Millions of Americans will flock to the country's national parks this summer. Dazzled by nature and history, will they notice the missing signs, crumbling roads, or disappearance of park rangers?
Facing what some people warn is a "crippling" budget shortfall, many national park superintendents are being asked to consider cutting their ranger staffs, services, and visitor center hours—and possibly even closing down completely on certain days.
Several advocacy groups now charge that the entire National Park System is menaced by a hidden crisis, and that Park Service officials are trying to cover it up.
"Make no mistake about it. There is a chill over the National Park Service today," said Denny Huffman of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees in Washington, D.C.The United States' 388 national parks contain more than 18,000 permanent structures, 8,000 miles (12,900 kilometers) of roads, 1,800 bridges and tunnels, 4,400 housing units, 700 water and wastewater systems, 400 dams, and 200 solid-waste operations.
The Park Service values these assets at more than 35 billion U.S. dollars, but for years it has been warning that it has not been able to keep up with the cost of looking after them. The estimated "deferred maintenance backlog" of these facilities is 5 billion dollars, the U.S. General Accounting Office reported to the U.S. Congress last year.
Endangered Rangers
The operating budget for the parks actually increased to 1.61 billion dollars in 2004 from 1.56 billion dollars in 2003. But the increase has been absorbed by rising expenses, Park Service officials say.
Now cuts have to be made.
"We're concerned that the National Park Service is quietly asking superintendents to make cuts in summer operations, such as lifeguards on beaches and closing visitor centers on peak days, weekends, and holidays," Huffman said.
In a new report called "Endangered Rangers," the National Parks Conservation Association, a Washington-based parks watchdog group, said U.S. national parks are underfunded by as much as 600 million dollars a year. It claims the parks are getting just two-thirds of the funding they need, leading to severe staffing shortages and deteriorating park facilities.
In parks across the country, public education programs have been reduced or eliminated, the report says. Historic buildings are allowed to deteriorate, sometimes until ceilings collapse. Priceless museum collections are piled up in damp basements. Wildlife and artifacts are poached.
"America's national park rangers have become an endangered species," said the association's president, Thomas Kiernan.
"Service Level Adjustments"
Some critics charge that the National Park Service is purposely misleading the public and media about the cuts.
On Wednesday, a group of former park officials released an internal National Park Service memo distributed last month to park superintendents in the Northeast Region.
A copy of the memo, with the sender's name blanked out, is published on the Web site of the Campaign to Protect America's Lands. The memo states that "the majority of Northeast Region Parks are beginning this fiscal year with fewer operating dollars" than in 2003. Additionally, it says, staff costs and rising fixed costs have further eroded operating dollars.
"It is now time … to determine what actually has to happen to stay within the funds you have been allocated," the memo said.
The memo suggested possible cuts—"just examples"—that superintendents could consider:
• "Close the visitor center on all federal holidays."
• "Eliminate life guard services at 1 of the park's 3 guarded beaches."
• "Eliminate all guided ranger tours."
• "Let the manicured grasslands grow all summer."
• "Turn 1 of our 4 campgrounds over to a concession permittee."
• "Close the park every Sunday and Monday."
• "Close the visitor center for the months of November, January & February."
The e-mail memo urges park superintendents not to directly use the phrase "this is a cut" in press releases about such service reductions. "We all agreed to use the terminology of 'service level adjustment' due to fiscal constraints as a means of describing what actions we are taking," the memo said.
In a telephone interview David Barna, a spokesperson for the National Park Service, said there is "no reason to think the memo was not authentic." The memo was sent on February 20 by Chrysandra Walter, the deputy director of the Park Service's Northeast Region division.
The alliance of advocacy groups that disclosed the memo—the Coalition of Concerned National Park Retirees, the Association of National Park Rangers, and the Campaign to Protect America's Lands—also criticized the National Park Service for firing U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa C. Chambers in December of last year after she complained publicly about budget shortfalls.
"There's now a culture of fear in the Park Service," said Laurel Angell of the Campaign to Protect America's Lands. "Everyone is afraid to disclose budget cuts."
Shifting Priorities
The Park Service's Barna dismissed the charge that his agency is hiding program cuts from the public. He said superintendents are simply asked to inform main offices if they are closing down any major services.
"We don't want any surprises," he said. "We don't want someone to go on television, locking the front gate to the park and saying, 'We're out of money, we're closed.'"
Barna agreed that the National Park Service is now operating "on the edge," and that service cutbacks may happen. "Certainly we recognize that our operating budgets are tight," he said.
In recent years the agency has had to absorb costs that were out of its control, Barna says. Last year, it spent 50 million dollars on fighting forest fires and 150 million dollars on recovering from Hurricane Isabel.
Homeland security is also expensive. Each change in the color-coded U.S. Homeland Security Advisory System from yellow to orange costs the National Park Service a million dollars a month, as, for example, additional rangers are brought in to protect national landmarks.
"We'd be remiss in our duties if we didn't protect these monuments," Barna said. "If something were to happen to the Lincoln Memorial while we were not watching it, that would be devastating. Our priorities have absolutely shifted."
http://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/wildlandsatrisk/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/16/AR2006041600612.html
-The above article is a CutNPaste Prodiction of an article from a few years ago on the National Geographic Website, I have included links to more recent articles, but I think it is important to note the state of things before Bush announced his "Band-Aid Budget" for parks this year.
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