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Over the years there have been more than a few units of the National Park System that have been head-scratchers. Why were they added? What redeeming value did they bring to the park system?\\xa0

James Ridenour who was director of the National Park Service from 1989 through 1993, was well familiar with these units. As he once put it, \\u201cI\\u2019m in complete agreement that the National Park Service has units that are unworthy of National Park Service status. That was my motive for coining the term \\u2018thinning of the blood\\u2019.\\u201d

Members of Congress trade votes to get their local favorite on the NPS teat, usually to attract tourists. Then they don\\u2019t add money to the budget to run these units. So you have two things - you thin the quality of the system, and you thin the ability of the National Park Service to run the system.

We\\u2019re going to explore some of these units, at least some of the ones that were pushed out of the National Park System, with none-other than Traveler Professor Emeritus Dr. Robert Janiskee. Bob was the one who quite some years ago started the \\u201cPruning the Parks\\u201d series on the Traveler, and we\\u2019ve momentarily \\xa0pried him out of his retirement to discuss some of these parks with us.\\xa0