[OrenMc]

You should pop over here - entrance free to National Parks all the time! In fact I never knew you guys charged for it, seems kinda weird to me, not having been brought up with it.

From some of the photos I have seen of your countryside most of it should be a national park. Truely incredible, I would love to visit.

BTW, thanks for posting jbrowning. Good to know.

[lithos]

From some of the photos I have seen of your countryside most of it should be a national park. Truely incredible, I would love to visit.

You...you ever seen photos of Ipswich?

Wildlife reserve, yes. Quarantine zone, definitely. National park...nooooo.

[Arpe]

Well, for what its worth, I think US National Parks are great and well run. I have been fortuneate to visit Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Zion, Bryce Canyon and Yellowstone.

Now you have a point there. DOC (Dept. of Conservation) here, of course are always underfunded, so our parks are not "run" at all really, bugger-all facilities, tracks that are at tmes difficult to follow etc. This can be a good or bad thing, depending on your point of view. A fine balance to reach between being natural and being inviting for users.

[Rustyoldbug]

Apparently entrance fees are not nearly enough to cover costs. National parks are probably near the same economic condition as state parks...

Schwarzenegger proposes closing 80 percent of California state parks - San Jose Mercury News

I don't understand why it is so expensive to maintain the parks themselves. I go to a lot of the parks and rarely see any staff or rangers. Regarding state parks, same thing - I was just up at Torrey Pines here in SoCal which is a really busy park and all the staff were volunteers.

[Blue]

I don't understand why it is so expensive to maintain the parks themselves. I go to a lot of the parks and rarely see any staff or rangers. Regarding state parks, same thing - I was just up at Torrey Pines here in SoCal which is a really busy park and all the staff were volunteers.

There is a turtle conservation project that has been on the table for abut 3 years. It will finally get funded at the tune of $3.4 million from stimulus dollars. In the 1930s, US Highway 27 split a corner of Jackson Lake and 30 or 40 years it was 4-laned. Both didn't do much to help one of the best bass lakes in the country or the flow of wildlife that crosses that stretch. They could easily put up 4 -6 barriers and route the turtles etc through the existing culvert. The culvert obviously needs cleaned out. However, I could get my Jeep through there now and a Bronco after cleaning it out.


However, the county commissioners want to replace this culvert with a new one. I wonder what that will do to the critters in the interim? I like how 2-bit lawyers and politicians get elected to office and they suddenly know everything and are experts in all fields. Anyway, we have to stimulate Bill Bob's brother-in-law's construction company. My solution would cost $350,000.

Edit: http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?

http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20090622/CAPITOLNEWS/906220311/Officials-...NTPAGECAROUSEL

The officials were touting it as safety for people due to all the "flying" turtles until they got called on for some data and witnesses. Now all of a sudden after all of the criticism it is also for black bears and panthers. Only there are known in that area . . . it is mostly turtles and gators although the latter seem to stay out of the road.

I wonder which politicians cousin or brother in law got that contract.

[Blue]

I wonder which politicians cousin or brother in law got that contract.

Be all indications one of the commissioners the way they are acting. He was on TV tonight arguing wasn't about the turtles but public safety. He worried about someone hitting a Gator. We see a lot of deer get hit and occasional raccoons, dillos, possums and rarely a fox. I have never seen anyone hit a gator. I have known of 1 panther getting hit in the last 5 years and 1 bobcat. We had a bear fatality, but that was from the Tally PD shooting it out of a tree at MacDonalds.

Be all indications one of the commissioners the way they are acting. He was on TV tonight arguing wasn't about the turtles but public safety. He worried about someone hitting a Gator. We see a lot of deer get hit and occasional raccoons, dillos, possums and rarely a fox. I have never seen anyone hit a gator. I have known of 1 panther getting hit in the last 5 years and 1 bobcat. We had a bear fatality, but that was from the Tally PD shooting it out of a tree at MacDonalds.

Aren't gators just Florida's version of speed bumps?

[Blue]

Aren't gators just Florida's version of speed bumps?

I like to think of them as self propelled luggage.

I like to think of them as self propelled luggage.

With awesome anti theft devices.