Crowded Parks

In response to your editorial “Legacy of the Land,” Aug. 12:

I have just returned from a 5,000-mile trip through Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. If these parks are a sample of the way all our National Parks are managed, we don’t need any more land put under that type of management.

Today going to the above parks is a negative experience. Let’s change it from today’s main focus on the past (and wilderness) to the future and people. Forty years ago Yellowstone was a fun place to go. We stayed at least a week. Today a three-day visit is plenty long due to crowding, lack of roads and facilities. We need to return national parks to the people.

If the money claimed by the American Heritage Trust Act is actually available, then let us improve our present parks. Change the situation from overcrowding and lack of facilities to the positive. For the first time in 50 years, build more roads, open up the backcountry.

Today’s visitors are largely city dwellers. Provide opportunity for them to get close to nature. We can’t expect them to be backpackers until they have fun on their first and second visits and get a feel for nature.

AUSTIN B. SANFORD

Ojai