Landowner Sets Sights on National Park

When Michigan resort owner Bob Kuras’ dream of building a golf course and condominiums went sour because of a wetlands dispute, Kuras decided to try to trade his land for some nearby property on which he could build.

The problem: The land he had his eye on, complete with ski trails, hiking trails and a splendid view of Lake Michigan, also is part of a national park.

That didn’t stop the proposed exchange at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore from gaining the support of the state’s lieutenant governor and several Michigan members of Congress, who began to draft bills to help Kuras.

The proposal is in limbo for the time being. But park advocates complain it’s one of the clearest examples of private interests, often with the help of highly placed politicians, trying to whittle away at America’s national park system.

“The dismantling is being done in every conceivable fashion,” said Paul Pritchard, president of the National Parks and Conservation Assn.

Elsewhere, park advocates say:

* In California, families who years ago agreed--and were paid--to give up use of cabins at Sequoia National Park now are trying to obtain them permanently with help from members of Congress. Several other parks face similar confrontations.

* In Alaska, private interests want Congress to turn 30,000 acres of coastal land at the Lake Clark National Park over to native groups for commercial development. If approved, it would “significantly diminish” the park, says Assistant Interior Secretary George Frampton.

* In Minnesota, local officials want greater say in managing the Voyager National Park and a nearby wilderness area, so they can allow hunting in the park and wider access to motorized vehicles, such as snowmobiles. If they succeed, local groups elsewhere are sure to try to wrest power from the Park Service, opponents argue.

* In Utah and Alaska, private interests, again with support from key members of Congress, seek legislation that would make it easier to build roads in parks by establishing a broad interpretation of a right-of-way, to include footpaths and dog-sled routes.

* In Congress, Republican leaders have waged intense efforts to prevent the Park Service from imposing tougher use restrictions on the new Mojave National Preserve in the Southern California desert.

Although many of the controversies stem from unique local circumstances, conservationists contend they also are part of a broader attack on public lands that has intensified in recent years.

It comes amid the backdrop of a campaign by some western Republican lawmakers to reexamine the park system as a whole with an eye toward trimming away questionable units.

“It’s another attempt to divest the public from their interest in public lands. It never seems to matter that public lands are owned by all Americans,” said Jim Baca, former head of the Bureau of Land Management and now a board member of the Wilderness Society.

But others say the issue is one of providing balance between public and private interests, local and federal decision-making and the various uses of federal lands.

“Many people believe they have lost control of their government,” said Sen. Rod Grams (R-Minn.), who wants a local council of citizens to have greater say in how the Voyager park and wilderness areas are used.

His bill would ensure the park is “a multiple recreational use facility,” Grams said.

Likewise, supporters of land exchanges note they often can be of benefit to both public and private interests. The Park Service, in fact, negotiates land exchanges and boundary adjustments, but insists that the deals be beneficial to parks.

But in the Michigan proposal, nobody asked what the Park Service thought about trading 204 acres of prime real estate for 161 acres that most environmentalists--and the local park superintendent--consider vastly inferior.

Kuras, owner of Homestead Resorts in Traverse City, for nearly a decade had sought to develop acreage along the picturesque Crystal River, but couldn’t because parts were a wetland.

Earlier this year, Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.) offered legislation to help Kuras as part of a broader lands bill, and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) talked of filing a separate bill to move the deal along.

When the Park Service heard of the legislation, it weighed in with a strong protest. The proposed golf course and condos “would create a visual intrusion . . . and significantly detract from the pastoral scene,” the agency wrote.

Abraham and Stupak have put the matter on hold until further review, their spokesmen say. Telephone calls to Kuras were not returned.