Latest news with #ParksService
The Age
27-05-2025
- The Age
This Aussie road trip is outstanding, even if my car isn't
Just a couple of houses past the PM's pad is Hursey Seafood. People come from all over the region to Hursey, for its fish and crayfish fresh off the boat. My package includes a voucher to eat here, and I make the most of it – a platter of crayfish, oysters and more back to the apartment one night and into the restaurant for scallops and fresh stripey trumpeter the next. You can take a short chairlift ride if you want, but Stanley's intriguing Nut isn't that hard a climb and the sea views are plentiful from the track that circles the top of it. There's a surprise in store below the Nut, at Godfrey's Beach – here the Parks Service has built a viewing platform to admire the little penguins, returning at dusk to feed their offspring. If you don't want the 15-minute walk to Godfrey's, you can cross the road below the Ship Inn and head to the rock wall that wraps around the beach at the head of Stanley Harbour. Come dusk from September to March, there they'll be – the little tackers squawking for food as Mum and Dad return from a forage at sea. Back on the road (the Golf's warning light is now telling me to 'stop and contact workshop' but after a few minutes it vanishes, so we battle on) and we're now backtracking east, past Devonport and on to the next stop, the Vineyard House at Ghost Rock Wines, near Port Sorrell. Ghost Rock is the creation of the Arnold family – 31 hectares under vines and wine under two labels, the premium Ghost Rock, and the minimum intervention Supernatural – wines that 'go against all the traditions – no filtration, no additives,' in the words of Justin Arnold. The stay here starts with a tasting – working through the winery's fruity but flinty 2019 Catherine sparkling, a selection of whites and eventually arriving at the 2023 Climat pinot noir, a sublime wine created from a spray-free experimental plot and coming in light but earthy. The tasting is a handy prelude to lunch at the winery restaurant – both are Ship to Shore inclusions – and on this clear day, lunch is out on the sunny terrace, vineyards in the foregound, then some farmland and then the blue expanse of Bass Strait in the distance, something Arnold calls, 'our great big air conditioner'. Lunch is fresh and seasonal, and I have no need to worry about drinking and driving (or the Golf and its complaints) – Vineyard House, albeit hidden in vast gardens, is all of 20 metres from the restaurant door. Home for the next couple of nights, there's plenty of space here – three bedrooms, open-plan living, big kitchen and dining area and spectacular views of the surrounding country. There's a platter of local cheeses and other treats, along with two bottles of Ghost Rock wine – a sparkling and a pinot – as well as a selection of bread, jams and cereal for breakfast. On top of those supplies, there's a kitchen garden just out the door, meaning fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables are there for the picking. Beyond the winery, and the house you could well sit back and enjoy for the rest of your stay, there are beach walks nearby at Port Sorrell and Hawley Beach, or, facing Bass Strait on Northdown Beach. Devonport is 15 minutes away for supplies and other restaurant selections. Next, and final, stop is Launceston and while I could hit the highway and cover the ground in a bit over an hour (warning lights permitting), I decide to detour, leaving the highway at Sassafrass to amble through the countryside, through farmland and forest, past truffle farms and, not far offtrack, a rarity in Tasmania – sustainable salmon from the inland 41 South salmon farm. Eventually we come into Deloraine on the Mole Creek Road, the mountain-fed Meander River spilling through the town. Coffee in hand from Frank and Lotti's on Emu Bay Road, I give the Golf a breather and enjoy the coffee in the park down by the river. From Deloraine, it's a 40-minute drive into Launceston for boutique bliss and a welcoming bottle of sparkling wine and some snacks in a suite at Stillwater Seven. The small hotel and its restaurant are converted from an old flour mill. This part of the package includes two nights' accommodation, dinner for two in the restaurant and breakfast provisions in the room. The rooms come with huge timber beams, views over the river and a stunning piece of furniture designed by Launceston's Simon Anchor that is the mini-bar (unusually for a hotel, its contents are very well priced). Dinner is at the restaurant with some inspired Tasmanian dishes, not least the octopus that has followed me all the way here from Stanley, topped with bonito flakes that might be waving in the wind. After a DIY breakfast (including croissants delivered fresh in the morning), to walk off the indulgence, the track into the Cataract Gorge starts just across the road from Stillwater and has to be one of the world's best city walks given the stunning scenery of rock, river and forest. Keep walking and if it's a hot day there's a free-to-use public pool on the lawns of First Basin.
