The spread of COVID-19 has brought storm clouds over the National Park System/Rebecca Latson file

Over the years I've developed great respect for those who work for the National Park Service, knowing that most employees are underpaid, that living conditions for many are borderline tolerable, and yet daily they must -- and usually do -- sport a smile and openness with visitors, some who don't deserve either.

But the paralysis that has afflicted the upper echelons of the agency during the novel coronavirus pandemic is baffling in its apparent lack of common sense, something that hopefully can be traced to the political winds that swirl through the Interior Department and not the judgment of career employees.

Across the country, governors are closing bars, restaurants, and schools, major league and college sports have taken a hiatus, and millions are being ordered to "shelter in place," and yet life seemingly goes on in the National Park System for the rank-and-file on the front lines in the parks. 

A small handful of superintendents has taken stands against COVID-19 and succeeded in getting some facilities closed, but it's far too few when you measure the germ-spreading risks of full shuttle buses, bustling restaurants, information desks, and the close quarters of visitor attractions such as Mammoth Cave, Carlsbad Cave, and national seashore lighthouses. 

"Visitors can be assured that national parks continue to maintain high standards related to the health and wellness of staff and visitors," is the rosy message put out by the Park Service.

But is that really the case? The decision-making picture that's developing is one of turmoil.

David Vela, the Park Service's deputy director who is also its de facto director, is the figurehead at the top of the agency. But during a conference call last week with superintendents out in the field Carol Danko, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt's senior director advisor for communications, made it clear that all public information had to be approved by her.

Bernhardt himself supposedly took a tape measure out to the Washington Monument last week, purportedly to see if tours could continue with visitors 6 feet apart. They could not.

The next day, last Friday, "NPS had a contingency planning call that was complete confusion," I was told. 

The flow of public information from the Park Service headquarters since COVID-19 became a national concern has been insignficant, as has the apparent concern for field staff (though undoubtedly there's great concern for those in the field). While the Interior Department in Washington, D.C., is to shut down Tuesday, with all workers told to telework, as best we can tell, Park Service employees in the field are expected to remain on the job dealing with crowds of visitors who might be spreading COVID-19.

While CDC has called for groups of no more than 50 individuals, and the White House has lowered that to 10, there's been no public announcement from Vela on how parks such as Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Golden Gate NRA, Everglades, or Big Bend, just to name six, are to meet either of those limits.

What about concession workers who live in close quarters in dorms?

What happened to the Park Service messaging that it was "following the most current guidance from the CDC, OPM, OEM, and other federal, state, and local health authorities"?

"I know that the Park Service folks out in the field are more than just a little nervous," Phil Francis, chair of the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, told me Monday not long after that group called for all park facilities that bring staff and visitors in close proximity should be closed.

"I think they (Interior officials) have to delegate the authority down to the superintendents, let them follow the guidelines that are being set by the CDC," added Francis. "And they (superintendents) know better than anyone else where people congregate, how people congregate, what time of day, what places. You can't send 419 requests up to the Washington office and get some kind of a effective evaluation of it. I just don't see how that's possible."

Also nervous, understandably, are concessionaires, large and small.

"There really is huge concern. They want to do what's right for the public and the Park Service, but from a standpoint of just the economics of this, they think it's a bigger issue than the (government) shutdowns," Derrick Crandall, the counselor for the National Park Hospitality Association, told me Monday afternoon after he got off a two-and-a-half hour call with concessionaires. "They think there will be persistent travel concerns for the remainder of 2020." 

The concessionaires really are in a bind, and not just for themselves. Thousands of employees depend on their jobs, and hundreds of thousands of park visitors depend on concession-run lodgings and restaurants. While some of the largest concessionaires, those with other revenue streams, some global, might be able to survive a closure of park facilities, smaller operations might not be able to.

"We have a major issue here in terms of just trying to deal with the craziness of the coronavirus," said Crandall. "I am told that the Park Service is just really trying to deal with the realities, just a tough, tough decision. If you're trying to operate Yosemite and you say, 'OK, worst case, what happens if I have now instead of just one or two cases, what happens if we go to 500 cases of coronavirus that shows up? How do I deal with that medical emergency in a remote location like this? I just can't remove all those people.' And what happens if it's concession employees or Park Service employees?"

There is no easy solution that everyone will accept and feel good about. The logical, albeit painful, answer for the near-term is to close and disinfect all park facilities -- historic structures, visitor centers, lodges, restaurants -- while keeping the parks open with their staffs intact to protect resources and visitors who come for the hiking, camping, other outdoor activities, and relaxation. So far that's not been politically acceptable.

But is it better to gamble that large numbers of park visitors, employees, and staff will fall victim to COVID-19, and that some will die?