For Immediate Release

July 9, 2004

INTERIOR DEPARTMENT REPORT EXAGGERATES PARK IMPROVEMENTS

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A report released by the Interior Department this week claiming substantial improvements in the operations of national parks in the United States in the past three years "greatly exaggerates the impact of modest overall budget increases and it ignores the added responsibilities -- particularly for security costs -- that have drained funds from the parks' core functions," according to the ranking Democratic member of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee.

            U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) said Friday that "the rhetoric of the Interior Department's report belies the reality of what is happening in our parks, including Olympic National Park in my district, where there are fewer staff and where the backlog of maintenance has grown in the past three years."

            The congressman said "the base budgets for the parks themselves are not keeping pace with the increased visitor attendance or with the maintenance needs."  He said that a report released in March by the National Parks and Conservation Association "documented an annual operating shortfall of $600 million among the 387 park units nationwide, and it detailed the erosion of funding that has affected the quality of the visitor experience at a majority of the national parks."

            An example of the type of budget increases that are deceptive, he said, is the 1.4 percent increase allotted for National Park Service staffing this year, even though parks were required to pay all employees a federally-mandated 4.1 percent cost-of-living adjustment.  "On the surface it may look like an increase, but in the parks it results in positions that are unfilled, trails that deteriorate and facilities that don't get repaired," Rep. Dicks said.

            In addition, he noted, substantial new security responsibilities have been placed on many of the parks, requiring redirection of resources within those parks and resulting in a siphoning of funds from parks around the nation in order to protect monuments and Park Service units that could be terrorist targets around the nation.

            "Resource experts tell us we should be providing about $16 million each year for the operation of Olympic National Park, with 3 million visitors annually, while the current budget is only about $10 million," Rep. Dicks said.  "The real story is not this glowing report from the Interior Department but rather that this Administration has shortchanged the parks and natural resource accounts of the budget in order to afford large tax cuts that offer much of their benefit to the highest income taxpayers in America," he said.

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