homecoming occurs after decades of persecution and annihilation of the animals, largely at the hands of ranchers who feared for their livestock...
...incredible as it seems today, 30 years ago many parks were deemed too remote and unprofitable for business ventures. As a means of enticing companies to offer lodging and other services, Congress permitted monopolies to gain concessions with long-term contracts. As a result, the government's share of concession revenues was less than 3% of the $650 million that visitors spent in 1992 in the parks. In March the Senate approved a bill to boost the government's cut and open contracts to fair competition. The House is on the verge of following suit. Payments would be earmarked...
...sometimes local economics frustrate change. The park service's attempts to remove a luncheonette and gift shop in New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns have ignited protests from the state's congressional delegation, though the contract has expired. Babbitt ventured up to Capitol Hill to tell Senator Pete Domenici his decision was final, only to watch Representative Joseph Skeen slip through an amendment in an appropriations bill, depriving the park service of the money to tear down the structure. Conservationists call such meddling "park barrel," alluding to the politicians' talent for stuffing budgets with pork for voters back home...
...curtail auto traffic and raise money for repairs, many park managers aim to charge higher entrance fees. As vacation destinations, the parks remain an absolute bargain, usually costing only $5 to $10 a vehicle. Half the national parks charge nothing at all. A park-service proposal to collect entry fees on a per-person basis, instead of per vehicle, would raise about $73 million to help offset the repeated budget cuts that have decimated the ranks of rangers and depleted maintenance programs...