Now the hard work begins. Congress needs to be cajoled to pass the president's Centennial Initiative, new-found friends need to cash-in, and the national park system needs some loving attention if the National Park Service's centennial nine years hence is to truly be noteworthy.
Two-and-a-half days of meetings in Austin, Texas, at the National Park Foundation's Leadership Summit on Partnership and Philanthropy were energizing and hope-inspiring. They produced excitement about the centennial, spawned thought-provoking panel discussions on how partnerships and philanthropy could provide a much-needed boost for the perpetually cash-strapped Park Service, and held out hope that, with some decidedly concerted efforts, the national parks won't begin to decay once the Baby Boom generation that loves them so dearly fades away.
First Lady Laura Bush spoke at the gathering, as did two cabinet secretaries -- Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Jr. -- Park Service Director Mary Bomar, captains of industry, and purse holders of foundations intrigued, if not yet entirely persuaded, about the prospect of giving to the parks.
"There's nothing like being awed by the grandeur of Denali, overwhelmed by the vastness of Crater Lake, or humbled by the centuries of human history in the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde. We want everyone to have the opportunity to make memories in our national parks, especially our children," the First Lady said Monday during her keynote address. "Improvements to our national parks and historical sites benefit every state. ... I urge Congress to support, and that means fund, this very important (Centennial Initiative.)"
First Lady Laura Bush addresses Leadership Summit (1:26)
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Of course, the Centennial Initiative alone won't provide all the salve the national parks need. Most of the eligible products announced so far don't address long-standing problems. Most, if not all, parks are short-staffed; at Acadia National Park, for instance, one fifth of the 100 authorized full-time jobs are vacant due to funding woes. At other parks, positions of retiring personnel have been left vacant so the money for their salaries can be spent on operational costs. And, of course, there's the well-known $8 billion backlog in maintenance needs across the 391-unit park system.
Beyond that, questions hang over how partnerships and philanthropy will be married to benefit the parks. Where do you draw the line between helping the Park Service and replacing it with volunteers and concessionaires, and how do you engage common Americans to donate to the Centennial Initiative are just two.
Seemingly silencing that second concern is the fact that the American public is a very generous lot. One of the summit's speakers pointed out that $295 billion was donated to charitable causes in 2006 -- $222.9 billion from individuals. For fiscal 2007, that sum was projected to rise to $3.7 trillion. The trick for those supporting the Centennial Initiative is to corral just a fraction of those dollars for the parks.
Secretary Kempthorne told the conferees that he hopes the Centennial Initiative ignites a new era of philanthropy in the parks. At the same time, he and others stressed that philanthropic interests will not give to the parks if their dollars are used to replace, rather than supplement, federal funding. Too, they maintained that no corporation wants to advertise its presence in the parks, and that there are Park Service regulations in place to prevent that from happening anyway.
Mr. Kempthorne said the initiative, if passed, would provide funding to preserve lost Civil War battlefields, better protect cultural resources, and even create a fund dedicated to park land purchases, largely to close "holes" in parks created by inholdings.
"It's within our grasp to achieve excellence at all our national parks in America," he said.
Not everyone was convinced. Some of the smaller friends groups told me they worry they don't have the cachet to entice philanthropic funds to help pay for their needs. In response to that, however, was mention that if Congress approves the president's preferred funding proposal -- that private dollars be matched by federal dollars -- then whenever a dollar of federal funding is matched and released half be directed towards the project in question and half go into a discretionary fund for other parks' projects.
Beyond raising dollars for the parks, there must be successful efforts to entice the younger generations -- the Gen-Ys and their younger siblings -- into the parks.
"Our children have been seduced by the dark side of video games," Park Service Director Mary Bomar said at one point. "Is there anyone surprised that more Americans know Homer Simpson's home town than Abraham Lincoln's? Yes, Springfield (Ill.).
"... We are locked in battle to make sure that we get the hearts and minds of Americans back, to re-engage the American public with their national parks."
