Following up on Alaska’s example, legislators in Wyoming have called on the federal government to declare Central Park a wilderness area and forbid further improvements to the park. It’s a cute way of telling the Feds to keep out of Wyoming’s business so they can fill the state with oil rigs and whatever the hell else they want. Hey, if you’re so keen on protecting our land why aren’t you protecting Central Park!
The lead sponsor, Republican Allen Jaggi, wants the feds to reintroduce wolves and other endangered species into Central Park, according to the Associated Press. The resolution says:
“A JOINT RESOLUTION requesting Congress to acquire the area commonly known as Central Park on Manhattan in New York City on behalf of the federal government; urging the United States Congress to declare Central Park to be a wilderness area and to prohibit any further improvement or development of Central Park unless authorized by an Act of Congress.”
Central Park is protected in numerous ways, and is part of the Public Trust Doctrine, which demands legilsative approval to use the park for non-recreational purposes, the New York Times has noted. Also, Central Park is man-made! Wyoming was crafted almost entirely by dinosaurs and wind.
The full text of the resolution is here (pdf). The weird thing about it is that the Wyoming legislators didn’t even take the time to write their own bill. They literally cribbed the entire thing from the Alaskans, including the parts about the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. C’mon, Wyoming! If you’re gonna be crazy, be original!
For our original article about the resolution in Alaska click here.
Central Park panorama by angusgr via flickr.
I can understand they want people to leave them alone, but they really need to work on their analogies…
The site at https://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS&sec=legisAct#2 gives the definition of “wilderness” based on the Wilderness Act (if there’s a definition that supersedes this, I didn’t see one, but then again I didn’t look that hard 🙂 )
Funny thing that Central Park fails to meet the first 3 (of 4) criteria…
Perhaps we could suggest a better analogy for them to use so they can sound a bit less silly while trying to make their point?
They know Central Park isn’t natural, right? They must know it’s man-made? That if the guy who’s job it is to literally TURN ON the water from a giant steering wheel under a fake rock doesn’t show up to work, there’s no water in the waterfall and the lake would dry out?
What the park DOES need is a sign that reads, “This is a man-made park. Therefore it’s no different that any other public place. Don’t forget to pick up your trash!”
We have National Parks already in NYC,Alaska and it’s copy cats can go to them any time they want to if they behave. And they can look it up themselves I don’t do home work for RTWNJs. Central Park is a public city park do they have those in Wyoming yet?