"The Park Service Is Selling Out To Telecom Giants"

"With Trump’s blessing, cell towers are infiltrating protected public lands across the West."

"Last September, Jim Stanford climbed onto a big flat raft, shoved off from shore, and paddled into the swift current of the Snake River in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. It was one of those early Western mornings when winter lets you know that it will soon arrive. Squat clouds sat in the sky. A crisp frost clung to the foliage. And six tourists shivered in their seats beside Stanford as his boat picked up speed.

The visitors had traveled across the country for this two-hour voyage into the heart of the park. Stanford, a grizzled 49-year-old river guide, was determined to dazzle them with the land’s magic. As the boat turned a bend, a bull elk materialized out of the morning mist, its body slumped, its face submerged, its massive rack jutting above the current like the splintered mast of some sunken ship. It was dead.

Stanford’s clients clamored to the boat’s edge and pulled out their smartphones to snap photos of the scene before the river ushered them downstream. And from there, it was but a few more moments before one of the visitors had progressed from taking pictures to scrolling through his screen, struggling in vain with the park’s very spotty service. There were zero, one, two bars of coverage at best — not enough to send a text or upload a photo. The tourists had little choice but to experience the park in analog fashion."

Jimmy Tobias reports for High Country News March 16, 2020.

Source: High Country News, 03/17/2020