NPS Director Mary Bomar addresses Leadership Summit (1:45)
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As the centennial draws near, much work needs to be done. Strategies for raising public awareness of the centennial as well as for generating contributions will be necessary. Park friends groups will have to court philanthropies and convince them they have worthwhile projects. Urban, cultural, and historical parks must benefit as much as the Western landscape parks.
And then, of course, there's the issue of climate change. But that's fodder for another post.
Comments
Beamis- I have worked both seasonally for TNC and NPS and frankly, I don't see eye to eye with you on TNC's ability to effectively manage a large and/or small but heavily used unit of the NPS system. They aren't an organization that manages for recreation, they manage as a private property owner that gets TONS AND TONS of donations (READ: CORPORATE MARKETING BY ASSOCIATION! DONATIONS AS TAX BREAKS!) from major sponsors and grants from.... from... THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT along with state and county entities as well. In my experience, regarding access to their lands, it wasn't the public that got to see some prairie chickens on a lek, it was rich donors. So while I love TNC, I don't see them as a replacement. Also, specific anomaly examples aside, they don't manage for people using the wilderness/resource... they don't need to clean toilets, staff info centers, etc. on the scale that NPS does. Do you KNOW how hard that is to get privately funded? Additionally, given TNC's focus on nonpolitical approaches to operations, I doubt they could handle the middle position that the the NPS must take, or attempts, I should say. Politics are reality and I have yet to see any suggestion that would replace the "broken" NPS. Please don't take this as TNC bashing, but come on, they and/or a similar model can't replace the NPS.
Kurt, following this line of discussion, it'd be interesting for the hard working staff of NPT to investigate how the park in New Mexico, Valles Caldera or something, is faring under a non traditional, non-federal land management agency approach.
The best thing about this forum is that people like Beamis, Frank & others, who dare to speak "blasphemy" against the sacred service, can't be swept under the rug. This is all too often the case when "disgruntled" employees attempt to challenge the system in NPS meetings, usually dominated by those who are content to think and speak in step with the horde.
You'll be seeing Bart more frequently in these postings. I'll be presenting simple proposals to help clean up the agency. Most, if not all, of my suggestions will deal with changes at the park level...I'll resist the temptation to blame the problem on someone in Washington DC, even though such criticism is often warranted. Stay tuned!
Ohhhhhhh, Bart! Oh, Oh, we can't wait! *dripping with sarcasm*
Do you have an inflated sense of self-importance (aka Michael Moore), perhaps?
Kurt-
Your concerns for the long-term health and future stewardship of the parks is well justified. But in many aspects Beamis, Frank and others are also quite justified in their contempt for the current NPS management regime, specifically their inability to effectively handle the exact issues that you all are addressing in your latest series of posts. True, I am also a blatant advocate of scrapping the current system as a whole, based in no small fashion on this particular ineptness. The list describing the reorganization of the network is far too vast for this forum, but I would like to submit a few short notions for your consideration.
First, total privatization is not the goal. It has too many pitfalls, mainly pertaining to the same sort of mismanagement that we are currently blessed with the burden of under the existing umbrella. If I may, "publicazation" is what I have targeted and advocated mucho times within many posts on this site. This next item won't be popular either, but if the governing bodies can tax and spend for irrational wars and foreign subsidies, then an internal usage of funding, existing or brought through new revenue sources, while not popular, if either in part or wholely derived from those current wasteful expenditures, should prove to be at least palatable for those of us lablelled as the "general public". I, for one, would most certainly prefer my tax dollars to be used on the homefront for security, medical, preservation and the like as opposed to literally bribing foreign dignitaries and lining pockets and making their retirement MOST comfortable, along with their Swiss bank accounts. All this accomplished by a seperate entity, removed from the federal government ranks. I am quite aware that under our current legislature, only governmental bodies are authorized to function as taxing bodies. That can be ammended quite easily and limited quite specifically all in one fell swoop. Not popular, but quite doable.
