[asa] HOW OLD IS THE GRAND CANYON? PARK SERVICE WONT SAY

My apologies, evidently this is not true.

http://tinyurl.com/yzmz3m

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   -----Original Message-----
   From: SKrogh [mailto:panterragroup@mindspring.com]
   Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2007 12:42 AM
   To: ASA Discussions
   Subject: HOW OLD IS THE GRAND CANYON? PARK SERVICE WON’T SAY

   http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=801

   For Immediate Release: December 28, 2006
   Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337

   HOW OLD IS THE GRAND CANYON? PARK SERVICE WON’T SAY — Orders to
Cater to
Creationists Makes National Park Agnostic on Geology

   Washington, DC — Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to
give an
official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to
pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt
review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was
created by
Noah's flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years
later no
review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park,
according to documents released today by Public Employees for
Environmental
Responsibility (PEER).

   “In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our
National Park
Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology,” stated PEER
Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “It is disconcerting that the official
position of a national park as to the geologic age of the Grand
Canyon is
‘no comment.’”

   In a letter released today, PEER urged the new Director of the
National
Park Service (NPS), Mary Bomar, to end the stalling tactics, remove
the book
from sale at the park and allow park interpretive rangers to honestly
answer
questions from the public about the geologic age of the Grand Canyon.
PEER
is also asking Director Bomar to approve a pamphlet, suppressed since
2002
by Bush appointees, providing guidance for rangers and other
interpretive
staff in making distinctions between science and religion when
speaking to
park visitors about geologic issues.

   In August 2003, Park Superintendent Joe Alston attempted to block
the sale
at park bookstores of Grand Canyon: A Different View by Tom Vail, a book
claiming the Canyon developed on a biblical rather than an
evolutionary time
scale. NPS Headquarters, however, intervened and overruled Alston. To
quiet
the resulting furor, NPS Chief of Communications David Barna told
reporters
and members of Congress that there would be a high-level policy
review of
the issue.

   According to a recent NPS response to a Freedom of Information Act
request
filed by PEER, no such review was ever requested, let alone conducted or
completed.

   Park officials have defended the decision to approve the sale of
Grand
Canyon: A Different View, claiming that park bookstores are like
libraries,
where the broadest range of views are displayed. In fact, however,
both law
and park policies make it clear that the park bookstores are more like
schoolrooms rather than libraries. As such, materials are only to
reflect
the highest quality science and are supposed to closely support approved
interpretive themes. Moreover, unlike a library the approval process
is very
selective. Records released to PEER show that during 2003, Grand Canyon
officials rejected 22 books and other products for bookstore
placement while
approving only one new sale item — the creationist book.

   Ironically, in 2005, two years after the Grand Canyon creationist
controversy erupted, NPS approved a new directive on “Interpretation and
Education (Director’s Order #6) which reinforces the posture that
materials
on the “history of the Earth must be based on the best scientific
evidence
available, as found in scholarly sources that have stood the test of
scientific peer review and criticism [and] Interpretive and educational
programs must refrain from appearing to endorse religious beliefs
explaining
natural processes.”

   “As one park geologist said, this is equivalent of Yellowstone
National
Park selling a book entitled Geysers of Old Faithful: Nostrils of
Satan,”
Ruch added, pointing to the fact that previous NPS leadership ignored
strong
protests from both its own scientists and leading geological societies
against the agency approval of the creationist book. “We sincerely
hope that
the new Director of the Park Service now has the autonomy to do her
job.”

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