The National Park Service doesn't have a clear national inventory of problems threatening its individual parks, nor does it determine which ones need the quickest attention.
That's according to a study by the U.S. General Accounting Office, a research arm of Congress. The GAO is using problems at Utah's Arches National Park - ranging from vandalism of rock art to overcrowding on Delicate Arch trail - to help prove its point.Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, chairman of the House Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Lands, said the study helps prove the need for several Republican bills he believes would give local managers more power and money to fix their own problems.
The GAO report said, "Specific information on the number and types of threats facing the parks is not generally consolidated in the parks or nationally."
But by talking to rangers at eight parks that auditors visited - including Arches - they quickly identified 127 separate threats the eight face, most of which auditors said have not been addressed beyond possibly ordering studies of how to handle them. And no central file of them exists.
The GAO said, "We continue to believe that information on threats to resources, gathered on a sys-tem-wide basis, would be helpful to set priorities so that the greatest threats can be addressed first."
Some of the threats it found in Arches, for example, which national managers may not realize for lack of such an inventory, included:
- Invasion by the non-native tamarisk plant in some river bank and natural spring areas. "In its prime growing season, a mature tamarisk plant consumes about 200 gallons of water a day and chokes out native vegetation," the report said.
- Bullets fired at rock art sites, and looting of archaeological sites.
- Because visitation has increased 130 percent since 1985, more fragile "cryptobiotic" soil is being damaged by people who wander off trails. Living organisms in such soil provide nutrients and stabilize surfaces from erosion, and may "take as long as 250 years to recover after being trampled by hikers," it said.
- Crowding that reduces solitude at Delicate Arch, which is now attracting about 600 visitors a day despite a steep 1.5-mile trail.
Of the 127 threats identified at the eight parks visited, auditors said rangers had been able to complete protective action on only two - and most threats had merely been studied, with further action hampered by insufficient funding and staffing.
One of the two completed actions it found among the parks visited was by Arches to reduce damage to sensitive soils by installing rails and ropes along some trails and placing signs on others explaining damage that results from leaving the trail.
Arches so far is only studying ways to establish "carrying capacity" for some of its most popular attractions, including Delicate Arch.
Hansen complained several studies by the GAO and others have shown the Park Service doesn't have a clear plan on how to protect its resources and doesn't know what problems it faces, so he says increased funding hasn't seemed to help it much.
In his visits to parks, Hansen said he finds superintendents frustrated that they must wait for permission or more money and staff from headquarters to address problems they see.
Hansen said a bill he and other Republicans are pushing would allow them to keep a percentage of entrance and recreational fees they collect to spend locally as they see fit.
"The problems between parks - especially historic and natural areas - are much different. This guy has a problem with alligators and the other with crowding. I think it comes down to the idea of local control and giving the local superintendent more latitude," he said.
He said other proposals to reform rules with concessionaires and to possibly transfer parks of marginal quality to other agencies would give the Park Service more money to address its needs, but those proposals have been attacked by Democrats as potential giveaways of public resources.