The East Idaho News reported on Nov 14, 2019, that the National Park Service is seeking public comment on a proposal to install about 500 indoor and outdoor Wi-Fi networks and cell towers throughout Yellowstone National Park’s developed areas for park visitors and employees. An SF Chronicle article Oct 20, 2019 notes this is part of a push to “modernize” the nations campgrounds. The article states, “The heart of the proposal is to hand some campground operations over to concessionaires and modernize them. The Sierra Club opposes that and said that concessionaires could transform national parks into “profit centers.” Sequoia National Park is also getting its first cell tower, however, not everyone is pleased.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) commented in 2017 as well. In an article, Group Cries Foul Over Cell Service Expansion in National Parks, the author writes, “Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) said in its Oct. 30 letter to Mary Kendall, deputy inspector general for the U.S. Department of Interior, that Yosemite National Park is the latest national park in America to allow cellphone towers to be built without adequate government or public oversight. “Not only is this a helluva way to run a railroad, but Yosemite does not even know who owns the trains,” Jeff Ruch, executive director of PEER, said. He said there’s a tendency of many national park superintendents to “ensure every square inch of their park has a strong 4G signal, thus creating conflict between connectivity and serenity in remote corners of wired parks.
Updated 8/14/23
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Read More “Should Yellowstone Have 484 New Cell Towers? Comments due Nov 29, 2019”
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