Sydney Morning Herald
27-05-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
This Aussie road trip is outstanding, even if my car isn't
Just a couple of houses past the PM's pad is Hursey Seafood. People come from all over the region to Hursey, for its fish and crayfish fresh off the boat. My package includes a voucher to eat here, and I make the most of it – a platter of crayfish, oysters and more back to the apartment one night and into the restaurant for scallops and fresh stripey trumpeter the next. You can take a short chairlift ride if you want, but Stanley's intriguing Nut isn't that hard a climb and the sea views are plentiful from the track that circles the top of it. There's a surprise in store below the Nut, at Godfrey's Beach – here the Parks Service has built a viewing platform to admire the little penguins, returning at dusk to feed their offspring. If you don't want the 15-minute walk to Godfrey's, you can cross the road below the Ship Inn and head to the rock wall that wraps around the beach at the head of Stanley Harbour. Come dusk from September to March, there they'll be – the little tackers squawking for food as Mum and Dad return from a forage at sea. Back on the road (the Golf's warning light is now telling me to 'stop and contact workshop' but after a few minutes it vanishes, so we battle on) and we're now backtracking east, past Devonport and on to the next stop, the Vineyard House at Ghost Rock Wines, near Port Sorrell. Ghost Rock is the creation of the Arnold family – 31 hectares under vines and wine under two labels, the premium Ghost Rock, and the minimum intervention Supernatural – wines that 'go against all the traditions – no filtration, no additives,' in the words of Justin Arnold. The stay here starts with a tasting – working through the winery's fruity but flinty 2019 Catherine sparkling, a selection of whites and eventually arriving at the 2023 Climat pinot noir, a sublime wine created from a spray-free experimental plot and coming in light but earthy. The tasting is a handy prelude to lunch at the winery restaurant – both are Ship to Shore inclusions – and on this clear day, lunch is out on the sunny terrace, vineyards in the foregound, then some farmland and then the blue expanse of Bass Strait in the distance, something Arnold calls, 'our great big air conditioner'. Lunch is fresh and seasonal, and I have no need to worry about drinking and driving (or the Golf and its complaints) – Vineyard House, albeit hidden in vast gardens, is all of 20 metres from the restaurant door. Home for the next couple of nights, there's plenty of space here – three bedrooms, open-plan living, big kitchen and dining area and spectacular views of the surrounding country. There's a platter of local cheeses and other treats, along with two bottles of Ghost Rock wine – a sparkling and a pinot – as well as a selection of bread, jams and cereal for breakfast. On top of those supplies, there's a kitchen garden just out the door, meaning fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables are there for the picking. Beyond the winery, and the house you could well sit back and enjoy for the rest of your stay, there are beach walks nearby at Port Sorrell and Hawley Beach, or, facing Bass Strait on Northdown Beach. Devonport is 15 minutes away for supplies and other restaurant selections. Next, and final, stop is Launceston and while I could hit the highway and cover the ground in a bit over an hour (warning lights permitting), I decide to detour, leaving the highway at Sassafrass to amble through the countryside, through farmland and forest, past truffle farms and, not far offtrack, a rarity in Tasmania – sustainable salmon from the inland 41 South salmon farm. Eventually we come into Deloraine on the Mole Creek Road, the mountain-fed Meander River spilling through the town. Coffee in hand from Frank and Lotti's on Emu Bay Road, I give the Golf a breather and enjoy the coffee in the park down by the river. From Deloraine, it's a 40-minute drive into Launceston for boutique bliss and a welcoming bottle of sparkling wine and some snacks in a suite at Stillwater Seven. The small hotel and its restaurant are converted from an old flour mill. This part of the package includes two nights' accommodation, dinner for two in the restaurant and breakfast provisions in the room. The rooms come with huge timber beams, views over the river and a stunning piece of furniture designed by Launceston's Simon Anchor that is the mini-bar (unusually for a hotel, its contents are very well priced). Dinner is at the restaurant with some inspired Tasmanian dishes, not least the octopus that has followed me all the way here from Stanley, topped with bonito flakes that might be waving in the wind. After a DIY breakfast (including croissants delivered fresh in the morning), to walk off the indulgence, the track into the Cataract Gorge starts just across the road from Stillwater and has to be one of the world's best city walks given the stunning scenery of rock, river and forest. Keep walking and if it's a hot day there's a free-to-use public pool on the lawns of First Basin.
