kiss Yellowstone Park goodbye - illegal secret meetings

[donsu]

http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=681

TELECOMS’ SECRET PLAN TO WIRE ENTIRE YELLOWSTONE PARK — Industry Invited to Illegal Closed-Door Meeting to Divide Up Park

Washington, DC — Yellowstone National Park will soon be blanketed with coverage from cell phone towers, wireless internet service, and two-way radio, as well as television and AM/FM radio signals under a plan being written behind closed doors by the telecommunications industry and park officials, according to agency records released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

The March 31, 2005 meeting had representatives from Sprint, Verizon, Qwest, Western Wireless (now Alltel) and other companies conferring with Yellowstone park officials and concessionaires. The purpose of the meeting was to develop a “Wireless Telecommunications Plan” for the park. The companies urged siting more cell phone towers (the park already has six in five locations), installing broadband wireless internet service and microwave transmitters. Meeting notes by one park official state that “up to 10 entities could provide service in the park.”

“Notably, not one park official seems the least concerned that they are sacrificing peace and quiet, the ability to be truly alone and disconnected from the modern world,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, whose organization has been drawing attention to the proliferation of cell towers throughout the park system. “Yellowstone belongs to the American people, who ought to have some say before it is transformed into a giant cybercafé.”

PEER is charging that the meeting violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act which requires public notice, published agendas and the chance for the public to attend whenever outside groups are assembled to help shape official policy. The group, which obtained the minutes and notes under the Freedom of Information Act, is asking the Interior Department Inspector General to review the matter and identify the officials responsible for the violations.
-snip-
------------------------------------


the criminal bushmilhousegang ruins everything it touches.

and we let them

[Skink]

1. Gotta track those antelope.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. The Mother will do something about this

You probably know that Yellowstone is the site of a giant volcano, and that it is showing some signs of activity again. All these little towers etc will mean nothing when it erupts again.

[Coventina]

8. I feel sorry for the bison, bears, deer, elk, etc. that would be caught up

in such a cataclysm.

Humans? Not so much. On an individual basis, yes. Collectively, we deserve it.

[acmejack]

9. It is due for another gigantic eruption anytime.

The park rests squarely atop a giant caldera and as you point out, it has been stirring lately.

[genieroze]

29. I heard that there is two of them, one underneath the other and twice

as big. Badda BOOM!!!!:nuke:

[populistdriven]

10. If that sucker pops the crater will be 60 miles wide, MS Helens was 1

There won't be a single functioning cell phone within 1000 miles to the east.

"anyone living within 600 miles of Yellowstone could be sitting in a modern day Pompeii"

[FreakinDJ]

15. Not likely

Yes the magna is "flowing", but 2 miles down and it is not an uncommon geological occurance for an "Extinct" volcano to have

[populistdriven]

17. did you miss "if"? I said nothing about how likely it was...

Since you mention it, the odds are between one in 500,000 and one in 1,000,000 that it will pop in any given year. These odds make sense if you consider:

1) The last eruption was 650,000 years ago
2) The first eruption was 2.1 million years ago
3) It has erupted a total of 3 times in 2.1 million years.

This image shows the extent of ash from yellowstone caldera eruptions compared to MSH

[FreakinDJ]

19. My apologies

I used to live on an extinct volcano, and yes we had seismic activity daily, although we only felt them every couple of weeks. There were dozens of Geothermal Power plants tapping the steam to produce electricity. So YES it did have frequent magna flows and many active steam vents but in NO WAY was it going to erupt.

[populistdriven]

23. Living there must have been surreal at first

It must be frustrating for you to see how people get overly alarmed about long-dormant volcanos after living on one!

[tavalon]

33. It's actually such a large volcano

That when it goes, we're all done with this grand experiment. World wide. It will make bunker busters, well, obsolete.

Honestly, I'm a bleeding heart liberal to the max but I don't see the problem with having cell phone coverage in some of the more remote parts of the park. I've hiked the southeast section (had to indure a G-bear lecture from a ranger who actually used G-bear, not grizzly bear repeatedlyin his talk. Imagine, if you will, just how hard it was to keep a straight face when he said it) and having the ability to contact someone in an emergency is, IMO, a good thing.

OTOH, the Ugly American will probably have the phone glued to his/her ear while Old Faithful spews and that's gross, but that's about personal responsibiliy, which many Americans lack.

[OneBlueSky]

3. view the handwritten notes of one of the meeting's participants . . .

http://www.peer.org/docs/nps/06_1_5_wireless_notes.pdf

[enlightenment]

14. Wow. Can't wait to see the design for those

199 foot tall 'slim line' towers. I'm sure they will blend in with the environment perfectly.

