Editor's note: This updates with background on the status of national parks in case of a government shutdown.
With differences over President Trump's desired wall along the U.S.-Mexico border driving the government to a shutdown at midnight, legislation of interest to the National Park Service was in limbo Friday.
Key business being held up included the Senate's confirmation of David Vela as director of the National Park Service. Vela, currently superintendent of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, pretty much sailed through his confirmation hearing with the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last month. However, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon was hesitant to endorse Vela, saying he wanted more specifics on how the nominee would change what the senator viewed as lackluster regard for ethical behavior in the Park Service.
If confirmed, Vela would become the first Latino to rise to the directorship of the Park Service. He was nominated for the director's job on August 31. Before becoming superintendent at Grand Teton in 2014, Vela worked in Washington, D.C., as the Park Service's associate director for Workforce, Relevancy and Inclusion. He oversaw NPS programs including Human Resources, Learning and Development, Equal Opportunity, Youth, and the Office of Relevancy, Diversity & Inclusion. Prior to that, he was director of the agency's Southeast Region based in Atlanta.
Vela, should the Senate confirm him, will take the reins of an agency that has been struggling with a staggering deferred maintenance backlog and low morale among a workforce that has grappled with sexual harassment issues, low pay, work-life balance inequity, concerns over leadership, and concerns around strategic management, according to the 2017 Best Places To Work survey.
Another key issue before Congress is legislation to make significant inroads to the roughly $12 billion backlog in maintenance across the National Park System. Visitor and employee safety, transportation, access, and even historic structures all are being jeopardized by the backlog that reaches into nearly every corner, forest, and beach of the park system. Failure to pass the Restore Our Parks Act, which would provide up to $6.5 billion over five years to pay for maintenance, would force its sponsors to start over in the new Congress.
Another apparent lost cause this session was reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is designed to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into parks and public lands across the country. The LWCF long has been batted about like a badminton shuttlecock by proponents who cite its role in preserving lands and providing for recreation, and opponents who say state and local land managers can do a better job than federal authorities.
Created by Congress in 1964, the LWCF was designed to receive $900 million a year from mineral royalties generated by oil and gas exploration on the country's Outer Continental Shelf. The fund expired on September 30 when Congress failed to reauthorize it. While there was strong support in both chambers to reauthorize the program, it never came up for action.
Most parks would remain open if the government shuts down, though with visitor centers closed and interpretive programs canceled. Away from the landscape parks, the Yellowstones, Grand Canyons, Glaciers and Shenandoahs, parks such as Ford's Theater, Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, Independence Hall, and others that revolve largely around facilities will be closed.
“Visitors from around the world who have planned their trips to our national parks months in advance now face the possibility of disruption and disappointment when they arrive at parks only to find closed visitor centers, locked restrooms and unplowed roads," said Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association. "Local businesses and park concessioners also face the possibility of having to re-route passengers to other tours or cancel excursions altogether, threatening $18 million in economic activity that our national parks support on average each day during the month of December.
“Rather than insisting on funding a wall that would threaten families, wildlife and public lands on our border, President Trump should be working with Congress to ensure that border security efforts leave our parks and communities intact.”
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Comments
Tazzman - I have no argument with your analysis. The problem is you would never get the Democrats (nor many Republicans) to agree to a strictly enforced of e-verify and cut off of benefits. The wall has the most chance of getting through and as expensive and inefficient as it may be, it is still far better than the status quo. Oh and BTW - much of the money for the "wall" that is being requested has noting to do with brick and mortar.
So I admit to not having given this much thought before, even though i have seen the idea mentioned before. When was the last time you recall a state park or state services shut down ? Maybe it is time to hand over the national parks to the states if the federal government is so inept. What is the down side? I imagine that depends somewhat on the state you live in and if they have a national park or many. Would states like lee's Utah or California with many parks stand to gain gain despite the maintenance backlog or would they lose? What is the downside?
It wasn't necessarily the same situation, but I remember back around 2011, California was dealing with the possibility that a quarter of its state parks might be shuttered due to the budget. There was a ballot initiative in 2010 to add something like $15 to each vehicle registration fee, and make entrance/parking free for such registered vehicles, but it was voted down.
https://lao.ca.gov/ballot/2010/21_11_2010.aspx
This was specifically about directly funding state parks, and that the budget was inadequate.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/state-parks-funding/article25...
A lot of states have served up their park systems as sacrifices to budget fights. California, New Jersey, Connecticut, Oklahoma Louisiana are states that come to mind that within recent years temporarily (or permanantly) closed parks until a budget fight unwound.
At least in California, it was strictly about a shortfall in the state parks budget. I don't remember any proposed shutdown would have been as a result of an omnibus budget bill being held up. There was the ballot initiative that would have charge $18 for every licensed motor vehicle, and which would have allowed registered California vehicles into our state parks without entrance/parking fees.
Illinois has also seen budget struggles to fund their existing parks. I'm not sure handing over NPS units to the states, at least the National Park-branded ones and National Monuments, is an assurance they wont run into budgetary problems.
Now there are some private associations and trusts that could perhaps pick up the slack during a shutdown(in fact some have in the Great Smoky Mtns, etc), but they cant do it at the scale to keep things fully operational.
At least at the Presidio of San Francisco, they've got an independent funding source from the Presidio Trust. I'm not sure if they're directly paying park rangers or if they're bringing in different people. I thought for the 2013 shutdown, Utah sent its own parks personnel to run Zion NP since it was so critical to the local economy.
At least at parks with concessionaires, there will be services and perhaps some of them can help out. I remember on a trip to Everglades NP I missed the last Shark Valley tram tour that had a ranger. I took the next tram, which was narrated by the driver, who was actually pretty good at it. I've gotten good information from concession bus drivers, like my hiker's bus along Tioga Road in Yosemite. Many of the official NPS sanctioned activities I've been on were led by nonprofit-provided naturalists.
During the '13 shutdown, Utah did keep Zion open. I'm not sure if they could do it with all of the parks/monuments if it came to that. We have had a surplus in recent years but it is set aside specifically for education. You mention private associations. If I'm not mistaken, there is at least one associated with each NP unit along with the National Park Foundation for the overall system. Zion's non-profit, Zion Forever, came about last year after the merger of three organizations.
Zion Forever is also keeping the park open starting Jan. 1 at a cost of about $2500 daily. This is for a small staff and crews. The state is currently paying about $7500 a day to keep the parks open, albeit with less services. They are pulling funding starting Jan. 1 and Zion Forever stepped up to keep that park open starting Jan 1 at a cost of $2,000-2500 daily for restroom and grabage removal and other limited services. The other parks will be without staff next week.