News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 27, 2001
PWC Industry Focusing on New Parks Director
When the newly appointed director of the National Park Service
officially starts her job Monday, at least one personal watercraft
advocate will be camped out at her door, so to speak, to plead
the industry's case on PWC bans.
"I have everybody I know working to get an appointment
ASAP," Monita Fontaine, executive director of the Personal
Watercraft Industry Association, said Thursday afternoon.
Fran Mainella was nominated as the new NPS director by President
Bush June 4, and confirmed by the Senate July 12. Fontaine
said her appointment comes not a moment too soon.
"Timing is crucial," Fontaine said. "She really
is going to have to give this priority attention right out
of the gate."
The American Watercraft Association, a group of PWC owners,
already sent Mainella a letter earlier this week asking her
to re-examine NPS' personal watercraft rule. This rule bans
PWC use at 66 of the 87 parks that allowed motorized boating,
but originally permitted the remaining 21 parks to determine
whether or not PWC use would be allowed after April 2002.
A settlement agreement related to an August 2000 lawsuit filed
by Bluewater Network, an environmental group based in San
Francisco, extended that deadline to September 2002.
However, the settlement requires each park manager to undergo
a formal review process to determine whether PWC use will
be permitted past next year’s deadlines. Since NPS has
been without a director the last several months, Fontaine
said some of the individual park superintendents have been
acting on their own and issuing PWC bans without a formal
assessment. Others have done nothing at all. "By doing
nothing, you ban them," she said.
"Hopefully she [Mainella] will bring order and a process
to this," Fontaine said. "We're counting on her
to make this a fair, scientific-based, objective criteria.
I don't know her personally, but my understanding is that
she is a fair-minded person and she does put value on science."
And if Mainella does look at science, Fontaine said, "That's
the end of the story." She said the progress made in
2-stroke technology over the last few years, and the recent
introduction of 4-stroke engines, have made PWC cleaner and
quieter.
Mainella becomes the 16th director of the NPS and the first
woman to head the 85-year-old agency. As director, she will
have policy and administrative responsibility for the 384
units and 83 million acres within the federal park system.
Mainella has more than 30 years of experience in the park
management and recreation field, according to the NPS. Since
1989 she has been the director of the division of recreation
and parks for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Prior to that she was executive director of the Florida Recreation
and Park Association. She also has served as director of recreation
for Lake Park, Fla., and assistant center director for the
Tallahassee Parks and Recreation Department.
- Melanie Winters
Reprinted with permission from www.tradeonlytoday.com
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