The Rocky Mountain News laments cutbacks at the national parks in Colorado:
For instance, hours at Rocky Mountain National Park’s visitor centers were trimmed from 390 hours per week to 260.
Patterson said the centers will all close at 6 p.m., instead of staying open until 9 p.m., because visitor traffic slows in the evening.
The Casper Star-Tribune tells about the impact in Wyoming:
[At Devil’s Tower, the] park’s 2004 annual budget is $3,000 less than its 2003 budget, dropping from $771,000 to $768,000.
Wade said the public should know that when they travel to national parks, they will likely see fewer rangers, fewer educational services, and less maintenance of campgrounds and picnic areas.
The Salt Lake Tribune looks at the situation in Utah:
“We are not providing the same level of service that we have been able to in years past,” said Paul Henderson, chief of interpretation at Arches and Canyonlands. “Things are definitely tight.”
Managers at Utah’s five national parks said last year that they need to increase their annual operating budgets by $12.1 million to keep up with visitor demand and to run the parks in a way that fulfills the Park Service’s other mission of protecting resources.
Canyonlands, for example, needs $359,000 more each year to boost visitor information services and backcountry management, while Zion needs $422,000 to hire additional interpretive rangers.
But, last year, Utah’s parks saw no increases to their budgets.
The Denver Post has an editorial:
Instead of following optimistic talking points, the Bush administration needs to take a realistic look at the deterioration of the Park Service’s finances.