Dan Wilcock’s piece on national park budgets
relates a “shouting match” between the Interior Department and
parks observers about how much is or isn’t being spent (HCN,
8/16/04: National parks pinching pennies). But focusing on money
spent is diversionary, since money can be used inefficiently,
siphoned to other uses, inflated away, and otherwise disguised.
The real measure is how effectively the parks are
managed. Death Valley National Park is substantially down in
personnel, and there are rumors that the cost of the recent
flash-flood damage that closed the park for a week will come from
the regular budget. I just spent five days in Sequoia National
Park’s backcountry. Some of the backcountry ranger locations
are unstaffed. And at the visitor center, wood benches and concrete
curbings are falling apart, and parts of the restroom facilities
are unmaintained.
Of course, it’s not all bad.
Sequoia National Park recently completed removal of something like
a hundred buildings from a magnificent sequoia grove; they had been
damaging the long-term viability of the grove. But that’s
done, and we must be concerned with now and the future.
If the parks were well maintained and managed on 10 cents a year,
no one would complain. It’s not the dollar amount that
counts, it’s results.
Tom
Budlong
Los Angeles,
California
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Parks need efficient money management.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
