Congress should create permanent system

by Editorial Staff, Sacramento Bee

In 1872, Congress created Yellowstone National Park, the nation’s first. As the years passed, Congress kept adding more parks (including Sequoia, Yosemite and Lassen Volcanic national parks in California), but there was no system. Finally, after 44 years, Congress established the national park system, the first in the world.

Today, the situation is similar. Congress and the president over the years have set aside remote, rugged, nationally significant landscapes—more than 800 individual units. While there has been administrative oversight of those areas, there has been no formal system authorized by Congress to assure their protection.