Food trucks. Wi-Fi. Hot showers.
Those campground upgrades could be coming to a national park near you.
The Interior Department is reviewing recommendations to modernize campgrounds at national parks. The recommendations posted online this week come from an advisory committee created under former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke that has been looking at ways for private businesses to operate on public lands.
FILE - In this July 25, 2018, file photo, River Martinez, 10, breaks camp at the Upper Pines Campground in Yosemite National Park, Calif. The Interior Department is considering recommendations to modernize campgrounds within the National Park Service. (AP PhotoNoah Berger, File)
The vice chairman of the Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee, Derrick Crandall, said many campgrounds don't meet visitors' expectations. Allowing the private sector to run them would free up park staff for interpretation, safety needs or other visitor services, he said.
Redesigning some campgrounds, and adding running water, tent and cabin rentals, food trucks, extended family campgrounds and Wi-Fi to select sites also could boost revenue and encourage more people to camp in national parks, the committee said.
"We're basically suggesting that would be a way to improve overall camping experiences," Crandall said. "Are we talking about pricing people out of national parks through this? Not at all."
FILE - In this July 27, 2015, file photo, the busy Bright Angel Trail is crowded with hikers headed down into the Grand Canyon at Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. The Interior Department is considering recommendations to modernize campgrounds within the National Park Service. (AP PhotoRoss D. Franklin, File)
The Interior Department isn't obligated to enact the recommendations but has said it doesn't have the money to modernize the more than 1,420 campgrounds in its system nor does every campground need upgrades.
"Once the report is reviewed, we'll respond accordingly," department spokesman Nicholas Goodwin said.
Environmentalists say the proposal would price out some visitors and benefit special interest groups. The committee is made up of representatives from the tourism, manufacturing, hospitality and recreation industries.
More than one-third of the country's 419 national park units have campgrounds that range from primitive, backcountry sites with no amenities to campgrounds that are easy to reach by road. About 6% are operated by concessionaires, according to the committee. Few campgrounds have amphitheaters, Wi-Fi, electricity or hot showers year-round.
Campgrounds at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Yosemite in California, Zion in Utah, Rocky Mountain in Colorado, Acadia in Maine and Assateague Island National Seashore off the coast of Virginia and Maryland have the highest occupancy rates within the Park Service.
More than 9.2 million people stayed at campgrounds last year, led by tent campers, people traveling in RVs, backcountry campers and those staying at sites run by concessionaires, the Park Service said.
The committee suggested selecting five to 10 national park sites by December, including those with low visitation numbers, for a pilot project on upgrades.
Larger campgrounds that already are operated by concessionaires at places like Yellowstone and Grand Teton would be a good place to start, Crandall said. The committee also raised the possibility of expediting environmental reviews for projects and black-out dates during peak visitation times for senior citizens who get discounts of campground fees.
Clay Cutler, who lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said he doesn't need much when he goes camping, just a flat piece of ground to pitch a tent, a fire ring and good company.
"I'm not going and looking for Wi-Fi," said Cutler, 31. "That's 99 percent of the reason I go camping to get away from that and enjoy nature."
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.
Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).
Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.
That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.
In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.
Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.
In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.
“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.
Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.
It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.
“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.
It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.
While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.
“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.
Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.
Jill Lawless contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
