WP: (National) Parks Feel '80 Percent' Squeeze (by Bush Admin)

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/16/AR2006041600612.html

Parks Feel '80 Percent' Squeeze
Visitor Services Getting Pinched in Move to Cut Costs

By Matt Stearns
Knight Ridder
Monday, April 17, 2006; Page A11

The Bush administration has ordered America's national parks to show that they can function at 80 percent or less of their operating budgets, which is forcing some parks to cut services for visitors as summer approaches.

National Park Service officials said the initiative was an effort to cope with the rising costs of salaries, utilities and other management expenses without harming the parks' "core" missions of protecting the nation's natural treasures and enabling visitors to enjoy them. The Park Service has more than 270 million visitors annually.

But park officials in the field said the initiative was forcing "gut-wrenching" decisions that visitors will notice. At many parks, volunteers will take on larger roles, and there will be fewer interpretive ranger programs, the officials said.

At Glacier National Park in Montana, three campgrounds no longer will have potable water or trash service.

[Lorien]

1. The real eco-terrorists are Bush and his cronies

if they get their way many National parks will be sold to their political contributors for pennies on the dollar. Right now they're trying to starve out the visitors so they'll no longer care if those parks end up on the auction block. :grr:

[WHAT]

8. The national parks are our churches...

more or less.

I was just talking to somebody about the churches of Europe and pretty much had to agree that our churches don't compare. Then, it flashed on me that the national parks are truly our churches. I haven't thought all of this out, yet, but intuitively it seems to be the case. Our spirituality as a nation is more embodied in places reflective of freedom of motion, physically. Whitman, Thoreau, "Don't Fence Me In"...

I wish I was a scholar so I could say this better but this is a case where I feel this first.

This is truly a spiritual exploitation different from religious manipulation.

[montana_hazeleyes]

10. You put this beautifully WHAT.

Last year at Yosemite I rode the tram to get up to where the Giant Sequoias are. I was totally in awe of them and felt so spiritually fulfilled amongst them.

These are feelings I know bush** and his followers could never feel or understand.

We are being run by madmen who care for nothing but the almighty dollar and power.

[moose65]

22. me too!

I went to Yosemite for the first time last year and was awed by those magnificent trees. I guess the administration looks at them and thinks "Wow I could make a lot of money by cutting these things down." We are on the brink of the abyss.

[nicknameless]

18. The divine is palpable in nature.

You expressed it beautifully.

[argyl]

25. Well put. Looking over the North Rim of the Grand Canyon has put me on

my knees in awe of the works of a God that I'm not sure exists.

[Lisa]

29. nicely said!

National parks are arguably America's contribution to the modern world, and evolved with its society over the past century. In their present form (as opposed to private game preserves for the rulers, as in past societies), the US played a key role in developing the concept -- and the administrative, educational, and scientific activities associated with parks, which are used worldwide today. (Some private preserves were later converted into national parks, based on the Yellowstone and Yosemite models ...)

And you're absolutely right -- an entire area of spirituality has grown up around parks. Even more so than older institutions like universities and libraries ... the concept that there are things which one just does not do in a national park, such as hunting, are embraced even by many people who hunt or fish. And the fear that the Grand Canyon was under threat from development mobilized many people who'd never even visited it, kick-starting the modern environmental movement.

[Erika]

2. W hurting/slashing government parks budgets

While demanding tax cuts for the rich. W is no American.

[formercia]

16. Bush is an Elitist

and they are a global conspiracy.

Welcome to the New World Order.

[Liberty Belle]

3. K & R...They're trashing our national treasures:

"If you're looking to trim it back to 80 percent of current funding, you're going to go below core operations," said Bill Wade of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees. Parks entrusted with cultural and historic resources would be especially hard-hit, Wade said. "If you can't care for historical records, structures, artifacts -- once they deteriorate, they're no longer historically accurate," he said.

[Erika]

5. As I've said, W is no American

He's a corporate globalist who hijacked this nation and sold us down the river.

In six years he's turned a beautiful and prosperous nation into a third world country.

[pinniped]

4. This Asshole is setting the course for private corps. to take over.

.