Second, the concessionaires are truly non-essential. Although I have previously stated that the park system should be most highly focused on the preservation aspect of the system, it doesn't take a great deal of time of intelligence to manage lodging network. I'll get blasted for that comment, but the truth remains that no matter who is driving the boat, the lodges will maintain their capacity where they currently do, and others will continue to have peak-season vacancies due to less than advantageous locations. Employee-wise, their are many who freely choose to make a career of it in the various hotel / motel chains, so the reality of it is that the jobs themselves aren't that unattractive. Placing the proper people in the proper positions is the trademark of any successful business endeavor, and this would be no exception for the new management team.
And briefly, third, Congress is most capable and has been enabled to erase the current backlogs that are a justified concern of us all. But the fat and happy old buggers aren't motivated by internal issues as much as they seek continued self-gratification and simultaneously insulating themselves from all blame internationally, along with cementing their precious faces on the Hill for all eternity, or at least their own personal eternity. I believe that we would just be relieving them of a burden that they are neither willing nor frankly, interested in rectifying anytime in the next millennium. Let's face it, what's 8-10 billions dollars in the grand scheme of things, governmentally speaking? It amounts to less than the monthly waste of the current fiscal budget, and yet nobody can find "extra" monies to be dedicated to a domestic issue. On the other hand, a miles-long fence is budgetally obtainable in a heartbeat? Gimme a break!
I'll send you a more "itemized" proposal, similar to something you can play "W" with, peruse at your leisure and line-item veto while having a good laugh over after ski season commences and you need to relax by the fire for a spell.
We the people
No Random! I't's corporate America and the media...and the rich & the powerful. Rome lives on!
Some unthoughtful, unedited and mindful mosey meanderings…
Americans all excited and satisfied with voting every four years for the presidency bothers me. It is difficult for me to believe in and support a government that is voted into office by 51% of 47% of eligible voters. I believe that only when "We the People" vote wholly at the State and Local level (do you know your commissioner of the sewers?) will these states be united.
It is a pacified public which allows the incorporation of the feds. When did freedom become defined as a choice between a ford or mercedes?
Seceding from the union perks my interest, it does have its romantic side (as in a departure from the public’s pacified sensibility, towards idealistic expectations.) Though talking outright revolution, a take over of the federal government gets me down right excited (as I believe it should all Americans.) I will even start it with a rewording of the Declaration of Independence, from the stale “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” to Aldo Leopolds "Adventure without regard to prudence, profit, self-improvement, learning or any other serious thing"
Anyway.... should probably head outside, rake up some leaves and check the gutters.
Firstly, let me again commend Beamis, Frank & others for challenging the status quo at higher levels. Such dialog is essential. For my purposes, I've chosen to attack the problem at the park level, by offering some simple, common sense solutions that I believe will help to get the NPS back on track.
Not long ago I worked at a park where, within a short period of time, three of its seven top managers moved on to other parks. Their positions remained vacant for a cumulative period of about three years. When I'd ask employees if they missed these managers, the typical response was "H--- no, now we can actually get some work done!" Meanwhile, the park's janitor left his job. The remaining managers convened an emergency meeting, during which they decided to hire a replacement janitor by the following week. Estimated savings to the taxpayers for the lapse of the three managers was over $200,000.
That was a "good park." The bad ones hire more managers and don't rehire janitors, trail crew staff, and information desk rangers. Those positions siimply disappear, much to the detriment of the parks and their visitors.
Some may argue that large numbers of managers are needed to complete such processes as writing reports, developing plans, implementing initiatives, attending meetings, etc. In a future Simple Proposal I'll spell out how these tasks can be elminated or significantly minimized, thereby allowing a return of funds to the truly important front-line jobs.
Simple Proposal #1: Hire more Indians and fewer Rajahs.