The National Park Service will take the unprecedented step of tapping entrance fees to pay for expanded operations at its most popular sites, officials said Sunday, as the federal government shutdown threatens to degrade some of the nation’s iconic landmarks.
Under a memorandum signed Saturday by the Interior Department’s acting secretary, David Bernhardt, and obtained by The Washington Post, park managers will be permitted to bring on staff to clean restrooms, haul trash, patrol the parks and areas that have been shut during the budget impasse.
In Montezuma County, visitors to Mesa Verde National Park were advised to use “extreme caution” during a partial federal government shutdown that began Dec. 22.
Large signs at the entrance to the visitors center and entrance to the park state the Park Service couldn’t fully staff the park, but it was not feasible to close or prohibit access to all parks.
In a statement Sunday, National Park Service Deputy Director P. Daniel Smith acknowledged that the administration’s practice of keeping parks open but understaffed has become unsustainable at some sites.
“We are taking this extraordinary step to ensure that parks are protected, and that visitors can continue to access parks with limited basic services,”Smith said.
The move, which some critics said could be illegal, shows the extent to which the Trump administration’s decision to keep the park system open is straining its capacity and potentially exposing public lands to long-term damage. During such shutdowns under the Clinton and Obama administrations, the Park Service chose to block access to its sites rather than leave them open with a skeleton staff. Trump officials chose the opposite course, and as trash has begun to mount, and habitat has been imperiled, the administration is struggling to manage the problems.
Congressional Democrats and some park advocates question whether the park-fee move is legal, because the fees that parks collect under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act are designated to support visitor services instead of operations and basic maintenance. The new order authorizes parks that have “available balances” of these fee funds to spend them on operations that include trash collection and sanitation, road maintenance, campground operations, law enforcement and emergency operations, and entrance staff “as necessary to provide critical safety operations.”
“The Department of Interior is very likely violating appropriations law,” said Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., who is incoming chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee on interior, environment and related agencies.
McCollum said she had voiced her concerns about the parks’ predicament in a phone call with Bernhardt on Saturday.
“This will not open up the parks in any safe, effective manner for tourists to have a safe and enjoyable experience,” she said.
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., said Sunday that his panel also would scrutinize the justification for the move, noting that Trump expects taxpayers “to either pay more to keep the toilets clean out of their own pockets or pay millions of dollars for his ridiculous wall.”
“Either way, this president is only happy as long as the American people pay for his every whim whenever it suits him,” Grijalva said. “This is not how a rational president behaves, and the Natural Resources Committee will demand answers about whether these moves are legally justified.”
As the shutdown continues, risks emerge at national park sites. At least seven people have died at national park sites since the shutdown began, including a man at Yosemite National Park who illegally brought his dog on a trail and subsequently fell.
A Park Service official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid, said that the Interior Department’s solicitor had authorized the move in an opinion, but did not provide the document. This official did not specify how many employees would return to work under the revised plan, but it could number in the hundreds. According to official estimates, as many as 16,000 of the Park Service’s 20,000-person winter workforce is furloughed.
The law establishing the fees, which totaled $299 million last fiscal year, allows for them to be spent on “repair, maintenance, and facility enhancement related directly to visitor enjoyment, visitor access, and health and safety,” along with other purposes, such as visitor information and habitat restoration. Under the law, 80 percent of the money collected must be spent on the park while 20 percent can go to fund activities at other park sites.
Fees collected at parks are supposed to enhance the visitor experience, which can include films about a site’s resources and restoration projects that are aimed at activities such as hunting, fishing and photography.
Jon Jarvis, who led the Park Service under President Barack Obama, said in an email that the agency decided not to tap the fees during the 2013 shutdown because “that is a slippery slope” that would blur the line between the operating budget provided by Congress and these supplemental funds. The agency’s solicitor agreed with that interpretation, he added.
The fees represent a fraction of the agency’s $3.2 billion budget.
Colorado’s 12 national parks and monuments have racked up $277.2 million in backlog maintenance needs, based on fiscal year 2016, according to a report by Pew Charitable Trusts called Restore America’s Parks.
Mesa Verde reported $65.7 million in maintenance needs that have been delayed because of budget constraints. Howenweep National Monument listed $255,000, and Yucca House National Monument listed $125,000.
The Park Service, citing aging facilities, increased visitation and unreliable funding, hasn’t kept pace with infrastructure repairs, said Restore America’s Parks’ campaign organizer Michael Dabbs, during a 2017 meeting at the WildEdge Brewing Collective in downtown Cortez.
“Whether it’s trails or roads, waterlines or wastewater systems, there is a lot that needs fixing. The longer we kick the can down the road, the more it will cost,” Dabbs said.
Since any staffers returning to work will have their salaries funded through fees, this will mean that some Park Service employees will be paid for the hours they work during the shutdown while others, including some law enforcement officers, will not. In some sites where either state governments or outside groups are funding operations, employees are receiving at least part of their regular salaries.
In the memo, Bernhardt asks for a list of parks that will expand their operations by dipping into these fees, as well as ones that don’t collect fees but can demonstrate a need for additional funds and how they would distribute them.
“While the (National Park Service) will not be able to fully open parks, and many of the smaller sites around the country will remain closed, utilizing these funds now will allow the American public to safely visit many of the nation’s national parks while providing these iconic treasures the protection they deserve,” Smith said in a statement.
But Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association, said in an email that the move would simply drain money that was supposed to be spent on addressing the parks’ massive maintenance backlog.
“It’s incredibly concerning that the Acting Interior Secretary is putting political pressure on superintendents to keep parks open at the expense of parks’ long-term needs and protection,” Pierno said. “For those national parks that don’t collect fees, they will now be in the position of competing for the same inadequate pot of money to protect their resources and visitors. Draining accounts dry is not the answer.”
Colorado’s 12 national parks and monuments have racked up $277.2 million in backlog maintenance needs, based on fiscal year 2016, according to a report by Pew Charitable Trusts called Restore America’s Parks.
Mesa Verde National Park reported $65.7 million in maintenance needs that have been delayed because of budget constraints. Howenweep National Monument lists $255,000 in backlogged repairs, and Yucca House National Monument lists $125,000.
The National Park Service, citing aging facilities, increased visitation and unreliable funding, hasn’t kept pace with infrastructure repairs, said Restore America’s Parks’ campaign organizer Michael Dabbs, during a 2017 meeting at the WildEdge Brewing Collective in downtown Cortez.
“Whether it’s trails or roads, waterlines or wastewater systems, there is a lot that needs fixing. The longer we kick the can down the road, the more it will cost,” Dabbs said. “Many park facilities are 50 to 70 years old.”
Even as Trump officials sought to maintain operations at key parks, some are closing up shop. On Sunday, Mount Rainier National Park announced that it was closing motor vehicle access beyond the park entrance because its main concession operator had stopped picking up trash and cleaning the bathrooms, and because snow was starting to accumulate.
“As a result, there will be no public services including food, restrooms or snow plowing sufficient for safe travel anywhere in the park beginning late Sunday,” the statement said, adding that visitors would still be allowed to access the park by foot.
The Journal contributed to this article.