The funding is welcomed and exciting to the park service. Until now the only secure jobs have been in the maintenance department. It is necessary to have a crew of individuals keeping up the buildings and road systems of the park year round. Next would be the rangers, law enforcement has done well since 911 not that much happens in the parks other than the occasional, "Ma'am I'm gonna have to ask you to please keep your dog on the leash."

Scientists went through a large boom and bust in the late 90's. They received a mandate from Clinton to do a massive park wide inventory of what is actually being protected. From this study they learned a baseline of what types and population levels of animal and plants can be found. Since then money has shrank considerably and studies are more than likely paid for by outside grants.

I work for housing and college credit, more or less.

Everybody at the park service does important duties, well most people. It could be more efficient but it does a good job of being accountable for where money is spent. It is also just the plain truth that things cost more to build and maintain in parks because of their remoteness and rugged terrain. Simple things like fixing the roof of a wilderness cabin may mean a helicopter ride at $500/hr.

But this money is bad money. It comes with strings attached that take away the enlightened commonsense of the general park service employees, for the dullard politician's narrow shortsighted view. On top of that it makes them beggars to corporations and private donors, which is rather pathetic for the world's richest country.

These are our countries crown jewels. It is rich with the flora and fauna neglected by Americans as they busily zoom to work on freeways and back home again to television and DVDs. They need to be here when this country finally wakes up from its' snoring slumber.

Much of this money is earmarked for pet projects to do with infrastructure. Most of these projects are worthy of funding and include, for example, solar panels for a ranger station at Mt. Rainier. This is all well and good but does that mean that we will have to put in a Starbucks in the station as well? It also does little to help many struggling projects already underway and does nothing to continue support after the money is spent.

The park service is in need of an overhaul. It needs to further along its already substantial progress of integrating environmental and cultural policies into the general running and maintenance. It needs to somehow get a grip on the burden that automobiles place on the parks by getting rid of them. This means that they need a new transportation infrastructure that is less impactful. Believe me the biggest cost of parks is the cost of continuing to let you drive all over them.

Finally we need to hire people for permanent positions so that the park can develop its culture that cares. Having constant seasonals just doesn't make sense over the long haul. Most parks are suffering greatly from climate change related problems and we need to use money to study that issue as well, because the parks will be some of the first places that will have to adapt to survive.


The Black Car Project Killing cars before they kill us!