National parks brace for impacts of budget cuts

DENALI — Federal budget cuts set to begin March 1 will impact operations at Denali National Park and other national parks, according to the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees.

The coalition reports sequestration will reduce park staff, delay the opening of Eielson Visitor Center and delay road maintenance at Denali National Park. This would impact more than 3,500 visitors per day and would significantly affect revenue for local businesses.

Sequestration will result in a much reduced workforce, shutdowns of certain National Park Service areas altogether or for extended period of times, closure of visitor centers and services, restrictions on the availability of campgrounds, visitor centers, comfort stations and trail and other backcountry access. Additionally, the ability to respond to emergencies, including wildland fires, will be sharply reduced.

CNPSR obtained and made public a National Park Service memo and related budget documents Jan. 31 revealing that planning is already under way for sequestration-related budget cuts that would sharply reduce the ranks of Park Rangers and also result in deep cuts in park hours and a host of other key services that park visitors expect to receive.

According to preliminary CNPSR estimates, a 5 percent cut under sequestration to the $2.2 billion that would remain in the final seven months of the NPS budget would require slashing $110 million. The total budget for all non-permanent park staffs is $150 million. If the pain of the cuts were spread across non-permanent and permanent employees in parks, it would require cutting thousands of jobs or furloughing everyone for more than a month — roughly four and a half weeks.

Nationwide, national parks support local economies in a significant way, generating $31 billion in private sector spending and 258,000 private sector jobs each year. Many parks are located in rural areas that are very dependent on these expenditures to maintain a healthy economy. CNPSR pointed to these numbers as a noteworthy and positive impact on the national economy from an agency (NPS) that receives 1/15th of 1 percent of the total federal budget.