Without sufficient operating budget increases, and allocations from the Department of Homeland Security, the National Park Service will be unable to catch up an enormous maintenance backlog, protect park resources, or even provide some of the basic educational services Americans expect during their park visits.

"Endangered Rangers: A Study of the Severe Staffing Shortages Crippling America's National Parks," details chronic under-funding of the national parks, which has continued under the Bush administration despite the president's campaign promise. The report documents a service-wide budget shortfall of over $600 million annually, leading to cuts in seasonal park staffing that affect not only the public's ability to use and enjoy the parks, but the conservation, scientific and preservation work intrinsic to the Park Service mandate.[1]

NPCA reports that park rangers are increasingly called upon for security duties, such as protection of dams, borders, and national icons such as the Statue of Liberty, with no additional funding forthcoming. These new responsibilities remove both resource protection rangers, such as naturalists and anthropologists, and law enforcement rangers from the national parks, leaving them understaffed and underprotected.[2] Although the administration has proposed additional funding for some parks, including Glacier in Montana and Organ Pipe Cactus in Arizona, overall the parks need an additional $50 million to offset homeland security requirements.[3]

"According to the Park Service's 2003 Annual Report, 'the [Park Service] construction appropriation as well as operational funding will continue to be impacted by the need to improve national security...The National Park Service was forced to use almost $8 million in fee receipts for the increased security requirements demanded by three Code Orange periods in FY 2003.'"[4] Fee receipts are generally small amounts paid by park visitors for entrance fees, camping, and use of other facilities in some parks.

In case studies of some of the nation's most popular parks, the NPCA reports that:

Acadia National Park in Maine, a 47,500 acre park sheltering over 1,000 species of plants and wildlife, including threatened and endangered species, and over 5,000 years of human history, faces a 53% budget shortfall. Acadia is understaffed by some 100 full-time positions, including an anticipated shortage of 20-30 seasonal rangers. Shortfalls in patrol staffing have resulted in damage from illegal snowmobile and allterrain vehicle use, illegal trail cutting, and poaching.[5]

Rangers from New Mexico's Bandelier National Monument were sent last fall to protect the Statue of Liberty. The monument's 2,500 backcountry archeological sites -- one of the highest concentrations of prehistoric sites per acre in the world -- were left vulnerable to looters, until local friends of the park raised money to hire a member of the Student Conservation Corps to attend the sites, do trail work and perform search and rescues as needed.[6]

Great Smoky Mountains National Park will not be able to hire a single seasonal ranger this year. The park will need to seek donations to fund these positions instead. The 521,490-acre area, spanning the Tennessee-North Carolina border, is both an International Biosphere Reserve and a World Heritage site thanks to its "irreplaceable ecological values."[7]

"President Bush and some of his predecessors made strong commitments to the American people about protecting our national parks," says NPCA President Thomas Kiernan. "By neglecting their duty to adequately fund our national parks, Congress and the administration are squandering the nation's legacy."[8]

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SOURCES:
[1] National Parks Conservation Association Press Release.
[2] "Endangered Rangers: A Study of the Severe Staffing Shortages Crippling America's National Parks," NPCA.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] NPCA Press Release, op. cit.