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hundreds protest against park ranger cuts as the administration moves to shrink the government
When Hanford McCloud looks at the towering volcano that is the namesake of Mount Rainier National Park, he thinks about the generations of his ancestors that came before them. Called Tahoma by the indigenous tribes in Western Washington, McCloud says the mountain is the 'beacon' of what lives in its shadows. 'She gives us life here in this region,' McCloud said. 'She's sitting there, she's controlling the weather to make sure the rain stays over here for her children: the salmon, the animals, and all of the things she brought here before us. It's our job now to take care of that.' McCloud uses cedar from the park to weave hats, baskets, and other items, a skill that was passed down from his mother and her mother before that. 'These areas were protected for generations, upon generations upon generations. The sweat equity that my ancestors put in, I want to make sure is still there for my kids and their generation as they get older, so we have that value there.' McCloud said. On Saturday, McCloud, his wife, and his children joined nearly 200 others at the Nisqually gate to Mt. Rainier to protest the recent cuts to park staff nationwide. Hundreds more joined across the sound at Olympic National Park, part of a national demonstration in support of park rangers nationwide. The White House's Department of Government Efficiency announced the firing of 1,000 newer park rangers earlier this year. After some pushback, including from President Donald Trump's interior secretary, Doug Berman, 50 were reinstated. The cuts to staffing at National Parks are part of a stated effort of fiscal responsibility and removing wasteful spending in the government. 'There hasn't been a review of the existing budget,' said Jim Walsh, the chair of the Washington State GOP who supports scaling down the federal government's size. He yearns for a zero-base budget where agencies advocate for all their funding from the start rather than adding new funding from existing budgets. 'Whenever the Parks Service is pressed for efficiency, they tend to respond by changing the locks on the doors to the outward facing facilities. That creates a sense of hardship and allows them to argue against budget reform. KIRO 7 News spoke to several park rangers at the protest Saturday who feared to go on the record for fear of retribution and described parks running on tight budgets already. In 2024, the National Park Service released a report detailing a $23 Billion maintenance backlog. It all comes as parks, particularly Mt. Rainier, are seeing more visitors. To manage crowds, Rainier and other popular parks have implemented timed-entry reservations during peak seasons to avoid overcrowding staff and amenities. A retired park ranger, whom we will call John to hide his identity, disagrees with Walsh's assessment of Park Staff. He says that during situations like shutdowns, parks are required to stay open but unstaffed, meaning trash builds up and facilities are unkempt. 'It's kind of getting to the point where we're kind of loving them to death,' John said. John says jobs that had hundreds of applicants when he started had been difficult to fill towards the end of his career. He remembers days of working unpaid hours to complete work that had to be done. He doesn't blame people for wanting to be paid for all the hours they work, understanding the pay isn't as desirable as it once was. 'We refer to it as getting paid in sunsets sometimes,' John said. John had been a ranger in Rainier for 34 years, now volunteering with an organization that supports conservation at the park. That work and a relative who is a current Park Ranger have him fearing repercussions for speaking out. During his decades of service, he says more parks were added, but the NPS budget didn't increase accordingly. 'You've had an erosion of your current funding, and at the same time, your costs go up,' John said. John says he's specifically concerned about wildfire response and search and rescue efforts during the peak season. After pushback, the Department of the Interior says it will add 7,700 seasonal workers in the summer, more than the around 6,200 average over the last three years. 'Park visitation has expanded to the point where it's all months during the year, including the wintertime. It's gotten quite busy,' John said. McCloud looks at the increase in visitors as a positive influence on the spaces he grew up appreciating. He hopes the people proposing the cuts will spend time experiencing the places that are affected. 'The money guys that are sitting at the table making these decisions, they're surrounded by all four walls, so they don't get to see anything of importance that this money is coming into, but if they were to come here and see this firsthand where this money is going to and how much it has provided here in this region,' he said. McCloud has a suggestion for the federal government if it seeks to continue the cuts or to cut back on the management and conservation of national parks like Olympic and Rainier. 'From the indigenous perspective, they took this area from us, and now they don't want to do anything with it.' McCloud said, 'Give it back to us and let us take care of it.'
