Expansion of Yosemite National Park is a praise-worthy achievement | San Luis Obispo Tribune

Dean Shenk, a supervisory ranger at Yosemite National Park, walks to a group of sequoias in Mariposa Grove at the park on April 15, 2014. — Dean Shenk, a supervisory ranger at Yosemite National Park, walks to a group of sequoias in Mariposa Grove at the park on April 15, 2014. Jim Wilson The New York Times

Our national parks are one of the most enviable aspects of our great nation. The world is in awe of what we have managed to preserve, from Yosemite National Park and the Olympic National Park in the west to Great Smoky Mountains and Acadia in the east.

Rob Bishop, a U.S. representative from Utah, thinks that the newly acquired 400 acres to expand Yosemite is a bad idea. He has long been on the side of private exploitation of public lands, whereas I am all for the preservation of what Mother Nature has given us. And those 400 acres did not cost us taxpayers anything, the land being bought and donated by the Trust for Public Land.

Clement Salvadori, Atascadero

This story was originally published September 24, 2016 at 6:08 PM with the headline "Expansion of Yosemite National Park is a praise-worthy achievement."