Something to be said for more formal education, of course. 🙂 My wife’s Ph.D. gave her a love and passion for the natural world that let her leave the lab behind to work for her current job. Of course, we love to read, which certainly helps us both!

Kudos on not letting work/career get in the way of your first love, Paul! I have numerous former classmates (and have crossed paths with many others over the years) who earned degrees in history, lit, or the social sciences and, instead of going the traditional teaching route, wound up in careers in tech or business that allowed them to pay the bills and support their families. Fast forward three decades, where kids are going into six-figure debt for an education that lands them back home with their parents working a minimum wage job, and Matt Damon’s words in the 1990s movie Good Will Hunting seem to be increasingly relevant if not a bit prophetic: “You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library.” 
There’s quite a lot to be said, I think, for reading widely (as in books not the internet) and being a self-educated, lifelong learner. Discouragingly, reading is no longer the ubiqituous pasttime that it once was.

Thanks for the kind words. I just read a lot about history, my first love. Most of the so-called professional career meant working in IT. It paid for my outdoor jaunts through the years but never my first love.

Indeed.

I can certainly see the problems of lower public worker salaries and lack of affordable housing here in Moab. Certainly true for most (all?) gateway communities.

Completely agree about the need for more funds for the public infrastructure, too.

I’m sure there is a way to fix it but probably not a politically expedient way, alas.

•All but the higher pay grades in both NPS and USFS are woefully underwhelming for the employees, financially. Needs fixing, fast.

•Many facilities are understaffed, have been for eons, and the current struggle to hire has exascerbated the situation. Needs fixing, fast.

•The current PUBLIC infrastructure needs are severely backlogged (so why not fix those first?) Needs fixing, fast.

•I believe there is a provision in this Act that would penalize all filming and still photography taking place in the Park if it is done to make money. Any amount of money. I would like to see this amended to define true big budget commercial filmmaking (crews with lots of equipment) vs filming using a smartphone, GoPro, etc. for posting on YouTube, Instagram, etc. The latter might have the potential to make small amounts of money but typically do not; however they are lumped together with the movie studios and advertising agencies that create commercials. Unfair!

I live within 10 minutes of Shenandoah National Park, and have witnessed first hand the positive influences a popular recreational venue can bring to a locality. In more recent years, I’ve seen the bad, too (just try to rent an apartment or modest home here–they are now mostly AirBNBs or VRBOs). Roads and other infrastructure, the cost of which must be borne by local taxpayers and the State, are inadequate for the volume of traffic that the Park and other tourist businesses attract.

Is there a way to amend this Act that would add to the good and subtract from the bad?