New York Times
20-02-2025
- General
- New York Times
Fired Park Rangers Try to ‘Open Some Hearts' on Social Media
Josh Barnes loved the summers he spent working at Sequoia National Park in California. Like many rangers, Mr. Barnes, 25, described the job as a labor of love, one chosen not for glamour or money but for a true passion for nature and a strong sense of stewardship. And so he was especially excited when, in October, he secured a permanent position at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico, selling tickets to visitors and welcoming them to the park. But his dream job was abruptly terminated when he received word on Feb. 14 that he had been fired. He was among thousands of other parks employees around the country who have lost their jobs part of the Trump administration's efforts to shrink the federal work force. 'I'm terrified for my public lands and the damage that will be done to them by this horrible administration. I hurt for the people who live in and celebrate these places,' he wrote in a letter on Instagram. He was nervous about speaking out, and he feared it could affect his future employment. Still, he felt he needed to say something. 'It's scary, but it was the right thing to do,' Mr. Barnes said of his decision to post online. He's one of a growing number of current and former rangers who have voiced their sadness, fear and concerns on social media about the cuts, which the Parks Service has said were an attempt to prioritize fiscal responsibility while maintaining critical services. Thousands of people have commented on a widely shared post from Brian Gibbs, an educational park ranger at Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa, who also lost his job this month. He hoped his post would help 'open some hearts and minds of people to understand just how important it is to protect and preserve these places of our shared natural heritage,' Mr. Gibbs, 41, said in a phone interview. Kaesee Bourne, a 25-year-old former biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service who lives in Las Vegas, said there had been a strong sense of camaraderie among her colleagues after the firings, including people offering moral support and employment resources. (The National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service both fall under the Department of the Interior, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) Like Mr. Barnes, she felt compelled to speak out online, but had initial reservations. 'Being that I was no longer a federal employee, I realized that someone needed to say what was happening,' Ms. Bourne said. 'If no one knows what's going on, no one's going to be able to help.' Ms. Bourne was alluding to restrictions created by the Hatch Act that prohibit federal employees from engaging in some forms of political behavior. Further west, Kenan Chan posted a goodbye letter on Instagram after losing his job at the Channel Islands National Park in California, where he worked studying marine ecology. He included several photos taken under water on the job. 'The Park Service is something that pretty much, everybody loves in America and worldwide,' Mr. Chan said in an interview. 'It goes beyond parties, right? It's not a Democrat thing. It's not a Republican thing. It's everybody. Everybody just likes the parks.'
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Protest at Stonewall following removal of trans, queer references
WEST VILLAGE, Manhattan (PIX11) – LGBTQ+ is the term that's widely used to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, non-gender-conforming, and other members of the community who aren't heterosexual and cisgender. It's also the term that has been on the website and other literature for the Stonewall National Monument since its founding in 2016. More Local News That changed on Thursday when all references to trans and queer history and culture disappeared from the monument's official literature. So on Friday, reaction to the change came in the form of a protest that packed the city-block-long monument. It aimed to resonate far beyond just the monument site. Hundreds of protesters not only filled the site between Christopher and Grove Streets near Seventh Avenue but there were so many that they spilled out into the surrounding sidewalks. Airco Caravan, a local artist, was among the protesting crowd. 'It's enraging,' she said while holding a light blue, pink, and white-striped trans flag aloft. 'I was so mad.' The crowd was at Stonewall, a monument to the 1969 uprising by LGBTQ+ patrons of the Stonewall Inn against police who were trying to raid the popular LGBTQ+ bar, when it was illegal not to be straight. In Friday's protest, a nearly hour-long series of speakers condemned the Parks Service's action. Tanya Ansapansa Walker, from Equity New York, said that a change on the monument's website does not constitute a change to her life or to that of the 2.3 million Americans who identify as transgender. 'As you can see,' Walker said from the podium set up in the park in the monument, 'I'm trans, and I'm not going anywhere.' Speaker after speaker emotionally condemned the change, in which the community was only listed as 'LGB' — the initials for trans, queer, and others were gone. The move followed President Donald Trump's executive order, officially declaring that there were only two genders. Lorelei Creen, another speaker at the protest, said that the disappearance of the letters in the monument's literature does not erase people like Creen, who is transgender. 'Trans people have always existed,' Creen said. 'We will continue to exist.' Hundreds of people attended the event, including Naim Palanque, who flew a trans flag on a small pole extending from his jacket. 'The moment they try to get rid of one [of us],' he said, 'and try to separate all of us, then they're going to just keep coming for all of us, and there just has to be a stand.' Whether or not Friday's protest can result in getting the designation changed back is not clear. The National Park Service did not respond to a request for comment from PIX11 News. Still, activist Steven Love Menendez said the Stonewall National Monument protest is a significant step towards ensuring that the Trump Administration is aware of the LGBTQ+ community's strength. 'It's actually making our voice stronger,' he said, 'and making us be seen, louder and prouder.' Love Menendez is known at the monument for posting rainbow- and other LGBTQ+ flags at the site. On Friday, he was handing out trans flags. One of them is flying on the official flagpole of the site. In addition to Stonewall being a national monument, it's also a New York State monument. Officially, in New York, it remains an LGBTQ+ historic site. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
