These are troubling days or the National Park System and National Park Service/NPS file
With the Interior Department led by a recent oil industry lobbyist and the National Park Service by a past political appointee who overlooked environmental rules to please a billionaire, we're embarking on a new paradigm for managing the National Park System, one that includes changing the rules on the fly.
Either truly concerned about the public's welfare, bothered by congressional delegations that want national parks fully staffed during the ongoing partial government shutdown, or refusing to question their original decision to keep parks open, top Interior and NPS officials in Washington, D.C., huddled Sunday and decided it would be better to use monies dedicated to improve visitor services on basic custodial services rather than closing the parks until President Trump and Congress can negotiate a way through their impasse over a wall on the country's border with Mexico. They made no mention of recently ousted Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's suggestion that folks heading to the parks take a trash bag with them.
As the partial shutdown moved into its third week, many parks were overflowing with trash and human waste. The lucky ones, those with financially sound friends organizations and/or states that saw an investment in cleaning restrooms was better than losing tourism dollars, have for the most part been able to weather the drama.
Officials at Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks couldn't, and closed both parks entirely last week. Joshua Tree, Big Bend, and Death Valley closed some campgrounds. Arches, Canyonlands, Rocky Mountain, Theodore Roosevelt, Badlands, and Wind Cave closed roads. Muir Woods National Monument was scheduled to close today, January 7.
Social media went full throttle in the blame game, with etiquette tossed in the overflowing trash bins.
A bit more than four years ago the government went through a full shutdown, for 16 days. Under President Obama, the entire National Park System was closed down. The move brought more than a little criticism, as planned weddings and river trips alike were affected, and not in a good way. An editor for an automobile magazine thought it would be the perfect time to take his dirt bike through Great Smoky Mountains National Park, including through a stream. Vandals in California hit Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, where they cut open locks to gates barring entry to the recreation area. Though seemingly innocuous, Santa Monica Mountains officials were concerned that visitors unaware of the closure could find themselves deep in canyons where they could be trapped by wildfires. October, if you didn't know, is peak wildfire season.
Afterwards, the political blame game ensued (as it still does today if you bring up that shutdown: "Obama closed the parks," or "Ted Cruz did!"). Then-National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis was summoned to an hours-long joint hearing of the House Oversight and Natural Resources committees, where Republican members took him to the woodshed. Talking to Jarvis the other day, the former Park Service director recalled that hearing.
"I got grilled on the hill for five hours over it, and being accused that closing them was a political act," he told me. "And I vehemently disagreed with that, that it was a stewardship act, that we felt that without the employees there to manage and provide stewardship, that the parks would be vulnerable to impact. I think we’re actually seeing that play out now.”
We are seeing it, both in how the parks have filled with trash and been hamstrung in managing visitors. Not everywhere, of course. Zion National Park visitors reportedly have been respectful and tidy. Some at Big Bend, Yosemite, Joshua Tree and elsewhere, not so much.
And, too, we're seeing it in Washington with how politicians are bending, and possibly breaking, the rules for how Park Service revenues are to be spent. Along with spending fee revenues on basic custodial services, Park Service regulations have prohibited the use of fees to pay for salaries of permanent personnel.
This move also raises the question of whether Congress will figure the Park Service can pay for more things with fee revenues than general appropriations. And it figures to have an impact on deferred maintenance. Just a month ago more than a few members (on both sides of the aisle) in Congress were working hard to pass legislation to address a good portion of the maintenance backlog. Now they're not only back at square one with that effort, but it could get a bit more complicated with this fee swap decision.
If anyone is wondering, this is not the way to run the world's preeminent park system.
Comments
I live 12 miles from the border, and I've done a lot of (non-NPS) research in CA AZ & TX between 20 miles north of the border and half a mile south of the border (mistakes were made, but that was pre-GPS pre-fence and I wasn't along on the first trip that established that site in Pinto Wash). There's already 1 - 3 layers of barricade where it makes sense to have barricade: look at San Diego - Tijuana, Tecate, Calexico - Mexicali, Nogales, etc. In places like the Algodones Dunes and even Organ Pipe, the pipe vehicle barriers with sensors make more sense than a wall. Border Patrol have several days to pick up walkers before they get to even a dirt road someone could meet up with them, and solid barriers get washed out in the washes after every heavy rain. If you can think of a plausible way to build a wall at Amistad, I'd love to see it. Again, the only thing that makes sense is more sensors & personnel at the half dozen chokepoints anyone would have to pass through to get anywhere from Amistad. If the goal is to reduce the flow of drugs, or even of peple, across the border, there's billins of dollars of things that can be done that are all much more cost effective than more miles of barrier.
Back to parks. While I'd probably use "degraded" or "eroded" rather than "destroyed", and it now seems you've moved the goalposts so that shutdown impacts aren't Trump's fault, here's one example anyway:
The partial government shutdown caused a complete shutdown of post-fire invasive plant control and stabilization work at Santa Monica Mountains NRA. EPMTs aren't essential to the day to day operations and thus are on furlough, but they and the restoration folks are essential to the "unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations" part of the NPS Mission. Even with active intervention, there was a pretty good chance that the vegetation would come back as exotic grasses (even more fire prone), not native chaparral, as their species of Ceanothus doesn't resprout after fire but regenerates from seeds, and this 3rd burn in the past decade depleted the seedbank. This is the winter rainy & growing season now. Most invasives, and especially invasive grasses, need to be treated (sprayed) now. Treating invasives in another month after they've grown will take double the effort to be as effective as treating the seedlings now, and by March or so they will have set new seeds and will be nearly impossible to control or contain. It's not clear that NPS could have moved fast enough to apply adequate resources after such a late-season fire to begin with, but everything is shut down so nothing is happening. Other winter season parks in the Southwest have similar issues with resource management that needs to occur in this window of time. If I were management, I'd be arguing that in the long term, things like post-fire & EPMT treatment is a much more important use for non-appropriated funds than restrooms & trash collection for current visitation.
