East of the Sun, West of the Moon

Maybe it’s foolish, but I did not expect this from the NPS:

• Doonesbury:
  
• New Scientist:
  

  The Grand Canyon was formed a few thousand years ago by Noah’s flood, and not a few million years ago by geological forces, right? So says a glossy book still on sale in Grand Canyon National Park, despite scientists’ protests.

• Boing Boing:
  

  According to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), park superintendent Joe Alston in 2003 lobbied to keep the book, titled Grand Canyon: A Different View, by Tom Vail, out of the park’s bookstores; the National Park Service responded by promising a “high-level policy review” of the matter. PEER claims that three years later, a Freedom of Information Act request shows that the review wasn’t even “requested, let alone conducted or completed.”

• PEER.org:
  

  Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees.

I know there is a park ranger reading along here occasionally, I wonder if she (or anyone else, of course) would be willing to share her view on what’s (not) going on here?