Last week, President Obama visited Yosemite National Park to help celebrate the National Park Service’s 100th anniversary. He talked about the beauty and grandeur of the national parks, and the fact that we only get one chance at preserving them. “The parks belong to all of us. This planet belongs to all of us. It’s the only one we’ve got,” said President Obama. That’s an extremely important point that climate skeptics and those willing to privatize or sell off our public lands fail to recognize.

When I say Obama was selling the National Parks, I don’t mean that literally. He was selling the positives of our National Parks by singing their praises and pointing out that for every dollar invested, they return ten dollars to the economy. He pointed out that spending time in a national park is good for people. He was selling how important they are and how much good they do.

This is opposed to the Republican agenda, and, the Trump agenda, which seeks to literally sell the parks. Trump said he wants to sell off national assets! The right has long pushed other destructive things like mining, commercial development, and encroachment from surrounding land. The right wants to turn national forests over to logging and mining companies and let them destroy the environment.

For ever dollar we invest in the parks, we get ten dollars in return. Isn’t that good enough for a national treasure?

Our nation’s National Park system is a treasure. It deserves to be properly protected, properly funded, and made available to those that have a desire to see the natural beauty that exists across this great country.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article84694532.html