[Erika]

7. Yep...He's turned us into a third world country

with the Bushbots ignorant Ok. They are slowly waking up but so very slowly. They, along with W, bear responsiblility for ruining this country.

[moose65]

23. Yep

Be on the look out in the near future for the following:

Microsoft's Grand Canyon

Yellowstone, presented by GE

AOL/Time Warner's Yosemite Experience

and my personal favorite, ExxonMobil's Denali

it's a kick in the gut, ain't it?

[nashville_brook]

6. no clearer sign of how he regards OUR country!

[Eugene]

9. K & R ...and the Bushies lie again.

Later in the article, the official story is that the Park Service
is looking for more ways to be effective and efficient, not cut custs.
However an internal memo says exactly the opposite.

But an internal Park Service analysis of the initiative provided to Knight Ridder
says "there is no analysis of effectiveness -- efficiency was primarily defined
as reducing costs." The memo concludes that the initiative "is less of a planning
tool to manage effectiveness or efficiency but more of a tool to reduce cost."

Well, isn't that a surprise! :eyes:

[sandnsea]

11. It's to force corporate sponsorships

And privatize our national parks. We're going to have corporate logos slapped all over the place. It makes me so sick, I can't even talk about it. Corporate sports stadiums were bad enough, but this is just sacrilege.

http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=611

[rodeodance]

14. it is alrady happening--but as you say=more to come

[Kolesar]

12. Cuts the educational programs provided by interpretive ranger (programs)

Another example of bush* anti-science programs. Interpretive programs are a way important educational program that guide people to love and protect nature.

K&R might as well stand for Knight Ridder in this forum!

[YankeyMCC]

13. A clear example of the regressive nature

of the policies of these people

[wordpix2]

15. and now the parks are being privatized - check out this website

http://www.xanterra.com/

Welcome to Xanterra Parks & Resorts®
Xanterra Parks & Resorts® is the country’s largest park & resort management company. We emphasize ecologically sensitive tourism and our environmental management and conservation programs at national parks have received widespread acclaim.

snip: In recent years, we have emerged as a leader in orchestrating effective, efficient partnerships with the National Park Service. Funding the construction of a 10,000-square-foot gift and foodservice facility at Mount Rushmore, the new $18 million Old Faithful Snow Lodge and the new $3.7 million Dunraven Lodge in Yellowstone National Park, we are dedicated to building a sound reputation for quality preservation of our historic and national facilities.

[moose65]

24. well....

As I understand it, Xanterra has been in business since the early 1900's, and they were a company formed specifically to run concessions in the national parks. It's not like some johnny-come-lately that has signed on to be a corporate sponsor of national parks. I've always had good experiences with Xanterra in Yellowstone.

I think that corporations can play a role, though... through donations to various park foundations, but it has to be hands-off, no strings donations. No naming rights or anything like that! I don't want to see Halliburton's Old Faithful, for instance!

[sandnsea]

27. Naming rights is what's happening

http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=611

[wordpix]

28. the issue is development in the parks, which are supposed to be for all

not just for a few corporations that have a monopoly within the parks.

[sandnsea]

26. That isn't the problem

Private companies have always run the lodges and concessions and the like.

A corporate logo on a bench, garbage can, trail head, the CocaCola Geyser; that's the privatization danger.

http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=611

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. "If you don't like the services, blame a Republican...

and the idiots who voted for him."

We should paste that sign all over the bathroom walls in the stalls of our public national parks.

[ramapo]

19. A promise made is a promise broken

Didn't candidate Bush 2000 talk about how he'd be a friend to the parks and gave Gore crap about how rundown the facilities had become over the Clitnon/Gore years? Didn't he imply he'd fix things up? Or am I dreaming?

[Coexist]

20. Is Rummy practicing this 80% doctrine too?

Have Halliburton chop 20% off the top and still provide the same service.

[moose65]

21. This just pisses me off to no end...

Year after year I have been to Yellowstone and seen the same deteriorating roads, tiny facilities that were built in the '50's (or earlier) and general disrepair all over the place. Don't get me wrong, it's still awe-inspiring and beautiful, but damn it, the parks always have like 95% approval ratings in polls. The people love and value the parks. It would be nice to have an administration that values them as well.