National parks, such as Shenandoah with its popular Skyline Drive in fall, will be kept open during government shutdowns, according to the deputy director of the National Park Service.

Editor's note: This updates with reaction from National Parks Conservation Association.

In the event of a government shutdown, the National Park Service will tap revenues generated through the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act if necessary to keep parks open, according to P. Daniel Smith, the de facto Park Service director.

"Simply put, if funds are available, the public should have the ability to visit and access their national parks," Smith wrote in an opinion column that appeared Wednesday in The Hill newspaper.

During the partial government shutdown early this year then-acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt directed Smith, deputy director of the Park Service "exercising the authority of the director," to dip into FLREA funds as much as possible to help parks cope with needed maintenance and custodial services during the lapse in appropriations. In the end, the Park Service spent about $10.3 million during the partial shutdown, according to Interior records.

While the U.S. Government Accountability Office recently said Bernhardt's action broke two laws, Interior staff pushed back, saying how the money was spent was in line with some of the projects FLREA funds long have been used for. Smith reiterated that in his op-ed.

"This was certainly not the first time the National Park Service used FLREA funds for important visitor services such as maintaining clean restrooms and collecting trash. Going back many years, FLREA fees have been used for these purposes dozens of times during regular operations," he wrote.

Smith also pointed to a 2006 GAO report that noted FLREA funds have been used to "repair, maintain, and enhance facilities related directly to visitor enjoyment, visitor access, and visitor health and safety but restricts the use of recreation fees for biological monitoring under the Endangered Species Act or for employee bonuses."

That 2006 GAO report went on to say that the underlying act, "mandates that fee revenues only be used for the following:

• repair, maintenance, and facility enhancement related directly to visitor enjoyment, visitor access, and health and safety;

• interpretation, visitor information, visitor service, visitor needs assessments, and signs;

• habitat restoration directly related to wildlife-dependent recreation that is limited to hunting, fishing, wildlife observation, or photography;

• law enforcement related to public use and recreation;

• direct operating or capital costs associated with the recreation fee program; and • a fee management agreement or a visitor reservation service.

The report also noted that "critics continue to oppose recreation fees in concept, in large part, on the grounds that the cost of operating and maintaining federal lands should be covered by general fund appropriations and that these fees constitute a barrier to public access to federally managed lands. However, in times of budget constraints, recreation fees may provide an important source of additional funding needed to sustain agency operations."

"Going forward, the decision by Congress in 2004 to have FLREA funds available for specified purposes provides certainty that parks with FLREA funds never need to close their gates during a government lapse in funding. Park visitors deserve certainty that eagerly anticipated vacations to national parks can take place as planned," wrote Smith.

But officials at the National Parks Conservation Association maintain that Interior, and Smith, misunderstood why FLREA was created.

"He should take this rebuke from GAO seriously and report his violation to Congress. Then, he should make ensure he doesn’t violate the law again by drafting a contingency plan that protects national parks in possible future government shutdowns," Kristen Brengel, the group's senior vice president for government affairs, said in an email Thursday. "These political appointees continue to disrespect our laws at the expense of our national parks and the incredible resources that lie within them. Fee money is not a slush fund to pay for their political stunts. National parks collect fees to enhance visitor experiences through projects and programs. GAO got it right, park-wide trash collection is an operating expense."

Traveler footnote: In February 2005, Lynn Scarlett, then assistant Interior secretary for policy, management, and budget, testified on FLREA before the Senate subcommittee on national parks. She discussed how the program would be implemented in the National Park System. In her testimony, Scarlett emphasized that the funds would be used to enhance, not maintain, visitor services and facilities in the parks.

"FLREA also is consistent with surveys that show that visitor support of recreation fees is strong when the fees are reinvested to enhance visitor facilities and services at the site of collection," Scarlett testified. She added that the FLREA program differed from its predecessor, the Fee Demo program, in that it requires "the agencies to better communicate with the public on the establishment of fees and how fees are being used to enhance the visitor experience."

"... The recreation fee program is vital to our ability to meet visitor demands for enhanced facilities and services on our federal lands," she concluded.

Following this year's government shutdown, some members of Congress questioned whether Bernhardt broke the law by allowing the Park Service to use FLREA funds to keep the parks open.

"They're not a slush fund for the administration to use when it wants to circumvent Congress' power of the purse," said Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota, who heads the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee.

Later in the day after McCollum made that statement, according to E&ENews, Smith told his workforce that the FLREA funds tapped to pay for maintenance and custodial services would be replenished with operational funds.

"Restoring these FLREA balances enables us to maintain our commitment to the visitor experience at parks by using these funds for important projects at parks moving forward," Smith wrote in an email.