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Show Western congressmen to consider action on Park concessions cessionnaire services in the parks. The national parks in Utah are a vital part of the tourism and recreation industry in the State and Senator Moss insists that lodging and food services must continue to exist in and around the parks to accommodate visitors. This strengthens our economy. Senator Moss delivered a statement to the Senate emphasizing em-phasizing that parks belong to people. In his remarks, he said, "The National Park Service should be seeking, in the words of past Park Director, Hartzog, 'to extend more broadly to all Americans the many values and opportunities represented in the national park system.' Instead, it appears to be attempting to limit use of the national parks." ' Senator Frank E. (Ted Moss I (D-Utah) has called a meeting of the Western Conference to review the phase-out of con-l con-l cessionnaire facilities in national parks. This is reaction to the i latest efforts of the National ' Park Service to close out such i operations. The meeting is scheudled for today Thursday, ) July 31st, at 3:00 p.m. in Room s-i s-i 224 in the Capital Building. The ' July 31st Western Conference I includes the Senators and Representatives of 11 western I states and Senator Moss is i Chairman of the organization. "This is a matter of con-I con-I siderable importance especially , to the western states which ' contain most of the national I parks and are important destination areas for tourists. I "Utah and California contain more national parks (five each) within their borders than any other state. "In fact, the eleven western states contain 21 of the 38 national parks in the country. "This statistic alone gives us a responsibility to express a unified intent of the Congress concerning the management and purpose of these parks in the best interest of our respective states and the traveling public," Senator Moss said. Strong in his position that parks are for people, Senator Moss just recently prepared a joint letter which was signed by the Utah delegation and sent to Gary Everhardt, Director of the National Park Service. The letter emphasized that the planned phase-out of concessionaire facilities was not in the best interest of the park visitor, and is contrary to the Congressional mandate given to the Secretary of Interior. Last week Senator Moss gathered the Utah delegation in a meeting with Don Hummel. Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Conference of National Park Concessionnaires, to hear the problems of con- |