Oh this is rich!!! bush wants YOU to do more for the parks, while he cuts

[The Straight Story]

funding:

Presidential Message: 90th Anniversary of the National Park Service

I send greetings to those celebrating the 90th anniversary of the National Park Service.

Americans take great pride in our country's natural and historic treasures, and the National Park Service plays an important role in ensuring that our rich heritage is preserved and enjoyed for generations to come. Since its establishment in 1916, the National Park Service has grown to include almost 400 sites, with parks in nearly every state. These parks protect beautiful landscapes, tell important stories about our country's past, and encourage our citizens to conserve our natural environment and celebrate our national history.

Over the past five years, the National Park Service has made significant progress in conserving our natural resources and improving the condition of park facilities. I call on all Americans to help in these efforts and to enhance our parks as we get ready for the National Park Services' centennial celebration. Through continued cooperation and partnership, our national parks can endure for the next 100 years and beyond.

I appreciate the volunteers and employees of the National Park Service who dedicate their time and talents to maintaining and enhancing our national parks. Your efforts help advance environmental stewardship, promote outdoor recreation, and preserve our national memory.

Laura and I send our best wishes on this special occasion.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20060825-4.html


Summertime Blues

By Katherine McIntire Peters
[e-mail]

The National Park Service struggles with staff shortfalls and a maintenance backlog at the peak of visitor season.

It's summertime and the living is easy. That is, unless you happen work for the National Park Service, in which case you're probably trying to figure out how to manage deteriorating facilities with fewer employees during the peak visitor season. National parks reported more than 271 million visitors last year, with summer being the most popular season.

Despite budget increases over the last several years, national parks from Alaska to Maine are struggling to pay rising personnel and operating costs, sometimes leaving key posts vacant, reducing hours at visitor centers and cutting back on services such as trash pickup and grounds upkeep. Decades of deferred maintenance have resulted in a backlog that will take billions of dollars to fix. Infrastructure as varied as sewer lines, roads and trails have fallen into such disrepair they threaten both the safety of visitors and the very resources the parks are designed to protect, some current and former park service officials say.

A report by the Government Accountability Office in March that examined funding trends from 2001 through 2005 (GAO-06-431) cited dozens of examples of parks cutting services to pay for things such as salary increases mandated by Congress and rising utility costs. Acadia National Park in Maine, for example, closed all seven restrooms along roads and trailheads during the 2004-2005 winter season in order to keep them open in the summer. Although the coastal park's law enforcement division has lost two patrol cars in the last three years, officials couldn't afford to replace them. They could have replaced one had they declined to hire a seasonal ranger, but park officials told auditors that would have jeopardized the safety of visitors and resources.

Problems are widespread, GAO found. In Virginia's Shenandoah National Park, officials eliminated ranger programs in one northern district serving 179 campsites and closed a visitor center at the south end of the park for all of last year. Out West, at Yellowstone, fewer remote patrols are being conducted by less-experienced personnel than in the past.

In June, the Coalition for National Park Service Retirees released a survey of 17 parks that concluded visitors this summer will face greater risks because of staffing cuts in full-time emergency and law enforcement personnel.

http://www.govexec.com/features/0806-15/0806-15na4.htm

[EstimatedProphet]

1. Yeah, NPS is a mess

I used to work with the people trying to address the maintenance backlog. It's bad enough that in some cases they need to just start over again. And of course the budget people will never put the money into the system that is needed because it doesn't kill enough brown people.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

6. They need the money, too

This is definitely NOT an example of welfare state or big gummint or any of those myths they like to perpetuate. Protecting fragile natural ecosystems against the onslaught of modern industry requires a lot more than some dedicated volunteers picking up trash. It takes a commitment of resources and personnel. The Clinton administration got a good start on restoring funding and legal protections but now we have these jokers in charge. If they thought there was some oil under Old Faithful or some developer wanted to build a gated community complete with a stripmall around it we could kiss it goodbye. :grr:

[nam78_two]

2. shameless/nt

[Supersedeas]

3. not an ounce of conscience

[ComerPerro]

4. how long before he finally privatizes our National Park System?

[rodeodance]

5. bush logic. the work of gov is to enlist volenteers/churches etc so can

spend money on mindless wars