A walk in the park gives Bush backdrop for environmental message

By JENNIFER LOVEN
Associated Press Writer

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP) President Bush, shovel in gloved hand and jagged mountaintop behind him, dished spades of dirt into a washed-out trail rut Friday, a symbol of what he later called his administration's aggressive push to cross items off the national park system's long repair list.

Appearing before a small corral of park workers and volunteers, Bush reported advances on his 2000 campaign promise to spend nearly $5 billion over five years on sprucing up national parks what he called ``the crown jewel of America's recreation system.''

Conservation groups, however, immediately charged Bush was exaggerating the progress.

The president said Congress has responded to his requests by appropriating $1.8 billion over the last two years, and that he is asking for $1.1 billion for the next fiscal year, plus another $2.2 billion for 2005 and 2006. The money has paid for 900 maintenance projects, with 900 more either under way or planned, Bush said.

``We want the toilets to flush. We want the potholes to be taken out of the parking lot. Whatever the problem is we need to address it,'' he said during a visit to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, a distinctive collection of rolling mountains and picturesque brush perhaps most familiar as the setting for the television show ``M-A-S-H.''

``The more modern the trail system, the more repaired our trail system is, the less likely it is that people will trample the beauty, that they'll stay on the trails,'' he added.

On a day anchored around a lunch that dished more than $1 million into his re-election campaign account, the message at this patchwork of federal, state and private lands had its own political purpose. Bush's advisers, hoping to expand his base of voter support, believe events like this one and others scheduled throughout the month will make him appear more environmentally friendly and thus more popular with suburban women and rural Democrats.

But Democratic party leaders, banking that the president is vulnerable on the issue, have vowed to fight Bush's attempts to boost his environmental credentials. They lambasted his record.

On Friday, Thomas C. Kiernan, president of the National Parks Conservation Association, said Bush's stop was ``little more than a photo opportunity, offering spin over substance.'' Even though some projects have been completed, he said, the overall backlog is largely unchanged.

``The administration has supplied little new funding, mostly shuffling existing park dollars already stretched too thin,'' Kiernan said.

Bush himself reinforced the notion that the day was staged as he walked a corner of the park's 53,000 acres.

After touring a nursery on park grounds devoted to cultivating native plants, the president hiked up a dirt trail, a perfect backdrop of mountains and meadows visible in every direction. ``This is an unstaged walk in the park,'' Bush laughingly called out to reporters.

And as the group rounded a turn to see a group of volunteers shoveling dirt onto the trail under pre-positioned camera lights, Bush ventured another tongue-in-cheek observation. ``I brought some workers along with me,'' he said with a grin before undoing the top button on his dress shirt, pulling on work gloves and picking up a shovel.

Eric Ramos, 54, a National Park Service maintenance worker among 300 park employees and guests at the event, said he was glad to see Bush paying attention to park issues.

``It's great because this database will actually have all the park assets and they'll address them,'' he said.

A handful of environmental activists critical of Bush policies were kept away from the event.

Dan Smuts of The Wilderness Society said Bush was trying to reframe his environmental record.

``Unfortunately the president's rhetoric and record differ dramatically. This administration has, time and again, ignored Californians' wishes and pushed development instead of preservation,'' he said.

Smuts was critical of a federal effort to open parts of California's vast Los Padres National Forest to oil and gas development. He said that could endanger the California condor and Native American cultural sites.

``Quite simply, President Bush is using a walk in the park to camouflage his true environmental record of opening pristine public land to oil and gas development, logging, mining and off-road vehicle use,'' Smuts said.

One of the invited guests, Gloria Van Santen, 50, of Malibu, was optimistic about Bush's plan.

``I hope he means what he says and I hope he's enthusiastic about getting money for the park system and protecting our parks,'' said Van Santen, who is with the Roots and Shoots environmental program for youth.

The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area encompasses 153,700 acres of mountains and coastline in Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

Bush had arrived at the park after a helicopter ride up the Southern California coast from Newport Beach, Calif. He then returned to Orange County for a lunchtime, $2,000-a-plate fund raiser to close out his two-day stay in the area.

Looking ahead to next year's political battle, Bush teased the audience: ``I'm getting ready. And I'm loosening up.'' Changing gears, he went on to say, ``But the political season will come in its own time. See, I've got a job to do, and right now I'm focused on the people's business.'' He continued with his standard stump speech about fighting terrorism, repairing the economy and tackling other priorities.

Afterward, he headed back to his ranch in Texas.

Focused on his own re-election, Bush kept his distance from the state's messy upcoming recall election that could boot Democratic Gov. Gray Davis from office.

But the main political story of the state intruded nonetheless. Bush's motorcade route in Thousand Oaks was lined with throngs of well-wishers and protesters, including several holding signs with the president's picture that said, ``Recall This!''

The power blackout affecting a great swath of the Northeast and Midwest also could not be ignored.

Bush called the massive outage ``a wake-up call'' to the antiquated state of the nation's electrical grid and urged those whose power has returned not to overload the still-limping system.

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Associated Press Writer Paul Chavez contributed to this report.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)