Beyond that example I know about, the folks who would document impacts on parks are furloughed and we're banned from the parks while on furlough, so all we have are the occasional photos and stories of vandalism, no quantitative damage assessments.
Also, there will be long-term repercussions of this shutdown on the workforce. The NPS workforce skews older: somewhere around 1/3 to 1/2 of the workforce can retire in the next 5 years. A few of those elgible to retire will now pull the trigger, but they would be gone in a couple of years anyway, so I consider that a minor loss to the parks. The larger impact will be on the younger cohort just trying to make careers in NPS. For the past few years, with budget uncertainty & hiring freezes, many permanent positions in parks have been replaced with term and seasonal positions. Even interp rangers now tend to need college degrees (not required in the postion desciptions), then work in paid internships like pathways, then in project-funded term postions, with the possibility of an eventual permanent career position. Bio-techs and natural & cultural resource positions are even harder to obtain. Most of the folks still trying to get these positions are very dedicated to the NPS mission and to education, and simply love parks. They have a whole lot more education than previous cohorts (and modern technology skills), and would make a good next generation of park staff and leaders. But they have the least savings & resources to get by on during a furlough, and those in partner-funded positions will not get back pay for the furlough time: they're simply out multiple paychecks. Old geezers like me (I'm outside of their chain of command so it's legal, honest!) can buy them a round or 2 at a happy hour to try to keep team morale up during the shutdown, but those with children simply can't persist in chasing the dream. The best of them can easily get other more secure jobs teaching, or doing wetlands delineation or environmental remediation or whatever, and many of them will. That's going to leave a mark. Coming full circle, when the old cohort retires, fewer of this cohort will be there with a few years of experience, and NPS and government jobs will be less attractive to people starting careers, so I expect the quality of the applicants to be lower.
Day 21 of the shutdown. Our parks are suffering.
In the meantime, it seems that the Department of the Interior is still giving out oil leases in the Artic.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-alaska-oil/trump-administration-w...
Danny Bernstein
www.hikertohiker.com
JMHO-- Seems unfair to call someone a "troll" just becuase you disagree with them. What ever happened to civility??
Mr Gutierrez...
If they match the definition [per Wikipedia: "In Internet slang, a troll is a person who starts quarrels or upsets people on the Internet to distract and sow discord by posting inflammatory and digressive,[1] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into displaying emotional responses[2] and normalizing tangential discussion,[3] whether for the troll's amusement or a specific gain."] then it isn't "just because" there is disagreement.
Dave Vela's appointment as NPS Director has been cancelled because the Senate failed to hold hearings. This account is from this morning's Report from the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks:
January 3 - The Senate returned the nomination of Raymond David Vela of Texas to be director of the National Park Service to the White House due to the failure of his nomination to be confirmed by the end of the 115th Congress as required by Senate rules. Vela's nomination was one of over 380 nominations returned to the White House on this date. If the White House wishes to continue with Vela's nomination, it will have to be resubmitted to the 116th Congress by the administration. The returning of the nomination to the White House assures that the record of the National Park Service being without a director for over two years will be extended even further. This is the longest period in Park Service history without a director, and well beyond the 10 months the service was without a director in 2009 when the nomination of Jon Jarvis was being considered by the Senate. The requirement to have the director confirmed by the Senate has only been in law since 1996.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is calling back roughly 50000 furloughed employees to work without being paid until the lapse in appropriations ends. The anti-deficiency act has exceptions for safety of people and property, which is how Border Patrol, TSA, prison guards, Coast Guard, etc., are excepted and working without pay. Some of these callbacks such as food inspectors and additional TSA & air traffic controllers, clearly qualify. But somehow, IRS agents verifying financial information so mortgage loans can go through qualify, as do 36000 IRS agents to process tax refunds. DOI callbacks include those to process drilling and logging leases and keep the clock running on public comments on pipelines, and FWS staff to allow hunting on refuges (many FWS refuges were established for hunting), plus some NPS facilities folks to take care of bathrooms & trash removal. But, employees who work on fire reduction clearing and prescribed burning, which can only happen in restricted seasons, are not called back. Nor are employees doing post-fire resourc stabilization or invasive species control, again, time-sensitive activities that appear to involve impacts to government property. From what I can see, the priority is to minimize inconvienience and anger among citizens, not safety or protection of property such as the cultural and natural resources in parks, National Forests, and other public lands.
Lee-- Do you have any thoughts on whether David Vela is still likely to take the job if re-nominated?
Lee-- Do you have any thoughts on whether David Vela is still likely to take the job if re-nominated?
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I have absolutely no idea. On one hand I'd think anyone of good character who would take a job with trump's messministration would be foolish, while on the other hand I think anyone who would take job intending to try to restore even a tidbit of sanity should be awarded every medal for bravery that exist.
I worked through the 2013 shutdown. This just keeps getting worse and worse. Funding basic government operations should not be used to as extortion to get funding for a President's pet project. The way to get funding is to get the support of the majority of Congress. If you can't do that you need to either redouble your efforts with Congress or rethink the validity of your request. What is happening now is a failure of Presidential leadership.