Crowds thin at national parks, but they still leave footprints

Critics of the plans say it would cause the parks to lose thousands of experienced employees, including archaeologists, biologists, historians, and museum curators.

"The folks who care for our parks and forests aren't punching a timecard," says Bruce Babbitt, Interior secretary in the Clinton administration. "They are often the same people who will lead a rescue effort, fight a fire in their off hours, or spend a weekend volunteering more of their time to repair a bridge."

It's not just a partisan squabble. In considering the Interior Department's budget for next year, the Republican- controlled House of Representatives recently rejected the privatization plan.

The White House has threatened a veto without it, and the Senate has yet to take up the spending measure.

Now the controversy over the future of the parks involves a growing list of former senior park professionals as well - rangers, regional directors, and superintendents of some of the largest parks expressing their concern.

In May, 28 of these nonpolitical career employees warned that administration policies "will cause unprecedented and irreparable damage to America's national parks."

In a letter to President Bush and Interior Secretary Norton, they wrote that privatizing park positions, allowing gas and oil drilling near parks, building new paved roads, and failing to address growing smog problems in Grand Canyon and other parks "will fundamentally change the character of our parks."

A second letter detailing more complaints will be sent later this month, and the number of former park officials signing it has grown to more than 110.

For the moment, the parks might be getting something of a reprieve from the normal wear and tear: Attendance is down for the third year in a row.

An internal Park Service memo shows that the total number of "recreation visits" at the parks has dropped almost 16.8 million since January 2000.

"The downward trend that began in 2000 is continuing as inclement weather, global warfare, and especially the uncertain economic conditions are resulting in a disturbing future for visitation to the NPS," states the Park Service memo.

That trend is likely to be reversed as those conditions improve, and it seems certain that the number of foreign visitors - many of whom view America's natural wonders as the equivalent of European cathedrals - will not diminish. Most of those who made the trek to Utah's Delicate Arch the other day were German, Swiss, or Japanese.

Park advocates fear that dwindling crowds could mean less public support (and therefore less political support) for the parks. Last week, the National Parks Conservation Association launched a series of television spots extolling the parks and featuring comedian Jerry Seinfeld, journalist Walter Cronkite, and New York Knicks guard Allan Houston.

In any case, says Frank Buono, a former longtime Park Service manager now affiliated with the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), "The Park Service should use this respite to rethink its priorities and shift away from edifice building - what we call 'parkbarrel' - and invest in reversing the decline in the integrity and quality of park resources."

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