Relief for national parks

Seattle Times: National parks enthusiasts are breathing a sigh of relief after the National Park Service decided not to loosen restrictions on advertising and marketing in national parks in return for private donations.
No one considered large-scale advertising in the parks but a draft proposal pondered the possibility of allowing private donors to have their names on bricks, benches and visitors centers. In the final plan, the only recognition allowed is discreetly on a visitor-center wall. Think small plaque, not the size of lettering commonly used at an entrance to a hospital wing.
The National Park Service has never accepted donations from companies that manufacture alcohol and tobacco products. One proposal now appropriately abandoned would have allowed, say, Muir Woods in California to thank a nearby vineyard for a private donation, or a memorial in St. Louis to honor a gift from a local beer company.
Social acceptability
Variations in social acceptability prompted the National Park Service to nix this idea. No donations, no recognition of companies that manufacture alcohol and tobacco. Good.
The draft proposal also considered allowing park employees to solicit cash and in-kind donations from private companies -- say, free Safeway trash bags for a youth-sponsored park cleanup. The slippery slope of employees seeking donations means this idea also was dropped.
National parks rarely receive sufficient federal budget support, so $100 million a year derived from private donations is not only appreciated, it is needed.
The National Park Service allows hundreds of concessionaires to announce they operate a park cafeteria or whitewater rafting outfit, subject to approval of the park superintendent.
But parks will lose their value as national sanctuaries free of the press of everyday life if they are allowed to be commercialized.