With just a few weeks left before the prospect of a government shutdown rears its ugly head, there are some things that have crossed my mind lately.
* According to the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey conducted by the federal Office of Personnel Management, the National Park Service ranked 396th out of 432 government agencies in 2022 when it came to “the level of respect employees have for senior leaders," Public Employees For Environmental Responsibility noted last month.
Does appointing a superintendent who "committed criminal violations by submitting false travel vouchers and by accepting more than $23,000 in meals, lodging, and other in-kind gifts from non-Government organizations" improve that ranking?
* What went wrong with Dinosaur National Monument's heating and air-conditioning system in the park's visitor center? Just a dozen years after the center was built, the Park Service is spending nearly $600,000 to install a brand new HVAC system.
* If feral horses are no good at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, shouldn't they be no good at Cumberland Island National Seashore in Georgia?
* It'd be great to see the National Park Service promote the the ecological services provided by the National Park System as it does the economic benefits.
* Will the National Park Service, already understaffed and overwhelmed at times in some places by crowds, institute daily visitation caps if Congress cuts funding, as House Republicans want to do? (Footnote: The Blue Ridge Parkway closed a campground early this summer due to staffing shortages).
* If the National Park Service can tap Land and Water Conservation Fund dollars to buy two houses poised to fall into the Atlantic Ocean, can they be tapped to offset increases in camping and backpacking fees? (Beyond that, can two houses standing in the waves really be worth a combined $700,000?)
* Can anyone say how many national park lodging rooms are blocked out for tour operators?
* How long will litigation over the Caneel Bay Resort at Virgin Islands National Seashore delay the National Park Service's plans for that area?
* How long will it be before we know whether a plan to save rare birds at Haleakalā National Park in Hawai'i is succeeding?
* Is there a better "show" in the National Park System than watching a nighttime eruption of Kīlauea volcano at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park?
* What a great job the staff at Cape Cod National Seashore and the many communities that surround the seashore have done in educating visitors about sharks and how to stay safe.
* Is the National Park Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives still active?
* How much money have lawyers made fighting over the boundaries of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Bears Ears National Monument?
* How cool is it that some trees in New River Gorge National Park and Preserve date to the 1600s?
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Comments
Great questions! I will point out that, since ecological services such as carbon sequestration and pollination are not traded in the marketplace, they're harder to quantify than retail sales to park visitors. Putting a dollar value on these can be done indirectly, but the logic is often complex and subject to multiple interpretations.
Well, with respect to what lawyers have earned fighting over GSENM, the answer would be very little, unless you count the salaries paid to federal and state government lawyers assigned to work on the various cases. On the conservation side of the argument, all the attorneys work for non-profits who rely on grants and donations to cover salaries. A better question might be why people of good will, who can be found on both sides of the dispute, can't find a better way to make conservation a reality.
* Can anyone say how many national park lodging rooms are blocked out for tour operators?
Tour operators use park lodging? I was not aware of that. Thanks, KR
Any idea how many park procedures and reservation regulations are bypassed or suspended for "special" park visitors like politicians, celebrities, and NPS big wigs? I remember reports of VP Gore profusely sweating up a trail closed for him in Glacier NP in 1997, while I was backpacking in the North Fork area of the park.