Like this one:


Or this one:


Or this one:



Here in Las Vegas, we have 'palm trees':


Looks just like the real one, doesn't it?

ARGH.

[novalib]

18. What, No Cellular "Bush"??

;-)

[donsu]

21. I didn't know they hid them like that. thanks for the pics

they are good at hiding their crimes

[genieroze]

30. Question, do they use real trees or fake ones? If fake how do they anchor

them, cement? Suppose some birds or other creatures decide to make a home there, do they shoot them or call in Cheney?

[enlightenment]

32. Fake -- they're just decorating the towers.

I grabbed the pictures off of this website

http://www.fraudfrond.com/

Click on the 'fraud frond photos' link at the bottom of the page for more images of what the web site designer calls bogus botanicals (love that!).

Here's the base of one of the 'trees':




I find these things mildly amusing in the city -- not anywhere else.

[savemefromdumbya]

4. hope the radio waves won't set off the volcano

duh!

[meegbear]

5. But how can you truely enjoy nature if you can't blog about it?

[HereSince1628]

6. What I really need when I'm hiking in the wilderness is instant messaging

I just can't stand the loneliness of that "you are away from it all" feeling.

But seriously, if you are going to let snowmobilers run free in the park, then they are gonna need communications to call for help when a tree jumps out and bites their machine. It's a responsible thing to do.

Moreover, Yellowstone is a known hideout for environmental terrorists and HSD hopes to bait them into cell phone use so that the NSA can tap in on their seditious behavior.

[zeemike]

7. Oh for Gods sakes

Can't they leave anything alone?

[highplainsdem]

11. When they can make money exploiting or destroying it? Not a chance.

[earth mom]

12. Evil Bastards!

:grr: :grr: :grr:

[0007]

13. This is the bending end!

[novalib]

16. But -- I NEED my cell phone!

OMG!

I need my cell phone where ever I am!

In the car.

In line at the supermarket.

On the subway.

On the bus.

In the theater.

While shopping at the mall.

I NEED MY CELL PHONE IN YELLOWSTONE, too!

;-)

[Avalux]

20. Geez. Stealing our parks now.

That's OK - when the volcano blows they'll lose all their towers and their ability to track all of us. That's what they're doing you know, setting up towers to track the RFIDs that are to be implanted in all of us. :tinfoilhat:

[Cleita]

22. Oh, I thought they were going to turn it into condo developments.

If you ever worked in a National Park or Forest, you know that there is an upside to cell phones in an emergency. Either you have to use radios or phones, and that can be the difference between life and death if there is an accident or if a visitor is attacked by a wild animal.

Also, medical evacuation ambulance helicopters are widely used in the forested and remote areas of the northwest to get patients to hospitals that are often more than a hundred miles away. They are disruptive too for a little while until they finish their task, but throwing away available technology to save lives both human and animal doesn't make sense to me.

I'm sure rules on cell phone usage can be implemented so that it doesn't interfere with the tranquility visitors seek. I would get rid of the snowmobiles though, totally unnecessary except for rescue personnel.

[dysfunctional press]

27. i agree.

and i would assume that they'll do their best to make the "towers" as surreptitious as possible.

and people who still want to be out of contact can always choose to turn thei phones off- or leave them in the car(although if an emergency arises, they might wish that they had opted for the "off" option).

[progressoid]

24. Well Duh. How can I relax in nature without a decent signal???

I hope they put in some appropriately placed vending machines with power drinks too. Or a few Starbucks.

[noonwitch]

25. Teddy Roosevelt must be turning over in his grave about this

Among other things his one-time party is now up to.

[alfredo]

26. Will the Deer and the anetlope have to pay roaming charges?

[alfredo]

28. They need the towers for the luxury Condos going in next

year.

[arikara]

31. No place is sacred to them if they think they can turn a profit

I grew up in the country in northern BC without any telephone at all, long before cell phones came into existence. We did just fine. Where we live now, our cell phones don't work half the time anyhow. I'd far sooner do without the "convenience" than have more ugly towers fouling up the place.

Cellphones are powerful little microwave generators and it is just not healthy to hold something like that against your head. It really bothers me to see every kid on the street attached to one. There are more and more incidents of brain cancer in young people and even if it doesn't hit the media the health personnel who look after them know that its due to cell phone use.

I can't help thinking that effects from the proliferation of towers doesn't do people or animals any good either. I'm of the belief that some things should be left untouched. If people are going to go into the parks then they should just accept that if they get hurt they might not get help as soon as if they were in the city.