Park Services Slashed, Memos Instruct Staff to Mislead Media

WASHINGTON, DC, March 18, 2004 (ENS) - Top National Park Service officials have recently given detailed instructions to park superintendents to further reduce maintenance and services in America's national parks, according to internal agency memos. The memos also reveal how officials instructed park superintendents to mislead the media and the public about the nature and severity of the service cuts.

These instructions were meant to help park superintendents steer clear of political controversy and avoid making budget related statements that led to the suspension of U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers last December.

U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers is a 25 year veteran of the police force. Suspended for talking to the media about a shortage in park police staffing, she is on administrative leave while officials review her case. (Photo courtesy PEER)

The memos are based on a February 17, 2004, meeting of National Park Service (NPS) deputy regional directors convened by Park Service Deputy Director Randy Jones, a top lieutenant to NPS Director Fran Mainella.

Among the possible cuts listed in the memo are the following: "close the visitor center on all federal holidays, eliminate life guard services at … guarded beaches, eliminate all guided ranger tours … close the park every Sunday and Monday."

One memo details that Jones suggested at the meeting "that if you feel you must inform the public through a press release on this year's hours or days of operation for example, that you state what the park's plans are and not to directly indicate that 'this is a cut' in comparison to last year's operation."

"If you are personally pressed by the media in an interview, we all agreed to use the terminology of 'service level adjustment' due to fiscal constraints as a means of describing what actions we are taking," the memo said.

Randy Jones came to Washington in 2002 from his position as superintendent of Rocky Mountain National Park. Here a ranger at the park shares her knowledge with visitors. Budget cuts mean fewer ranger talks this year. (Photo courtesy National Park Service)

The memo to Midwest park superintendents reads in part, "As we emphasized in the zone meetings, we are at a point where we can no longer be doing more with less. The realization should now be clear to everyone that we are crossing the line into new territory where we hope to rationally and objectively choose the best things to do and not to do."

"He (Jones) has asked each region to review the 'service level adjustments' of each of their parks and then communicate to him those that are the most sensitive. We will need to be sure that adjustments are taken from as many areas as is possible so that it won't cause public or political controversy," one memo states.

The internal agency correspondence was released to the public Wednesday by the nonpartisan Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees, which consists of more than 220 retired park service officials, including several former directors, deputy directors, and regional directors and some 70 former superintendents or assistant superintendents.

The group notes that the memos were distributed internally within the park service only four days before the administration announced a tourism promotion pact between the park service and the Travel Industry Association of America (TIAA).

"The Bush administration, Department of Interior and the National Park Service simply can not have it both ways," said Denny Huffman, former superintendent of Dinosaur National Monument and spokesperson for the coalition of retirees.

"You can not engage in large scale efforts with the travel industry to ramp up visitors to the park and then at the same time pressure superintendents to cut service," Huffman said.

Park Service crew repairs damage to a towpath in Ohio's Cuyahoga Valley National Park following severe flooding in July 2003. Parkwide damage estimates approach $1 million. (Photo courtesy NPS)

"The only possible outcome from reduced operations of parks that already are critically far behind in needed maintenance is a reduced quality in the visitor's experience," Huffman said. "If you support the parks and you want more visitors, you have to be prepared to fix the problems and improve services - not the exact opposite of that, which is what we are seeing happen today."

In January, the White House snubbed representatives of the retirees who sent President George W. Bush a letter requesting a meeting. The letter expressed their concerns that "actions are being taken in the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service that are short-changing, ignoring or violating the longstanding legislation and policies comprising the mission of the National Park Service."

The retirees fear that the Department of Interior is abandoning its core mission of conservation. In particular, the retirees are critical of the snowmobiles allowed this year in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks over the objections of a federal judge who upheld their phaseout.

In addition, the retirees are critical of the federal government's recent claim to water rights in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The Black Canyon Monument became a national park in 1999 with the Act specifically excluding the addition of any new water rights. But on January 17, 2001 the NPS filed in Division 4 Water Court, a request that if granted would allow the park service to control about 60 percent of all Gunnison River flows to and through the park.

The park service says the water is needed to protect a gold medal trout fishery that has developed. The state of Colorado on behalf of the Water Conservation Board, the Division of Water Resources, and the Division of Wildlife, along with some 350 other objectors, have filed statements of opposition to the case.

"Once again, this appears to be a derogation of the [Interior] Department's responsibilities, under the NPS Organic Act, to protect the park and the river that is its heart," the retirees wrote. This park was established to protect Black Canyon's spectacular gorges and additional features of scenic, scientific and educational interest."

No other canyon in North America combines the narrow opening, sheer walls, and steep depths offered by the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado. (Photo courtesy NPS)

"The Park Service is telling the public, the media, and the Congress that everything is fine … that promises are being kept ... and do not look too closely," said Jeff McFarland, executive director, Association of National Park Rangers. "The recent removal of the chief of the U.S. Park Police sent a clear message to park superintendents - you may lose your job for telling the truth about your park budgets."

