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It seems to me that the NPS is being punished for doing an honest job with the funds available - i.e. being efficient. As far as I can tell, the Park Service has very little fat, and, because the bigger parks bring in tourist dollars, are in reality self-supporting.


I like to think so. I don't see much sign of huge waste in NPS. It's a common complaint among those of us below decks to say that we're top-heavy with middle managers; creeping in of specialty positions (I'll, um, not name names...) & etc. I think there's definitely some truth in that but it only shows up as a drain when we get into these cat fights over money. And, of course, those aren't the positions that get cut. One guess on who does get cut to save money?

I'm less sure of my facts, but believe this is what's happened to USFS over the years. Growing management & specialist positions and decreasing field people. As a result, not as much trail work; cleaning camps and taking care of wilderness & backcountry.

In another life, I'm Prez of one of our ranger organizations (Ranger Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police). When a clueless Congressman grumped about complaints of cuts in NPS, he said: "They just have to do more with less" one of our members said "no, I'm going to do less with less." At a certain point, you just get tired of putting in unpaid hours because there's no budget and some things just have to be done. Like teachers, I doubt there's a single ranger who doesn't put in at least a couple of hours of unpaid work each week -- whether it's finishing a report at home; coming in for training on a day off or just answering visitor questions on the way out the door.

Getting paid in sunsets is the old cliche, though it's used only ironically nowadays. Most of us want to get paid in, well, money... .


None of the views expressed here in any way represent those of the unidentified agency that I work for or, often, reality. It's just me, fired up by coffee and powerful prose.