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"Yosemite National Park, Brought To You By Starbucks?"

"A Coca-Cola Visitor Center will still be off-limits, but an auditorium at Yosemite National Park named after Coke will now be permitted. Naming rights to roads are not up for grabs, but visitors could tour Bryce Canyon in a bus wrapped in the Michelin Man.

And parkgoers could sit on a bench named for Humana health insurance — and store their food in a bear-proof locker emblazoned with the Nike swoosh.

The national park system, created a century ago to preserve the country’s natural treasures for the public, has long been a bulwark against commercialization.

But as it jockeys for donors in a more competitive environment than ever, the National Park Service is starting to tread a delicate path, making aggressive corporate appeals without giving the impression that it’s selling public spaces to the highest bidder."

Lisa Rein reports for the Washington Post May 9, 2016.

Source: Wash Post, 05/10/2016