Editor's note: This updates with reaction from the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees.
Failure by Congress and the White House to avert a budget sequestration by March 1 will force the National Park Service to reduce visitor services, shorten hours of operation, and possibly even close areas to the public, according to Park Service Director Jon Jarvis.
Across the country, units of the National Park System are being asked to figure out how to cut hundreds of thousands of dollars, more in some cases, from their current budget allocations. Yellowstone National Park shoulders the heaviest burden in terms of pure dollars, as it's being asked to outline cuts totaling $1.75 million from its FY 2013 budget of $35 million, according to documents sent from the director's office.
The system-wide planning exercise is aimed at cutting 5 percent from the Park Service current budget.
"It is critical that the NPS is able to provide specific and tangible results of an across-the-board 5 percent cut," Director Jarvis said in the directive (attached below), which was obtained by the Traveler. "We expect that a cut of this magnitude, intensified by the lateness of the implementation, will result in reductions to visitor services, hours of operation, shortening of seasons, and possibly the closing of areas during periods when there is insufficient staff to ensure the protection of visitors, employees, resources, and government assets.
"Parks must be specific in their descriptions and include the number of visitors affected and an indication of the effect on nearby communities and businesses," the director continued.
To help attain the 5 percent cut, parks were directed to immediately halt hiring permanent employees (though hires already in progress may continue). While they may continue planning for seasonal workforces, they were directed not to extend any offers. Non-essential travel is to be halted, overtime suspended, acquisitions of supplies and equipment are to be reduced, and on-staff employees who are subject to furlough should have their furlough periods extended to "the maximum length allowed..."
Director Jarvis did ask parks to schedule staff furloughs in ways that would "avoid compromising the health and safety of visitors or the protection of resources and assets."
At the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, officials said the cuts, if enacted, would be devastating.
“This is very troubling and it has the potential to turn already budget–strapped national parks into ghost towns,” warned Maureen Finnerty, a former superintendent of Everglades National Park who chairs the Coalition's executive council. “This would be devastating for America's national parks, for the nearly 300 million Americans who visit them, and for the irreplaceable natural and cultural resources the parks were established to protect.
"Additionally there will be steep impacts to the private sector - the hundreds of concession businesses operating inside of the parks, the stores operated by cooperating associations in park visitor centers, not to mention the economies of the communities adjacent to parks and entire states that depend so heavily on both tourism and other spending done by the parks.”
Joan Anzelmo, a long-tenured Park Service veteran who was superintendent of Colorado National Monument before retiring last year, said the proposed cuts couldn't come at a worst time "with Americans set to return to national parks in big numbers in the spring and summer."
"We sympathize with current National Park staffers, who are feeling an acute sense of chaos building as they run in circles trying to figure out so late in the fiscal year how to meet these harsh cuts, protect park resources and serve the public," said Ms. Anzelmo. "This is no way to run America’s National Park System."
The dollar amounts parks were being asked to identify in cuts ranged from $1,000 from the $29,000 budget for the Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail to the $1.75 million at Yellowstone.
Some other examples of cuts across the park system include:
* $1 million from Grand Canyon National Park (FY13 budget of $21.3 million)
* $689,000 from Denali National Park ($13.8 million)
* $1.25 million from Gateway National Recreation Area ($25.28 million)
* $944,000 from Great Smoky Mountains National Park ($19 million)
* $477,000 from Cape Hatteras National Seashore ($9.7 million)
* $1.4 million from Yosemite National Park ($29 million)
* $316,000 from Mammoth Cave National Park ($6.4 million)
* $95,000 from Arches National Park ($1.9 million)
* $1.6 million from the National Mall and Memorial Parks ($32.3 million)
* $622,000 from Shenandoah National Park ($12.5 million)
* $390,000 from Acadia National Park ($7.9 million)
* $76,000 from the Appalachian National Scenic Trail ($1.54 million)
Parks were to begin reporting their projected cuts to the Park Service's central budget office in Washington, D.C., by January 31, with the rest reporting by February 11.
At the Natural Resources Defense Council, officials said exacting such cuts from the Park Service would do little to solve the country's fiscal mess.
"Spending on these health and natural resources programs make up just a little more than 1 percent of the federal budget. So cutting them more deeply—because they’ve already taken a hit in past budget cuts —will hardly dent the deficit, but it will damage popular programs that benefit all Americans," the group said earlier this month.
Additionally, the group has said the sequestration could harm the National Park System by:
* Leading to closures of campgrounds and visitor centers;
* Cutting the ranks of rangers, and so impacting visitor safety;
* Lengthen emergency response times in the parks;
* Lead ot an increase of vandalism and looting;
* Decrease or delay the monitoring of endangered species and other scientific work;
* Leading many visitors to the parks, "including international tourists who spend their money in businesses that provide thousands of jobs," to go somewhere else on vacations.
With the possibility of FY 2014 having a potential 8 percent cut, things look really grim for the 2014 visitor season in the parks, and none too rosy for this year.
Comments
Thanks, MikeG. I happen to be a lawyer myself, so I may be more aware of these things than others would tend to be. In fact, I know a number of people who know one of Yosemite's former judge magistrates, although I haven't met the gentleman myself.
I've had the perception there's little for these people to do, and see no reason that the county sheriff can't handle crimes in national parks. (Every national park lies within some county, parish, or borough.) I think there'd have to be legislation to make this possible, though.
imtnbke, don't forget, counties in the West are a lot bigger than in many other states. Some counties are even bigger than states back East, and to expect a county sheriff to handle crime in their own jurisdictions, and then a place as big as 2.2-million-acre Yellowstone, could be asking too much.