"As stewards of many of our nation's most precious natural and cultural resources, we believe that national parks and the American people deserve better than this," said McFarland.

In addition, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a national alliance of local state and federal resource professionals, issued a statement this week that accuses the Bush administration of undermining the law that protects air quality in national parks by permitting political appointees to nullify the air quality findings of NPS scientists.

"As a result, the special safeguards for visibility and breathability of the air in our National Parks have been quietly gutted without public involvement or Congressional approval," PEER said.

In the 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments, Congress designated nearly all National Parks as areas where existing air quality conditions may not be allowed to deteriorate in a significant way. The law allows only small increases in particulates and sulfur dioxide (SO2), called “increments.”

To implement this law, NPS scientists establish the baseline concentrations of SO2 and particulates at any given park. Then, using computer modeling techniques, scientists scrutinize each proposal for a new emitting facility, such as a power plant, to determine if the emissions will increase pollutants in that park.

If the scientists determine that the added pollutant load will exceed the allowable increment, the NPS recommends that the Interior Secretary notify the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or the state if it has an EPA approved program, to deny the permit.

In February 2003, NPS scientists modeled the impact of the proposed new coal fired Thoroughbred Generating Station in Kentucky and concluded that it would adversely impact Mammoth Cave National Park located 50 miles away.

In the fall of 2003, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks Craig Manson and his deputy Paul Hoffman withdrew the adverse impact determination made by NPS scientists, making this the first time in the 25 year history of the 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments that a political appointee has directly overruled an NPS science based determination.

In another instance, NPS scientists have long concluded that the allowable increment in pollutants had already been reached at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota. This means that emissions from two new proposed coal fired power plants would be disallowed.

On February 13, 2004, the EPA announced that it would allow the state of North Dakota to recalculate the pollution concentrations in the area around the Park so that the increment will not have been exceeded, even with the added pollution from the two new power plants.

In December 2002, NPS scientists concluded that the nearly 4,000 tons of annual SO2 emissions from a new coal burning power plant in Roundup, Montana would adversely affect air quality and visibility 112 miles away at Yellowstone National Park.

Craig Manson was appointed to the Sacramento County Municipal Court in January 1998, and elevated to the Superior Court in June 1998. From 1993 to 1998 he served as general counsel for the California Department of Fish and Game. (Photo courtesy Interior Department)

Environmentalists have been wary of Manson's commitment to environmental protection for years. In November 2001, when Manson was being considered for his current position, Friends of the Earth wrote a letter of concern to U.S. senators based on Manson's actions in the 1990s when he was chief counsel for the California Department of Fish and Game.

Manson "supported weakening of the California Endangered Species Act, the failure to collect fees from developers to ensure environmental review and restoration of endangered species habitat, and an overall lack of enforcement of Fish and Game rules," the environmental group wrote.

In 1995 Manson wrote an emergency waiver, issued by then California Governor Pete Wilson, which suspended endangered species act provisions during natural disasters for five years. This wavier was later found to violate provisions of the California Endangered Species Act by the 1st District Court of Appeals and was overturned, Friends of the Earth pointed out.

For her part, NPS Director Mainella says the Bush administration is committed to the nation's national parks. On February 26, she told the Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation and Public Lands of the House Committee on Resources that the President's fiscal year 2005 budget request of about $2.4 billion would increase appropriated funding for the NPS by over $100 million above the 2004 level, or over four percent.

“This budget proposal demonstrates a strong commitment to sustaining the National Park System,” Mainella said, “with emphasis on reducing the maintenance backlog, strengthening law enforcement and improving visitor safety programs, enhancing resource management, and expanding partnership and volunteer activities.”

But millions of dollars detailed in the budget proposal are not new funds, they are imported from other government programs, and about half the acquisitions request is for energy development rather than parks conservation.

Mainella said the budget proposal’s federal land acquisition request is $84 million, with nearly half of that amount, $40 million, slated for potential acquisition of a portion of the oil and gas holdings underlying Big Cypress National Preserve.

A white ibis on the River of Grass, Everglades National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (Photo courtesy NPS)

At the Everglades, the retirees said Wednesday, 20 percent of permanent staff positions were left empty, nearly half of the permanent positions in the interpretation division, the staff that interacts directly with the visiting public, went unfilled, and no evening programs were held for park visitors.

And in the northeast United States, it is estimated that 68 of 74 parks will have a smaller budget for park operations this year than in 2003.

Park Rangers Association head McFarland said, "The mission of the Park Service - to enable our children and grandchildren to enjoy the full splendor of our national parks - at our present level of effort, simply will not happen."