Because our mail goes through the Brentwood processing center [in Washington], which tested positive for anthrax, all our mail is irradiated, but the machines were set so high they cooked the mail, basically destroying it. The letters just fell apart. But I think they must have turned the machines down, because now the letters are just yellow.

They were free to talk about what they were doing in their fliers, but we did not put their bull's-eye insignia on the Washington Monument.

Paul Hoffman had some initial suggestions and prompted us. Paul Hoffman was playing devil's advocate. He was saying, 'Show us, the political appointees who make policy, why do you do things the way you do?' It was a starting point. We're a long way from that now. They have drafted a new raw draft.

The park service has had a just-say-no policy.

These lists are useful because they highlight problems within the park system for the public.

It was a living hell. In the winter, we have 700,000 hits a day on our Web site from people trying to plan vacations, students doing reports, and professors and scientists trying to access environmental data. We have 1.2 million hits a day in the summer. People weren't able to do that when we were shut down.

We have over 400 parks and field offices nationwide, and she hasn't even been to half of them.

In a park, you can come in, take pictures and leave. But a preserve has a multiplicity of purposes.