Beyond that, is the federal magistrate in Yellowstone under the NPS budget, or the DOJ budget?
That's a good question about who funds the magistrate's position. I don't know. It could be neither NPS nor DOJ, but instead the judicial branch, as would be true for a federal district judge.
In some cases, NPS jurisdiction in an area is exclusive, and that usually bans local or state enforcement officers from acting within its boundaries unless they have been deputized as Federal officers.
In addition, many -- if not most -- other NPS units have other types of jurisdiction depending upon establishing documents. Some are proprietary and some have concurrent jurisdiction.
In many cases, NPS rangers are also deputized as county or state officers to allow more flexibility. It varies widely from area to area.
Kurt's comment about the size of some western counties is correct. In some counties in Utah, response time for the nearest deputy may be six or more hours unless they use a flying machine. Most of our counties don't have that kind of money in their budgets and the state has only a few DPS copters.
It's a whole different world out here.
Here are a couple articles of the Federal Magistrate Courts in Yosemite and Yellowstone, both parks are exclusive Federal Jurisdictions, the local counties and the State have no authority in either parks. This likely date back to the time these parks were administered by the army. Additionally the Yosemite Court also hears Forest Service and BLM cases.
http://www.uscourts.gov/News/TheThirdBranch/02-08-01/The_Best_Job_in_the...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/us/11yosemite.html?_r=0
http://www.caed.uscourts.gov/caed/staticOther/page_472.htm
Remember law enforcement has always been a primary duty of NPS Park Rangers. Horace Albright, the second director of the NPS, stated in 1926 when he was the Superintendent of Yellowstone that “The ranger is primarily a policeman” and “The ranger force is the park police force…” http://www.bobmackreth.com/blog/?p=673
As a law enforcement ranger for 18 years (non-NPS) I would have deep concerns about the idea of turning over park or natural resource law enforcement to traditional law enforcement agencies. From my experience it never works out well and often you end up paying more for less. Generally speaking LE Park Rangers and Game Wardens get paid less, often far less, then traditional law enforcement officers and often have more responsibilities or duties. So the idea of turning park law enforcement to local agencies would likely have no savings and could actually cost taxpayers more. I seriously doubt most County Sheriff's would start providing LE services for free in the Parks and would start charging the NPS to cover the costs or require a costly contract to provide those services. That doesn’t even consider that some local jurisdictions, especially in some western states seem hostile to the mission of the NPS or any Federal land management agencies. It should be noted the only law enforcement officer ever murdered in the county I work in as a LE Park Ranger was a National Park Ranger at Point Reyes National Seashore, he was killed by poachers. At the time of his murder NPS LE Park Rangers were not allowed to visibly carry firearms.
On top of that are the officer safety issues, especially if you ask someone to perform law enforcement duties in remote or rural areas like most National Parks.
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2017147696_parkpatrol03m.html according to this article of the 4000 or so NPS rangers only 1500 a commissioned LE rangers
http://blog.odmp.org/2012/01/park-rangers-unsung-heroes-of-american.html
http://books.google.com/books?id=G3LzjybQ7cMC&pg=PA236&lpg=PA236&dq=nati...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4709159
http://www.cefns.nau.edu/Orgs/CPCESU/current/documents/NAU131finalreport...
http://www.peer.org/assets/docs/nps/05_3_8_morning_report.pdf
http://www.backpacker.com/ranger-confidential-park-ranger-secrets/destin...
If you want to look at real savings I'd say look at the "overhead" and admin costs within the NPS. Just within the SF Bay Area there are at least 7 NPS units with at least 4 sets of admin and related overhead (superintendents, admin positions, HR departments etc...). That's a lot of money right there, why not have one superintendent and admin staff for all the NPS units within a small geographically area? If you did this on a national scale the savings would be far greater then reduced officer safety and visitor & resource protection services.
tamranger, thanks for all of that information and history. It's most interesting. I didn't know that the Army once ran certain national parks!
Hi, Lee,
I understand that. I've been in places like Nye County, Nev., which is perhaps similar in size to South Carolina but might have 20,000 residents, if that. Kurt made the same point.
But everyone wants everything. This is why we have a $16 trillion debt. How much law enforcement infrastructure do we truly need in the national parks, as opposed to find desirable or preferable? What are the current law enforcement NPS personnel doing? What are the magistrate judges, bailiffs, evidence techs, court clerks, etc., doing, assuming such court staff exist? Is it worth it?
Gov. Brown has been doing a great job in California of reminding people that we have to choose among alternatives. He can do that and make it stick because we can't print money. The federal government has no such short-term restraint upon it, and it shows. I say short-term because, as the late economist Herbert Stein famously pointed out, "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop." I'd like it to stop before the point of national bankruptcy, with 25-year-old bond traders in China and Singapore deciding on our interest rates etc.
imtnbke - exactly. I really don't know very much about current NPS law enforcement, but have often wondered if such shows of force and armament so often on display in our parks are really necessary. I was a bit surprised when I returned to Yellowstone a few years ago and discovered that there is now a large building at the north end of Ft. Yellowstone which bears a prominent sign saying something like "Yellowstone Justice Center."
Tamranger brought out some very important points. As with any other organization - whether it be state, Federal or private - there is a lot of waste within the NPS. The trick will be to ferret it out and eliminate it. But as I posted earlier, there is an innate quality in virtually all of us that will continue to say, "Cut spending -- just don't do it in a way that will affect me."
Finding good solutions will be very difficult and will require a lot of wise wisdom. But in Congress, at least, that seems to be a scarce quality.