Great to be back at the “Mother Park.” Of course I’m not
referring to Yellowstone (the very 1st designated National Park in
the world), but to Petra Archaeological Park (PAP), Jordan. The Place that put
Wadi Musa on-the-map (the local population has exploded from < 1,000 to
30,000 [rivaling Roman times] due to heritage seeking visitors. As you might
recall the Dept. of Interior Int’l Tech. Assistance program has been helping
PAP with various aspects of managing a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In
particular, we’ve been working with the Park Rangers and Tourism Police. We
arrived back on Saturday 16 June to help this time with specific specialized
training in SAR (Search & Rescue) and GIS (Global Info System). We’d made
several “easy fix” suggestions during our last assignment here (the month of
Oct. 2011): together we’ll see how those have been going…
One prime directive from the Director of PAP has been to
remain advisory and not take compliances action with folks (especially locals).
However, we’ve noticed over the past few days that few Rangers have been on
duty and yesterday one of us encountered a women collecting pottery sherds from
the park: she had ca. half a plastic bag full. When contacted she questioned
our authority to do anything about it, and it was explained that we could just
follow until we find a Ranger & Tourist Police and report. She stated that
she & her husband have been coming here (from Lynchburg, VA & Austin,
TX) since 1981 and that “we’ve never done this before…”
When it was explained
that it was diminishing the resource that the park was established to protect
she retorted that this place “has an inexhaustible supply” of heritage
materials. Reminds me that is what folks used to say at Mesa Verde or Petrified
Forest National Parks; now there is much less. Not sure what the history of
this couple (part of a group is), but if I were with ICE (Immigration &
Customs Enforcement) I’d be giving them special attention.
A new feature has been added for PAP watchers (no, the new
visitor center isn’t open yet, but construction is coming along): there are new
live web-cams at the Treasury and the entrance to the Siq. These can be seen
at: www.petralivecam.com
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