An Open Question

Despite mass firings and crippling budget constraints, the Secretary of Interior orders national park units to be open as usual this summer. What could possibly go wrong?

First, over 2,400 national park employees recently lost their jobs or have been forced into early retirement including 1,000 probationary employees on February 14th and another 1,400 in the lastest purge known as “Fork 2.0.” The parks have lost 142 park superintendents, interpretation staff, maintence crews, administrative positions, and more. Due to the lack of staff, the closures began - Arches closed the popular Fiery Furnace Trail until further notice, ranger talks were halted in Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park.

Then, seeing the writing on the wall, Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum issued a directive last week ordering remaining park officials to ensure that every park “is properly staffed to support the operating hours and needs of each park unit" and requiring all park attractions to be kept open at all costs.

What’s wrong with this picture? The seemingly tone deaf edict to “properly” staff parks when the ink is barely dry on the pink slips of fired park employees is causing whiplash among park leaders and raising concerns over potential consequences for both natural and human resources as the busy summer season fast approaches.

To many of us, national parks are simply relaxing places to visit, enjoy a sunset, look for wildlife, and grab a postcard at the visitor center. What it actually takes to keep these places open, clean, and safe for visitors, is mostly invisible to the average visitor, as it should be. But that is not to say it is easy.

There are 433 units managed by the National Park Service — from national lakeshores to historic sites, national monuments, and 63 national parks. The White House is a national park unit, as is Alcatraz (which is a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area). Nationwide, the National Park Service oversees what they call a “complex portfolio of more than 71,000 assets” including historic structures, 5,600 miles of paved roads (7,500 miles of unpaved ones), some 1,500 bridges (on roads and trails), and 27,513 campsites. There are water treatment facilities, visitor centers. Yellowstone National Park alone has 157 vault toilets. Yosemite has its own jail.

Here in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore there are 62 miles of trails, two visitor centers on the mainland and an information station on Stockton Island. There are 18 public docks, 67 campgrounds, 8 lighthouse towers, and an historic fishery at Manitou Island. There are 22 boats to operate safely and maintain, 2,301 hours of boat operation annually, 39 acres of lawn that needs to be mowed, 20 water distribution systems, 22 photovoltaic systems to keep operative. There are 102,000 museum objects, 52 known archaeological sites, 34 historic logging sites, 12 shipwrecks, and 187 historic structures.

There are 24 endangered species (3 Federal and 21 State), 237 migratory bird species, 803 identified plant species, and “innumerable” seacaves and beaches.

All of it spread out over 420 square miles of Lake Superior (the size of Rocky Mountain National Park flooded) and all of it meant to make the visits of 290,000 people annually safe, meaningful, and enjoyable.

Now, in the face of depleted staff levels, a continuing hiring freeze which has dropped the NPS workforce nationwide an estimated 20% since 2010, and facing record high vistation numbers, parks are being told to put on a happy face, and lay out the welcome mat for what could be another record numbere of summer visitors.

To “ensure visitor access and satisfaction,” the Secretary of Interior says in his two-page order, “any closures or reductions to operating hours, seasons, or any visitor services (including trails and campgrounds) … must be reviewed by the NPS Director … prior to any reduction action by the individual park units." Keep it open or else, the Secretary seems to be saying.

But how? Acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron told park leaders to “get creative” in finding ways to keep parks open, encouraging them to borrow rangers from other parks, bring in volunteers, even ask for help from state governments. In Yosemite, highly-trained scientists and IT staffers have been assigned to clean bathrooms. Anything, it seems, to keep the lights on this summer in our national parks and prevent bad press for the federal government.

Record high numbers of visitors coming to the parks, deep cuts in staff, and little or no direction on how to handle it besides an edict to get creative? What could possibly go wrong?

Kristen Brengel, with the National Parks Conservation Association says, “This ill-conceived policy flies in the face of responsible management of national parks, risking both visitor safety and the very resources the Park Service was created and is mandated to protect."

How will the individual parks handle this seeming quandry in contradition? How will they navigate steep staffing cuts, budget constraints, and still manage to fullfil their mission to “preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations”? Even the Secretary of Interior himself is waiting for that answer. Burgum has directed park superintendents to submit a report by mid-April detailing the “operational status of each park unit.”

In other words, how our parks will do any of this remains an open question.

— Jeff Rennicke (all photography by the author unless otherwise noted)

What are your concerns about our national parks or public lands? Let me know below.