National Parks

The deterioration of our national parks, as noted in the article by Maura Dolan (“Reagan Record on Parks Gets Mixed Marks,” Part I, June 21) raises some issues other than those cited. For one, there is literally an army of potential volunteers throughout America who might be recruited to provide needed services to restore our parks. If such an army were organized by federal impetus, it might also be conceivable that industry would be inspired to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, for meaningful projects to keep this army busy.

The time is ripe for creation of another nationwide conservation corps. For this type of agency functioning in the current era, it would be in order for its membership to include both young men and women with certain physical disabilities (e.g., hearing impairment). Such “mainstreaming” at the national level would be productive in many ways.

As the father of a hearing-impaired child, I would love to see him spend a summer working with other young men on a project to save our national shrines. I also think that it is important to make the situation in our national parks known to all Americans, and the only way to do this is to organize a national action group to do the job of improving that situation.

SHELDON J. KARLAN

Buena Park