This park is sponsored by...

A plan to allow increased corporate sponsorship of US public parks is under consideration by the National Park Service and the Department of Interior. From the Christian Science Monitor article:

The change, expected next month, would expand corporate recognition - only modestly, says a park service spokesman - for companies whose donations help bolster a park system struggling to fund a maintenance backlog of more than $4 billion. The public comment period for a similar rule change for national forests ended Monday.

"We're considering nameplates for rooms inside visitors' centers," says David Barna, a National Park Service spokesman in Washington. "We're not renaming entire buildings after anyone."

National parks have long banned corporate logos from display on parkland. National forests had been less restrictive. Downhill ski races on national forest land, for example, had included corporate banners at the finish line.

On a positive note...

Three in 4 Americans oppose corporate advertising on park brochures and vehicles, a Zogby International poll reported last fall. A larger majority, 84 percent, oppose naming trails and park buildings after companies that paid for them...